MY ARTICLE FOR MORNING READING SESSONS

It's a Special Type of Beauty

Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2002 (see list of services below)

By JEANNINE STEIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

Bride-to-be Ashley Braband didn't know letterpress from a sandwich press when she walked into Soolip Paperie & Press in West Hollywood several months ago looking for wedding invitations. But once she ran her fingers across a letterpress card and felt the subtle landscape created by inked metal pressed into paper, she was sold.

"Each piece looked handcrafted," said the 23-year-old Los Angeles human resources director, whose Napa Valley wedding is scheduled for the fall. "It gives a lasting effect--it makes it look like it's going to be on the paper for years and years. A lot of people have been writing back on the response cards, 'Wow, what an invitation!'"

Braband isn't the only one discovering the 600-year-old art of letterpress, the original form of mechanized printing that dates back as far as the Guttenberg Bible. The craft is enjoying a comeback in stationery and custom invitations and announcements. Around the region, 100-plus-year-old presses are clacking away, from Soolip on Melrose to Aardvark Letterpress on 7th Street near downtown, to the Claudia Laub Studio and Gallery in Hancock Park to the Fine Paper Co. in Old Town Pasadena. At Claudia Laub Inc., a retail-wholesale business Laub sold to partner Jonathan Wright Herpick last year, printer Nelson Ayala is making stationery with a shell motif in flamingo pink. In the back of this small store, working on a 19th century press, he takes a sheet of ivory paper and carefully positions it on one of the press' flat surfaces. The engraved metal die with the shell motif faces the paper, and after it's been inked it's pressed into the paper, leaving a slight impression that transforms the blank sheet into a mini work of art.

Ayala examines the proof, peering through a clear plastic grid to make sure the design is straight and centered, then checks to see if the ink is consistent. A small motor operates the machine, which originally was powered by foot treadles; once Ayala sets the press in motion the large flywheel, rollers and plates swing gracefully amid the cacophony of clicks, clacks and bangs, sending heady whiffs of ink into the air.

It can take months, sometimes years, to acquire the intuition to gauge the precise amount of ink needed, to learn how to position the paper just so and to adjust the press for varying thicknesses of paper. Hand-setting type is a painstaking process in which individual letters, from sliver-sized pieces to big blocks, are aligned and spaced. Yet as careful as the most practiced printer becomes, the charm of letterpress lies in the finished product's slight imperfections, which speak to its handmade roots.

By contrast, offset printing, the process that replaced letterpress in the 20th century, uses printing plates and rollers. It is both more efficient and less labor-intensive than letterpress, but it loses the depth and dimension.

Though more businesses offering letterpress products are springing up, each has its own look and style, reflecting the tastes of the individual designers and printers, ranging from Victorian engravings of frogs to whimsical graphics of children and minimalist modern designs of cocktail glasses. Most images are rendered in one or two colors, and some feature hand-painted images.

The final product isn't cheap. A letterpress greeting card can cost $7. Custom birth announcements can run about $500, and multi-part invitations can shoot up into the tens of thousands of dollars. As details escalate, so do prices. A wedding invitation package, for instance, could include a save-the-date card, the invitation itself, matching envelope, response card and envelope, and thank-you notes. Each one can incorporate handset type and custom-designed icons made into engraved copper dies. The medium is often associated with specialty handmade papers, complex folds, plus additions such as hand-tied ribbons, dried flowers and wax seals. All of these up the ante considerably.

Although they are the most common letterpress products, stationery and invitations are not all that letterpresses can be used for. Several small presses in the U.S. have produced limited-edition handmade books, among them Arion Press in San Francisco and Thornwillow Press in New York.

In recent years, letterpress has found a fan base in the 25-and-under crowd who grew up with a mouse in one hand and a video game joystick in the other. They're filling letterpress classes at local art and design schools, including Otis College of Art and Design in L.A., and Armory Center for the Arts and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. But it's Martha Stewart who is most widely credited with bringing back interest in the process after she included an article on letterpress in her magazine.

"Part of [the interest] is a reaction to the technology we're surrounded with," says Scott Ward, Armory's executive director. "This is clearly a tactile medium. You literally have to put an 'A' into position to print an 'A' on a sheet of paper. It's such a switch from the digital world."

