Printing with Love: The Art of Letterpress Printing | Hacker News Reader

Printing with Love: The Art of Letterpress Printing

craftsmanship.net

This article writes the basic step of type creation, punchcutting, out of the story. It's crucial and exacting, while many other letterpress process are mechanical and unskilled. A lot of letterpress fans seem to fetishize processes and outcomes that are actually not that special.

See http://www.dandad.org/en/kumar-and-lost-art-punchcutting/

Edit: here's a better video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eExllUeGtvc

It also only makes passing reference to more modern photopolymer plates as well as the Linotype[1] method of setting type. My grandfather started is career in the newspaper business and they were still using a linotype back then.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine

There's a recent socumentary on the linotype machine. http://www.linotypefilm.com/

The mechanical binary coding of matrices used to return them to their hoppers via the distribution mechanism is intriguing.

That "better" video is worth watching. (It's a series of videos.) I've never seen the full process demonstrated. Thanks.

The lead exposure is sobering.

> Once the paper has been completely coded for type casting, it looks like a roll of Morris code, or a Western Union telegram from someone who couldn’t stop talking.

Morris code? Morris code‽ I'm pretty sure that he means Morse code!

A friend and a cousin both own letterpresses. They - like most small printers - create digital files and have photopolymer plates created to print from. Easier, safer and less toxic than casting lead or other more traditional methods.

The video - https://vimeo.com/98092121 at the bottom of the page is a sublime watch, damn I love old machinery when I was really young I worked in a printing factory that had stuff like that (some of the machines had mounts where the axles from a steam engine used to be attached...).

Just incredible ingenuity.

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