A Letterpress Renaissance?
Time magazine recently reported that letterpress is making a comeback. Used letterpresses (the only kind you can get, since they haven’t been manufactured in decades) are now fetching $6,000, compared to $1,000 four years ago, according to the article.
Printers, most of them small operations, are reportedly scooping up old machines and making tidy profits printing cards, wedding invitations and personal stationery for customers who crave that sculptured, three-dimensional letterpress look. Designers are reportedly drawn to letterpress because it lets them use paper they can’t use in commercial printing jobs—sheets with uneven surfaces interwoven with bits of leaves or flowers. And customers are willing to pay a premium for this uniqueness.
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.”