Doing letterpress commercially requires a huge commitment. Presses are often tracked down by a small group of middlemen who seek out defunct print shops and abandoned newspaper presses. Depending on how the presses are found, whom they belong to, and their condition, prices can run from $100 to thousands. One of the presses at the Claudia Laub Studio and Gallery is from the late 19th century and once belonged to the Los Angeles Times. Wanda Wen, owner of Soolip and a 10-year veteran of letterpress, said she found her presses, one from 1890 and one from the 1920s, via newsletters: "I had them trucked over sight unseen and put them in my garage until we found studio space," she says.

Printers also stalk flea markets and scour online auctions and classified ads looking for wood and metal type and dingbats--little icons and designs such as hearts, leaves or flowers.

"I love taking the blank piece of paper and sticking it in the press, and when it comes out a second later it all of a sudden has power," says Laub, who's been letterpress printing for 30 years. "I love picking up each one and looking at it, making sure it's right. I love using handmade paper that has thicker and thinner areas, and the type bites into the thicker area a little more than the thinner area. In letterpress, the letters dance a bit."

Laub now concentrates on custom work, which she does from her home. Rummaging through an antique oak chest in her living room, she pulls out card after card--an elegant wedding invitation with entwined wedding rings, a birth announcement with a baseball player etched in navy, a bat mitzvah invitation with intricate folds.

Not every customer who chooses letterpress is familiar with the process; printers say they usually give their clients a brief education to explain the work involved. But printers seem satisfied if their clients simply share an aesthetic.

"The majority of people who come in know what we're about," says Wen, "but a lot of people who don't know it's letterpress just like the aesthetic. If I had to put it into words, our style is clean, simple, uncluttered, and some people have said it has a certain 'Zen-ness' to it. It has a purpose to it."

"People are appreciating printing again, and letterpress is a very elegant form of printing," says Cary Ocon, part of the 34-year-old, family-run Aardvark Letterpress. "We do educate some of our customers, but more and more people are coming in asking for it. They seem to know what it is."

Cynthia Morgan, stationery buyer for Kate's Paperie stores in New York, says that in the last few years she's seen more young entrepreneurs--mostly women--try their hand at letterpress. "Three years ago, we carried two companies that did letterpress," she said, "and now we have five, maybe six. That so many young people are doing letterpress is great; it's heartening. I think young people hunger for the roughness of it."

Lucky Dare, who heads the letterpress lab at Otis, hears the same thing from her students, who incorporate new technology with old. Designs for letterpress can be rendered on a computer, then made into polymer plates that can be used instead of metal dies. "The technology," she says, "brings letterpress into the 21st century."

Some letterpress printers and aficionados fear that this renewed interest in the craft could bring the taint of trendiness, attracting printers who want to catch the wave but don't share the passion. "It's a craft to which you have to devote attention and intention," says Helen Driscoll, owner of Fine Paper Co. "If something becomes trendy, there's no respect for it, and a lot of people will treat it like photocopy. It's good that there's an appreciation being developed. When people are part of the process, they acquire an appreciation when they realize what's involved."

For Ashley Braband, the time and money spent (she estimates between $15,000 and $20,000) for custom, one-of-a-kind invitations was worth it.

"We have a lot of family and friends coming from overseas," she explains, "and we wanted a striking invitation that would get people excited and also set the mood for the occasion. We're having a week of events for the wedding, which is during the harvest season, so all the pieces are very earthy. I wanted them to give an elegant yet relaxed feeling. People have said it's the most beautiful invitation they've ever seen."

FINAL QUOTATION PRINTS

VISIT TO VAIKAT PRESS JAN 17th

On 17th january we went to a letterpress printshop owner to get ourselves aware of the functioning and the running condition of letterpress in the present scenario.We got to know the process of making prints and the constraints to be taken care while working on our assignments.

THUMBNAILS FOR QUOTATION

i decided to work with a quote by William Bullock

which is "Whomever controls the press, owns history"

RESEARCH DAY -2

AFTER DISCUSSIONS WITH JULIE I UNDERSTOOD THAT I SHOULD NARROW DOWN MY RESEARCH

I decided to focus on prominent people in the field of letterpress machinery

Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.

GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c. 1398—1468), German printer, is supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at Mainz of well-to-do parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother Elsgen Wyrich, whose birthplace “Gutenberg”, was the name he adopted. The Germans, and most other people, contend that Gutenberg was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types.

Early Life of Johann Gutenberg

Gutenberg's father was a man of good family. Very likely the boy was taught to read. But the books from which he learned were not like ours; they were written by hand. A better name for them than books is "manuscripts," which means "hand-writings."

