A Letterpress Renaissance?

The article estimates there may be as many as 20,000 letterpresses still in existence out of several hundred thousand in the 1960s. (Many of them are in in-plants, where they’re used mainly for scoring, perforating, die-cutting and numbering.)

Advances in computer technology, the Time article says, have allowed letterpress designers to use photopolymer plates instead of hand-set type. Still, noted one printer in the article: “Because the presses are obsolete, you’re not competing with other people who are getting the newest machinery, so actually our capital investment is far less than most offset printers.”