Ode to Letterpress

I have a personal soft spot for the old letterpress books that used to rule the printing world. Now, they are specialty printers that cost specialty rates. I love that we have seized the means of production--to a certain extent--in this digital age from the book gate keepers of printers thus making us all potential authors with books to fire off to the world, but here we see that we can now view this industrial age craft separate from it's guild.

This Quicktime micro-documentary report by Chuck Kramer from TypeCulture b is a great look at how letterpress works and why it’s special. Beautiful type examples abound.

The interviewed press proprietor has a great perspective on the impending death of letterpress: “It’s OK — I’m only responsible for my watch. I’m thankful every day that I get to do this.”

by Ryan Singer, Signal vs Noise>whatdoiknow.org