While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block. This had to be very carefully done. When it was finished the printer had to cut away the wood from the sides of every letter. This left the letters raised, as the letters are in books now printed for the blind. The block was now ready to be used. The letters were inked, paper was laid upon them and pressed down. With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one page.

Gutenberg enjoyed reading the manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends had; and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books. Finally he determined to contrive some easy and quick way of printing. Gutenberg did a great deal of his work in secret, for he thought it was much better that his neighbors should know nothing of what he was doing. He looked for a workshop where no one would be likely to find him. Gutenberg was now living in Strasburg, and there was in that city a ruined old building where, long before his time, a number of monks had lived. There was one room of the building which needed only a little repairing to make it fit to be used. So Gutenberg got the right to repair that room and use it as his workshop.

All his neighbors wondered what became of him when he left home in the early morning, and where he had been when they saw him coming back late in the twilight. Gutenberg did not care much what people had to say, and in his quiet room he patiently tried one experiment after another, often feeling very sad and discouraged day after day because his experiments did not succeed. At last the time came when he had no money left.

Gutenberg Meets Fust

He went back to his old home, Mainz, and there met a rich goldsmith and lawyer named Joahann Fust (or Faust). Gutenberg told him how hard he had tried in Strasburg to find some way of making books cheaply, and how he had now no more money to carry on his experiments. Fust became greatly interested and gave Gutenberg what money he needed.

First of all it is thought that he made types of hard wood. Each type was a little block with a single letter at one end. Such types were a great deal better than block letters. The block letters were fixed. They could not be taken out of the words of which they were parts. The new types were movable so they could be set up to print one page, then taken apart and set up again and again to print any number of pages. But type made of wood did not always print the letters clearly and distinctly, so Gutenberg gave up wood types and tried metal types. This worked much better, and Gutenberg was progressing well toward the completion of the first book ever printed by movable type: the Bible in Latin.

Gutenberg Loses His Business

Fust, however, was losing patience. He quarreled with Gutenberg and said that he was doing nothing but spending money. At last he brought suit against him in the court, and the judge decided in favor of Fust. So everything in the world that Gutenberg had, even the tools with which he worked, came into Fust's possession.

Soon a Latin Bible was printed. It was in two volumes, each of which had three hundred pages, while each of the pages had forty-two lines. The letters were sharp and clear. They had been printed from movable types of metal. The news that books were being printed in Mainz went all over Europe. Before Gutenberg died, printing-presses like his were at work making books in all the great cities of the continent.

The Gutenberg Bible

Between 1450 and 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was completed. Early documentation states that a total of 200 copies were scheduled to be printed on rag cotton linen paper, and 30 copies on velum animal skin. It is not known exactly how many copies were actually printed. Today, only 22 copies are known to exist, of which 7 are on velum.

If an entire Gutenberg Bible should become available on the world market, it would likely fetch an estimated 100 million dollars! Even an individual leaf (a single two-sided page) from the original Gutenberg Bible can fetch around $100,000. Gutenberg’s work is the most rare and valuable printed material in the world.

The Death of Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg died in Mainz, Germany in 1468. Ironically, the inventor of the most important invention in history never profited from his invention and died in poverty… though the proceeds from the sale of just one single leaf from his Bible in today’s market would have provided Gutenberg with enough money to live out his last years comfortably. He was buried in a Franciscan church, which was demolished and replaced with another church, which was also subsequently demolished. While Gutenberg sadly went without reward for producing the machine that changed the world, history recognizes him as holding this honor. Without his invention, the Protestant Reformation would not have been possible.

William Bullock (inventor)

William Bullock (1813–April 12, 1867) was an American inventor whose 1863 invention of the web rotary printing press helped revolutionize the printing industry due to its great speed and efficiency. A few years after his invention, Bullock was accidentally killed by his own web rotary press.

Biography

Bullock was born in Greenville, New York in 1813. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his brother. In his youth, he worked with his brother at as a machinist and iron-founder, and his fascination with books led him to acquire much knowledge of mechanics. At age 21, he was running his own machinery shop in Savannah, Georgia. At this time, Bullock invented a shingle-cutting machine, but his business went broke when he was unable to market it.

While in Georgia Bullock married Angeline Kimball and had seven children with her. When his wife died in 1850, he married Angeline's sister Emily, who bore him six children.

