Move over, Gutenberg...

[Sushi]

...cuz the Ink Casino is open for business. I finally got my printing press and attendant equipment set up in a corner of the mud room. I hadn't printed anything for a while--since everything was out in the garage a year or so ago. I finally cleaned some junk out of the mud room to clear a tiny space.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/inkcasino1.jpg
I decided to print up Christmas cards. I went very simple--one color on some nice cream-colored cardstock that a friend had given me. For those of you not familiar with letterpress printing, here's a short lesson. The first thing you need is a printing press. I have a Sigwalt (Ideal #4) side-lever press with a 5x7 inch chase (i.e., printing area). That's my boy Sigwalt below.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/sigwaltathome.jpg
Next, you need some type. Type is stored in drawers (called cases) in a type cabinet. It looks like this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/inkcasino2.jpg
Inside there drawer, you have all your type--lower case on the left, upper case on the right.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/typecase.jpg
You set the type on what's called a composing stick. You set it upside down and backwards. (I used 24 point Goudy Oldstyle if there are any type nerds reading this.) http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/composingstick.jpg
Once you have your type set, you put it into the chase--which is a rectangular iron frame. The type is held in place by pieces of wood or metal called furniture. I already cleaned up from my project when I decided to post this, so I don't have any pictures of the form (i.e., the type and furniture) in the chase. Maybe someday I'll get industrious and post some. When you print, you slide the chase into the press. You put a couple small dabs of ink on the big round disc at the top of the press and attach two rollers (not shown). When you pull on the lever, the front part of the press (where that manilla colored paper, called tympan paper, is in the picture) closes on top of the form like a clamshell. The rollers roll up onto the ink disc and get covered with ink. When you push back on the lever (and open the clamshell), the rollers go over the form and cover the type with ink. You put a sheet of paper onto the press, pull the lever, and this time when you get that clamshell action, the paper hits the inked form and voila--you've printed a Christmas card.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/finishedcard.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/Sushi23/finishedcard2.jpg
I was kind of in a hurry--I should have taken more time with the make-ready and the form. This is definitely the work of an apprentice printer, but it's a blast to learn. I hope to get better at it. There are some people printing art books that are just amazing--all letterpress. There's no match for fine press work. Any other print nerds out there?

[Shlep]

...and here I thought this was going to have something to do with a new Police Academy film.

[Sovrana]

Very nice! Though I get the feeling you are going to have to alter the window treaments in that corner. I'm don't think the white lace will gonna tolerate that for too long.

That's very cool...and I love the Christmas cards! Especially the uneven ink application on the leaves and in some of the lettering...like scratchy vinyl.

[LCash]

wooo very nice. i loved printing when i had the chance to do it.

[Groove Holmes]

He Sushi, very interesting post.

In each drawer is there a different typeface? Do you have to purchase whole families of typefaces or how does that work? Can you make your own?

I might be the type nerd you were refering to in your post...or at least an eventual one. I'm a graphic artist here in Maine with the ultra-glorious position of designing ads for a telephone directory. I use photoshop, illustrator & quark for my work though. I've always been fascinated with the roots of print, although I have little to no knowledge on the subject.

One thing I've been desperately wanting to do is get into typeface design, although I'm not even sure how to go about it. Could you recommend any good literature on the subject of typeface design? And for that matter, does anyone have any info on how to do it on a pc or mac?

Sorry to alter the thread...feel free to ignore my requests.

Sometimes I get a little starry-eyed thinking I'll get to make a career out of typeface design & logo & brand identity design....we'll see how it all plays out.

Thanks for any responses,
Greg

[DaHood]

Super cool post Sushi. Thanks for sharing.

[Sushi]

He Sushi, very interesting post.

In each drawer is there a different typeface? Do you have to purchase whole families of typefaces or how does that work? Can you make your own?

I might be the type nerd you were refering to in your post...or at least an eventual one. I'm a graphic artist here in Maine with the ultra-glorious position of designing ads for a telephone directory. I use photoshop, illustrator & quark for my work though. I've always been fascinated with the roots of print, although I have little to no knowledge on the subject.

One thing I've been desperately wanting to do is get into typeface design, although I'm not even sure how to go about it. Could you recommend any good literature on the subject of typeface design? And for that matter, does anyone have any info on how to do it on a pc or mac?

Sorry to alter the thread...feel free to ignore my requests.

Sometimes I get a little starry-eyed thinking I'll get to make a career out of typeface design & logo & brand identity design....we'll see how it all plays out.

Thanks for any responses,
Greg
Hi Groovy Greg,
Yes, each drawer has a different typeface and a different point size of that face. People who have extensive print shops (unlike my little corner) may have as many as a dozen type cabinets with different families of typefaces.

