Articles about Letterpress Type

Lead ain’t dead; movable type continues to be a beautiful and sustainable means of getting words on paper. Establishing good techniques for setting type by hand along with careful printing are essential to antique metal and wood type’s survival. Some antique movable type is irreplaceable; it may never be recast or recarved. There are a very small number of type foundries who currently operate antique typecasting and pantograph equipment and who continue to produce new metal and wood type for sale.

Type Foundries

See at a glance where type is still being cast, and support your local type foundry. To add your foundry to the map, update your account.

Compositor’s Tools

Every letterpress printer—amateur or professional—uses compositors’ tools (tools used in composing handset type) that are essentially unchanged from those of the last century. It would not be too extreme, in fact, to say that some tools, like the composing stick itself, are essentially the same as those used by Gutenberg’s … Continue reading

Metal Type

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Wood Type

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