We send our designs to Boxcar Press, where they transfer your digital design onto a polymer plate. A separate plate is produced for every color being printed, and the paper is run through the press at least once for each color in the design. What remains is a raised surface in the shape of the design. The portions of the plate that are exposed through the clear parts of the film hardens, and what is not washes away. The polymer plate is made of a light-sensitive, water-soluble plastic with a clear backing. The digital design is output to a film as a negative (left), and then exposed to a polymer plate using UV light (right).
Polymer plates are produced using a photographic process. Today, these presses are sought after for their quality and large printing size. In this press’s first life it probably pulled proofs of pages for a daily newspaper. These cards were printed on Crane Lettra 220 lb Pearl White cotton paper. They were designed for a wedding photography company called Readyluck, by Baltimore designer Christopher Clark. The images below walk you through the process of printing 2-color, double-sided business cards on a Vandercook SP-20 printing press. The printing part is still by hand, one at a time.
Designing for letterpress today begins on a computer, and as such, new fonts, embellished ornaments, graphics, patterns, and complicated multi-color designs can be produced with relative ease. What began with hand-set wood and metal type (read more about this from Jen of Starshaped Press here) has become an industry centered around the photo polymer plate. It’s easy to forget that what we treasure today as an artisan product, made by a well-trained craftsperson, was once known simply as printing. Today’s cottage industry of letterpress printers has been built on the shoulders of 100 years of printing industry, starting around the late 1800s.
Letterpress printing has become the go-to printing technique for wedding invitations, greeting cards, and business cards for anyone hoping to make an impression (pun intended) on the recipient. We’re thrilled to share the process of letterpress printing with you and how things work in our shop. Hello OSBP! We’re Kim and Kyle from Baltimore Print Studios, a public-access letterpress and screen printing studio where we also print commercially and for ourselves. Today Kim and Kyle from Baltimore Print Studios are here to walk us through modern letterpress printing!
#LETTERPRESS GREETING CARDS SERIES#
Please email or call to discuss your project ideas, or to set a time to come by the studio so we can plan ahead for your visit.Every morning this week, I’m running a series of guests posts about different printing methods – so if you’ve ever wondered why certain printing methods are best for certain kinds of designs (or cost more than others), this is for you! You can read the previous installments covering digital printing, engraving, screen printing, letterpress printing with antique type, and foil stamping all right here. You can also order our products online right here! You can also purchase our own line of greeting cards and papergoods, as well as offerings from other local printers in our studio store (open Monday through Saturday 10-6, Sunday 10-2). The studio is filled with historic printing equipment and hundreds of letterpress samples that you can pick up & touch for inspiration. Since 2010 Letterpress PDX has been printing business cards, wedding invitations, bookplates, broadsides, postcards, gift certificates, hang-tags, stationery, book covers, coasters, & bookmarks by hand on the 4+ tons of equipment that lives in the studio. Letterpress PDX specializes in providing small businesses, artists, designers, and publishers with letterpress & design solutions that look like a million bucks but work for a much smaller budget. We’re also available for phone or video consultations by appointment and would be happy to mail you paper samples by request. We’d love to help you with your custom letterpress project! Please send us an email or give us a call to schedule an in-person studio consult to check out our paper selection and look at all our beautiful samples from previous projects. Masks are currently being worn by employees, but not required for visitors at this time. Our retail store is currently open Monday-Saturday 9am-6pm, and Sunday 9-2.