Tag: Letterpress

Last week’s letterpress demo was a new and interesting project for me. It was a lot of work, but satisfying in the end. When Professor Licastro instructed that we would be using the definition of media to practice our letter press, I did not think it would be very challenging. I was wrong. In fact, my partner and I achieved this goal in steps. First I read my sentence aloud, and then he read it to proofread. Then, he pulled letters from each section and put them in order in which I would receive the next word in the sentence. As he gave me a word, my job was to place the type in the holder. Even this was difficult. The letters must be set in a particular way that is essentially a mirrored letter. This way the letters can be expressed right side up when typed onto the paper. It was mentally challenging for me to know that my letters were in the right places, or the difference between a W and a M. I got better once I got the hang of finding the nicks. Half way though the sentence, my partner and I switched roles. I never imagined that, as a college student, I would need this much help writing a sentence. Once my partner and I finally  finished placing all of our letters and tabs in its place, it was time to press. My favorite part was at the end when we mixed paint based on the color we wanted our text to be and actually got to press a few of my own. I enjoyed seeing other groups’ press in different fonts. The letterpress demo was such an exciting experience because no one, outside of this class, can say that they’ve done anything like this before. The experience makes me appreciate the invention of typewriters and keyboards much much more!

The thought of having to do letter-pressing was a little intimidating at first. We were going to be handling lead and ink. We were going to have to operate machinery. My imagination was going crazy the day before the demo. But, after hunting down the classroom and listening to the instructor who would be leading us through the process, my brain started to finally cool down.

It was actually pretty fun to craft a sentence the old-fashioned way. I can’t imagine having to put together an essay or an article, but a sentence is enjoyable. We had to lay out not only every letter we needed to use, but also every space between every word in the sentence. If the sentence was too long (like the one my partner and I were working on), a piece of lead was needed to separate the two lines of text. We also had to make sure that their wasn’t any space whatsoever between any of the pieces or else they could shift during the inking or printing.

After the instructor proofread everyone’s sentences, we got to see the machine in action. After the letter get inked up, and the paper is in place on top near the roller, you have to slowly move the roller while transferring the paper to it and not let your hand go for the ride as well. As soon as your paper pops up from under the roller, you can grab it, and then crank the roller back to it’s starting position. We each had the option to go through it twice and come out of the demo with two posters and ten fingers each. I would definitely try it again if there was an opportunity.

The letterpress demo was a really fun experience; it was great insight on how long the printing process took. The people that did this job for a living must have been were more than likely masters at their craft. The printers obviously had an easier time putting together words and phrases then we had because they probably knew where each letter was from memory. They were also probably well accustomed to the different types and had a better grasp on which would work best depending on the print. I don’t think proofreading would have been any different, because there might have been a number of eyes looking at the work. We were able to notice mistakes even if the pieces were upside down so I feel that aspect wouldn’t be any different from our demo.

It took about 30 minutes for each group to put together 15 words or less for it to be then placed on the furniture to be pressed or roll pressed. Once on the furniture, you had to make sure each case was tightly squeezed together so that when it was rolled over, the pieces wouldn’t shift. The idea is a simple one especially because the letters were already made. We didn’t have to mold each lead type, but assembling really gave everyone trouble.

The letterpress demo we did as a class last week was really eye opening. I had no idea that in the past, printing was such an involved and time consuming process. Just setting the type was complex in itself. The use of em-quads to space the text block and create margins required planning that I had never considered. Having to proofread the sentence with it positioned upside down was also mind boggling. The amount of focus that early printing press workers possessed to compose their print successfully is very impressive. It’s easy to take modern word processing features like spellchecking and formatting for granted. I never realized how much time these features save us when writing or editing documents.

In addition to the extra mental acuity required by early print workers, they also needed to demonstrate a healthy amount of dexterity to make it through the day. Handling the composing stick, tracking down specific letters and punctuation in the type-case and transferring the text block onto the printer all required fine motor skills and coordination. At any time one wrong move would have sent tons of small pieces flying. This would have required even more time for pieces to be tracked down and re-organized. Once the actual printing process had begun it was also important to keep hands, hair and clothing away from the rotating machinery and out of the printed work.

The printing press itself was a mechanical work of art. Multiple rollers spread the ink across themselves before coating the organized moveable type. The use of “furniture” allowed for the text to be spaced appropriately before the paper was rolled across, transferring the ink to the page. The machine had pedals, handles and switches that had to be used to print successfully. I imagine that a larger scale printing operation even more complex machinery to operate on a daily basis. In comparison a modern printer seems so high-tech in its ability to quickly and cleanly print, scan or copy. What used to be a high pressure job is now easily accessible and user friendly thanks to word processing programs and laser printers.

The letter press demo was enlightening on many levels. The letter press allowed for us to realize just how ling it took for pages of newspapers to be run and caused a greater appreciation for how far technology has come. The Letter press took all of us around a solid hour to compose and then align in the press. The time it took for that only made one page and this was a group of some 12 or more people working together. Quite impressive that companies were able to churn out daily and weekly newspapers without a cut to quality and quantity. One of the most fascinating parts of the printing press we had on hand were the rollers. Normally just using black is enough to suffice, but when adding color, some amazing effects began to appear on our papers. The hues would mix like traditional paint and create a burst of color while we printed. A very nice addition. The machine also seemed so simple with the addition of applying paint by hand and the manpower of moving the wheel back and forth. Another important aspect that plagued one of the groups was the quality of the letters when assembled. The letters were chipped and worn down since they are made of a soft lead. Henceforth they weren’t printing when they needed to. Simply because they had been mishandled or overused. The specific design spacing was also incredibly interesting when using the spacers while writing our words backwards. The spacers varied depending on the gaps you wanted in your paper. There was no space left unfilled. It kept it tight so the machine wouldn’t knock loose some type and ruin the print.