Perhaps the most crucial decision a sole-proprietor with a growing business can make, the decision to hire an employee is a financial, legal, and empirical one. Can you, as the business owner, pay the wages (full or part-time, or contractual) of an employee? If so, does your current profit allow … Continue reading
Organizing your shop and having adequate materials on hand will help streamline production and shorten turnaround. Moving work quickly through your shop frees up press time for other printing and allows you to do other, non-press, work as well. Production Schedules A production schedule will help determine the turnaround time … Continue reading
Proper pricing is the most important component of a successful printing business. Each printer has his or her own overhead (rent, utilities, insurance, and the like), startup costs, and financial obligations, and all of these things affect pricing. Nevertheless, there is a general range of acceptable pricing for letterpress printing—acceptable … Continue reading
There are many methods for successful die-cutting; the most important thing is to protect your press, specifically the press bed and the platen, regardless of the method you use. The press in the illustrations below is a 10×15 C&P, but you can follow the same process on both larger and … Continue reading
Makeready is literally the process of making the press ready to print. Makeready is more than oiling and inking the press, and making sure the form is locked up securely; it is, in the narrowest sense . . the diagnosis of defects, the selection of the best remedies for correcting … Continue reading
Instructional Books about Printing Hard Copies Elementary Platen Presswork by Ralph W. Polk General Printing by Glen U. Cleeton, Charles W. Pitkin, and Raymond L. Cornwell A Guide to Experimental Letterpress Techniques by Barbara Tetenbaum Letterpress Now: A DIY Guide to New & Old Printing Methods by Jessica C. White … Continue reading
Although there is a thin line between an apprenticeship and an internship, there are a few things that help differentiate the two. An apprenticeship is typically associated with an individual working to learn a particular trade or craft, and is is usually completed in exchange for the student’s continued work … Continue reading