Letterpress studio Edinburgh
Wedding stationery, posters and workshops, set by hand in lead and wood and printed on a 1912 cast-iron platen press.
Scroll to start the press
01 From case to page
One, the type case
Every letter is a block of lead alloy, cast a century ago and sorted by hand into a wooden case. Capitals, figures and a few points of punctuation. If a letter is not in the case, it cannot be in the print.
Two, setting the line
Each sort comes out of its box and drops into a brass composing stick, left to right, nick outwards. The knee slides up to fix the measure. A name takes a minute. A poster takes a morning.
Three, locking up
The line goes into an iron chase with wooden furniture packed around it. Brass quoins are turned with a key until the whole forme lifts as one solid block. If a letter is going to fall out, it falls out here.
Four, inking
A knife of ink is spread on the turning disc. Three rollers pick it up, travel down the forme and leave a film on the face of every letter and nothing on the shoulders. Too much and the letters fill in. Too little and the print breaks.
Five, the impression
The platen closes and the paper meets the type with a few tonnes behind it. The ink transfers and the letters bite into the cotton, so you can read the page with your fingertips. Then the sheet peels away.
Sorts in the case0
I / V
02 Your turn
Type a name, a date or a few words. The sorts leave the case, line up in the stick, lock into the chase and the press pulls your page. Choose ink and paper and the scene follows.
Ink
Paper
Drag the scene to look around
03 The studio
Everything is printed in Edinburgh, one sheet at a time, on cotton paper from a mill in Fife. Proofs are pulled on the press, never on a screen.
Wedding stationery
A two-colour invitation, an RSVP card and a lined envelope, set in your choice of faces and pressed deep into 600gsm cotton.
Editions of fifty
Wood type and lead, one or two inks, printed in small editions for gigs, readings, shops and friends. Numbered by hand.
Saturdays at the studio
Three hours at the bench. You set your own line, ink the press, pull your own prints and take home twelve of them.
04 The small print
05 Visit
Pick a Saturday and we will keep you a place at the bench. Tell us about a wedding or a poster in the same note and we will bring a sample book.
Thank you. We will check the diary and write back within a working day. Wear shoes you do not mind getting ink on.
Black Letter Press Unit 4, Elm Row Yard