Letterpress resources and information
As a small time letterpress printer and also a student in library and information science, I’m working on a research project on accessing information in letterpress printing. I’m hoping to learn about what kinds of sources are needed and used by letterpress printers.
What I’m curious about is, what resources you in the letterpress printing community are using as you print and learn more about the craft. Do you find yourself repeatedly returning to Briar Press for information? Are there other websites you turn to as well? Any books or other guides that you find useful for printing? And what kind of information do you tend to pull from these sources: information on fonts, letterpresses themselves, inks, repair manuals, etc.? Do you find libraries to be at all useful in learning about letterpress printing?
Any information would be extremely helpful to me in my research and I’d be happy to submit my findings here or elsewhere to hopefully benefit letterpress printers in the future.
Thank you very much
Hi Kirsten,
I find the LETPRESS listserv and its archives to be very helpful, as well as Briar Press. I have a few books on typography and letterpress printing, General Printing by Cleeton, Pitkin, & Cornwell, for example.
The problem I find with libraries is that, while I’m sure some of them out there have nice collections of printing materials, they’re not where I am. For example, I’ve been itching to get my hands on a copy of a Sigwalt catalog which the Chicago Public Library has in their special collections. Chicago is 800 miles away. They’ll make photocopies and send them to me for $2 a page. The catalog, however, is 50 or so pages long…
On the other hand, some libraries have kindly scanned copies of interesting materials and put them online to share with all. A search for “printing” at the internet archive turns up hundreds of interesting and useful materials. Granted, they are huge clumsy files which tax my loaded Macbook Pro, and the resolution is not fantastic, but it’s better than not having any access, or paying $100 for a photocopy.
So that’s what I think. Hope that helps
Oh, and people like John Barret at Letterpress Things are incredibly helpful resources too…
-Gilly