Bullock returned to New York and designed such devices as a cotton and hay press, a seed planter, and a lathe cutting machine. He also invented a grain drill, which won him a prize from the Franklin Institute in 1849. Shortly after this, he became involved in the newspaper world, and began working as and editor for a Philadelphia newspaper, The Banner of the Union.

The paper later moved to Catskill, New York, and in 1853, he began working on a hand-turned wooding printing press that had a self-feeder, an idea that laid the foundation for his later presses. One of which he designed in 1860 for the national publication Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.

In 1860 Bullock moved to Pittsburgh, and in a couple of years, perfected a printing press called the web rotary press. Richard March Hoe had invented the rotary press in the 1840s, but Bullock's press was an improvement over Hoe's design. Bullock's press allowed for continuous large rolls of paper to be automatically fed through the rollers, eliminating the laborious hand feeding system of earlier presses. The press was self-adjusting, printed on both sides, folded the paper, and a sharp serrated knife that rarely needed sharpening cut sheets with rapid precision. The press could print up to 12,000 sheets an hour, and later improvement had the figure up to 30,000 sheets an hour.

In a bizarre accident, Bullock was killed by his own invention. On April 3, 1867, he was making adjustments to one of his new presses that was being installed for the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper. Bullock tried to kick a driving belt onto a pulley, when his leg became caught in the machine. His leg was crushed and broken, and after a few days, gangrene set in. On April 12, 1867, Bullock died during an operation to amputate the leg

Richard March Hoe

Richard March Hoe (September 12, 1812 - June 7, 1886), was an American inventor who designed an improved printing press.

Hoe was born in New York City. His wife, Mary, and he lived on a vast 53-acre estate, called Brightside, in the Morrisania / Hunt's Point section of the Bronx. He was the son of Robert Hoe (1784-1833), an English-born American mechanic, who with his brothers-in-law, Peter and Matthew Smith, established in New York City a manufactory of printing presses, and used steam to run his machinery. His father owned a steam-powered manufactory of printing presses, which Richard joined at fifteen. On his father's death, he became head of the Robert Hoe & Company corporation.

In 1843, Richard invented the rotary printing press, a design much faster than the old flat-bed printing press. Because many type cylinders could be placed around the main cylinder, which could move much faster since it only travelled in one direction, some versions of the press were able to create up to 20,000 impressions per hour. The design was patented in 1846 (US patent 5199), and first commercially installed in 1847. In its early days, it was also called the "Hoe web perfecting press," the "Hoe lightning press," and "Hoe's Cylindrical-Bed Press."

Richard M. Hoe was a Freemason. He had considerable inventive genius and set himself to secure greater speed for printing presses. He discarded the old flat-bed model and placed the type on a revolving cylinder, a model later developed into the well-known Hoe rotary or lightning press, patented in 1846, and further improved under the name of the Hoe web perfecting press. In 1870 he developed a rotary press that printed both sides of a page in a single operation.

He died in Florence, Italy.

Initially i researched on machinery used in letterpress and how the process works

Applications

Typical products printed with letterpress printing processes include business cards, letterhead, proofs, billheads, forms, posters, announcements, imprinting, embossing and hot-leaf Stampingz

Offset Letterpress Printing Process Overview

Letterpress is the oldest method of printing with equipment and images printed by the "relief" type printing plates where the image or printing areas are raised above the non-printing areas. The use of letterpresses is on the decline being replaced with faster and more efficient printing presses such as the offset lithographic press or the flexographic press. The amount of setup required to prepare the equipment to print a job is significant. For example, the image must be metal cast prior to print versus offset printing plates which are comparatively cheaper and require less time to make.

How letterpress works: Letter press printing exerts variable amounts of pressure on the substrate dependent on the size and image elements in the printing. The amount of pressure per square inch or "squeeze" is greater on some highlight dots than it is on larger shadow dots. Expensive, time consuming adjustments must be made throughout the press run to make sure the impression pressure is just right. Major chemicals used in letterpress printing, very similar to those used in lithography, include film developers and fixers, inks, and blanket and roller washes (GATF 1992b).

Image Preparation of Letterpress Printing Plates

Letterpress printing uses type that is raised above (relief) the non-printing areas. In traditional letterpress work, letters were assembled into copy, explanatory cuts were placed nearby, line drawings were etched or engraved into plates, and all these were placed (composed) on a flat marble stone, within a rigid frame (chase) spaced artistically with blocks (furniture) tightened up (locked-up) with toothed angular blocks (quoins).