I don't really know much about making type. There are a couple of foundries still in operation. I know there are designers out there designing new typefaces--whether any of those faces would ever make it into lead type is doubtful. I think people mainly do letterpress printing as a hobby, as fine press work for things like wedding invitations, or art books. I know there is still one all-letterpress print shop in Cleveland. There are some things, such as numbering items consecutively (such as for raffle tickets or invoices) that are still done on the older machines (letpress as opposed to offset). I'm still learning about all this. There are some hobby groups out there whose members are still actively printing. One, the American Amateur Press Association (http://members.aol.com/aapa96/index.html) (of which I'm a member) has some good resources on its website. Go to resources for letterpress printers. I know a guy who lives out near St. Louis who started his own type foundry about two years ago. It's called Skyline Type Foundry (http://www.skylinetype.com/pages/1/index.htm) (not to be confused with the chili--his name is Sky). One last resource is the letpress listserv. (http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/bookarts/2001/10/msg00058.html) I used to subscribe to it via email, but now just go in a browse the archives. If you pose a question to that group, someone (usually more than one person) will have an answer. It might be a place to at least hook up with someone in your area who could give you some guidance.

[eighty]

Hey Sushi check out the Complaint Department (http://listofcontents.ca/Complaint_Department/portfolio/posters%2Bflyers/Letterpress/index.html). I stumbled upon this ages ago but they're people who do posters and things letterpress-style too.

I like this one a lot.
http://listofcontents.ca/Complaint_Department/portfolio/posters%2Bflyers/Letterpress/music_gallery_nov.jpg

[Angel30]

Thanks for sharing! This is very cool. I love type and while I would not consider myself a professional typographer, I am working at improving my skills. I think type is beautiful and when done well, it really makes a difference. I have completely ignored reading ads, posters, etc because the typeset was ugly or just not well done.

I also make homemade cards using stamps and the like and also with my inkjet printer. This would definitly take the card making process up a notch! :)

[akip]

very cool, sushi. i love the little irregularities of real type.

[berzerker]

You should check out this place Hatch Show Print (http://hatchshowprint.com/) they do lots of cool letterpress stuff, like posters. Mostly country music related (hey, it is in Nashville) If you click on "Monoprints" you can see what they do...

https://store.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/files/cm/products/johnnycashtriple_large.jpg
https://store.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/files/cm/products/silasgreenhousewife_large.jpg

[Groove Holmes]

Does anyone here create their own fonts for use in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or Quark?

Just curious, since I'm trying to get into that myself.

Thanks,
Greg

[Sushi]

Thanks for the links, eighty and berkerker. It's always neat to see places where people are still printing by hand and really know their craft.

[eighty]

Does anyone here create their own fonts for use in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or Quark?

Just curious, since I'm trying to get into that myself.

Thanks,
Greg
I just made a font a few weeks ago.
It's fun and interesting but there's a lot of tedium, you have to be dedicated to it if you plan on finishing one...Mine was bare-bones for a work project and it was 66 drawings, each had to be scanned, vectorized (thank god for cs2's live trace!), saved down to Illustrator 8, then imported into that miserable program that is Fontographer, scaled, and spaced.

But damn it turned out cool.

[Groove Holmes]

I just made a font a few weeks ago.
It's fun and interesting but there's a lot of tedium, you have to be dedicated to it if you plan on finishing one...Mine was bare-bones for a work project and it was 66 drawings, each had to be scanned, vectorized (thank god for cs2's live trace!), saved down to Illustrator 8, then imported into that miserable program that is Fontographer, scaled, and spaced.

But damn it turned out cool.


Tell me more about live trace! I'm still working with PS 7.0 Here at the office, but I'm planning to buy the CS2 Design package in the early new year.

Worth it?

[Sushi]

ooh, printing press!!! that's so hot!!! (i'm totally serious)
You can come up and play with my printing press anytime, sister.

[eighty]

Tell me more about live trace!
You know in Flash how you can do "Trace bitmap", and it will convert a raster image to a vector, sort of, but it's really kind of crappy? Well, Illustrator CS2 does the same thing, except it's not crappy. It's really great (for black and white images, I do not endorse tracing anything color.) I mean like, reeeeeeeally great. Like you can't tell it's been vectorized. And there are all kindsa different settings depending on what you're converting (inked drawing, comics, type, etc) in case the default settings don't do what you want.

For you this means that (if you're hand-drawing this font of yours) you won't have to vectorize it all by hand for Fontographer.

I'm planning to buy the CS2 Design package in the early new year.

Worth it?
I'll just list my favorite CS2 features and you can decide for yourself.

Photoshop CS2=FOLDERS WITHIN FOLDERS in the layers palette. Shift-select multiple layers/objects within the document. Haven't tried Smart Objects yet but my coworker says it's amazing.

Illustrator CS2=LivePaint/Trace