About the Letterpress Studio
About the Letterpress Studio
Let us help you select the press and type best suited for your project! The letterpress studio features a number of different kinds of vintage presses for printing metal and wood type.
You’ll find a wide variety of wood and metal type available, including alphabets for Cyrillic, Cherokee, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and accented type for French, Spanish and German — we even have math type! In addition to a wide variety of engraved images, we also have a photopolymer platemaker for creating relief plates from computer files.
Some of our cases of type are more full than others, so it's a good idea to come in and have a look before you get too far along in your design! You can also download PDFs of our type specimen books to get a preview of some of the type we have:
- Wood type specimen book (PDF 10MB)
- Metal type specimen book (PDF 15.6MB)
Vandercook Sp20 Cylinder Proof Press
Vandercook Sp20 Cylinder Proof Press
Used for printing on flexible paper (not board) with precise registration for complex printing like multiple colors or passes through the press, finely detailed relief images. Allows for clean single color printing or painterly hand-inking
- Letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates
- Make/age/where made: Vandercook Sp20—made in Illinois in the 1960s
- Size: Prints sheets of paper up to 18 x 24 inches (not great for smaller than 5x7 inches
- Learn more about the Vandercook Press.
Vandercook Sp15 Cylinder Proof Press
Vandercook Sp15 Cylinder Proof Press
Used for printing on flexible paper (not board) with precise registration for complex printing like multiple colors or passes through the press, finely detailed relief images. Allows for clean single color printing or painterly hand-inking
- Letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates
- Make/age/where made: Vandercook Sp15, made in Illinois in the 1960s
- Size: Prints sheets of paper up to 14 x 18 inches (not great for smaller than 5x7 inches
- Learn more about the Vandercook Press
Improved Pearl #11 Platen Press
Improved Pearl #11 Platen Press
Used for printing many copies quickly (once set up) on small paper or stiff board like coasters.
- Letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates
- Die Cutting
- Make/age/where made: Golding, made in Boston 1880s
- Size: platen is 7 x 11 inches; prints slightly smaller than 7 x 11 inch paper
- Learn more about Golding Press by Perennial Designs.
Table Top Platen Presses
Table Top Platen Presses
We have six different examples of these platen presses which are used for printing on small paper or stiff board like coasters.
- Letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates
- Learn more about table top platens with Letterpress Commons.
- Golding Official No. 12 Map Press, made in Boston 1880s
Size: 8.25 x 12.5 inches
Also used to print legends or other material on a large sheet of paper - Craftsman Superior (called the Pilot press in the studio), made in Canada 1960s
Size: 6.5 x 10 inches - Craftsman Monarch, made in Canada 1960s
Size: 9 x 12 inches - Kelsey Excelsior Model C, made in Merriden, CT 1960s
Size: 6 x 10 inches - Kelsey Excelsior Model A, made in Merriden, CT 1960s
Size: 3 x 5 inches - Unknown Tiny Orange Press
Size: 2 x 4 inches
Washington Iron Hand Press
Washington Iron Hand Press
Used for printing on paper or sometimes smooth cloth or plastic. Allows for straight single color printing or painterly hand-inking
- Letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates
- Make/age/where made: Washington, Made in NYC in the second half of the 19th century
- Size: Prints paper up to 20 x 26
- Learn more about the Iron Hand Presses with the Print Museum and Letterpress Commons
Albion Iron Hand Press
Albion Iron Hand Press
Used for proofing type and blocks before printing the final edition, letterpress printing with wood/metal type, and relief printing from wood/linoleum blocks and polymer plates on paper or stiff cardboard (not too thick). Sometimes used with smooth cloth or plastic.
- Make/age/where made: H.W. Caslon, Made in London in the early 20th century
- Size: Prints paper up to 20 x 26
- Learn more about Iron Hand Presses with the Print Museum
Photopolymer Platemaker
Photopolymer Platemaker
Used for making relief polymer plates from images scanned or created digitally that are to be printed with letterpress
- Make/age/where made: WSL/Boxcar Press in 2015
- Size: makes 10 x 13 inch plates