In the construction of a letterpress "form" older methods of image making involving cast metal, plated molds, and other media have been replaced with photopolymer relief plates in those instances where letterpress equipment is still functional There are a few presses still availing themselves of old type and casts, and using ancient type-making machines (like linotype) but there are few persons alive today who know how to operate, much less keep them in functional repair.

The usage of cast metal type was replaced in some instances with typewriter generated "cold type", by the Varityper, Friden Justowriter, IBM Selectric Composer and these were replaced in part by photographic and then electronic platemaking. The development of photopolymer relief plates began to replace all of the above when letterpress hit its prime, and is now the most economical platemaking method available.

As letterpress usage grew, it became obvious that for long runs of the same copy, duplicate plates would save time and money. Stereotype, electrotype, rubber and plastic duplicate platemaking thrived, but are no longer widely used for letterpress work. The more economical and faster to produce photopolymer plates are extending the life of letterpress printing to some extent.

Photoengraving, at one time thought to be the last word in platemaking, is still in use to a limited extent, however photopolymer plates are less expensive, quicker to make, and supply fewer chemical residues, as a result the equipment to make photopolymer plates and the plates themselves provide an undeniable cost saving without jeopardizing the quality of the finished product. Chemical engraving has taken a back seat to mechanical and electronic computer driven engraving methods because of environmental reasons as well as cost and speed. Typesetting is also being done by computers, and films, where used, are often laser generated.

Letterpress Equipment Design

There are three different types of letterpress printing devices in use today:

1.Platen-type Letterpress Printing

A platen press is made up of two flat surfaces called the bed and the platen. The platen provides a smooth backing for the paper or other substrate that is to be printed. The raised plate (image to be printed) is locked onto a flat surface. The plate is inked, the substrate is then placed on another flat surface called the bed and pressed against the inked plate producing the impression.

The platen and bed carry both the paper and the type form. The press then opens and closes like a clam shell. Platen printing is typically used for short runs such as invitations, name cards, and stationary. Larger platen presses are used for die-cutting and embossing. Some platen presses are arranged with the bed and platen in the vertical plane.

The plate is inked with an inking roller that transfers ink from an inking plate to the image carrier. Ink is placed on the inking plate by an ink fountain roller. The platen style press has been widely used in printing small-town newspapers since the late 1800s. The printing area is usually limited to a maximum of 18 inches by 24 inches. These presses are also used to print letterhead, billheads, forms, posters, announcements, and many other types of printed products, as well as for imprinting, embossing, and hot-leaf stamping.

2.Flat-Bed Cylinder Letterpress Printing

Flat-bed cylinder presses use either vertical or horizontal beds. The plate is locked to a bed which passes over an inking roller and then against the substrate. The substrate passes around an impression cylinder on its way from the feed stack to the delivery stack. Another way of describing this is that a single revolution of the cylinder moves over the bed while in a vertical position so that both the bed holding the substrate and cylinder move up and down in a reciprocating motion. Ink is supplied to the plate cylinder by an inking roller and an ink fountain. The presses can print either one or two-color impressions. Flat-bed cylinder presses, which operate in a manner similar to the platen press, will print stock as large as 42 inches by 56 inches.

Flat-bed cylinder presses operate very slowly, having a production rate of not more than 5,000 impressions per hour. As a result, much of the printing formerly done on this type of press is now done using rotary letterpress or lithography. The horizontal bed press, the slower of the two types of flat-bed cylinder press, is no longer manufactured in the United States.

3.Rotary Letterpress Printing

There are two type of rotary letterpresses, sheet-fed and web-fed. Sheetfed rotary presses are also declining in use; in fact these presses are no longer manufactured in the U.S. Web-fed rotary presses are the most popular type of letter press printing.

Like all rotary presses, rotary letterpress requires curved image carrying plates. The most popular types of plates used are stereotype, electrotype, and molded plastic or rubber. When printing on coated papers, rotary presses use heat-set inks and are equipped with dryers, usually the high-velocity hot air type.

Web-fed rotary letterpress presses are used primarily for printing newspapers. These presses are designed to print both sides of the web simultaneously. Typically, they can print up to four pages across the web; however, some of the new presses can print up to six pages across a 90-inch web. Rotary letterpress is also used for long-run commercial, packaging, book, and magazine printing.