http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_7239482_advantages-letterpress-printing_.html
Letterpress printing uses raised, inked, reversed images pressed against paper to create a properly oriented picture or page of text. The raised image can then be re-inked and used again, repeatedly, to make multiple copies of the same picture or page of text. While commercial printers favour other printing processes because of their flexibility and low costs, letterpress printers still thrive in some niche printing markets such as formal event invitations.
Letterpress printers work on an uncomplicated principle: create a raised image, often using a photopolymer plate, roll the image in ink, and then press the inked image to the paper with the printer. This printing style is especially useful for self publishing handmade books or creating your own professional-looking invitations. Once you've made the initial investment of purchasing or building your own letterpress, mass-printing on your own requires little effort, especially if you limit the amount of colours you use in your work.
Letterpress is a printing process where each letter is inked and then pressed onto paper. The end result is lettering that is debossed in the print so you can actually feel each letter on the page.
Letterpress printing can be expensive and is often reserved for special projects or for items that need a signature look and feel to them. The expense of letterpress comes from the actual printing. Think of it this way: If every letter must be pressed into the paper, a metal “press” has to be created specifically for each project. The process also takes considerably more time than digital printing or lithography.
Letterpress has seen a resurgence of sorts in recent years because of the unique nature of the prints made. Letterpress is often used for printed items that need to have a classic feel, hint of regality or expense or are designed for specific one-time events (weddings, large fundraisers, etc.).
The beauty of letterpress printing is that it engages the senses. It is more than a piece of paper. It is a design that you can touch and feel. It has a simple elegance and beauty that screams class and elegance. It also assumes a connection to the past because of the old nature of the printing process.
Letterpress is a high-quality printing method that can be used in a variety of ways. The biggest obstacles with this type of design are often time and expense. Therefore, designers commonly use it for small-single page printed projects or replicate the look for digital projects.
One of the most common letterpress applications is in the printing of wedding invitations. Letterpress is also used for birth announcements, shower invitations, greeting and holiday cards and gift tags.
The style is also popular for businesses as well. Letterpress business cards have a certain flair to them that some companies prefer, and many designers like the style for personal or freelance business cards. The debossed style can also work for posters and advertisements.
Letterpress is the oldest and most versatile method of printing. It is relief printing, or printing from a raised surface. A rubber stamp is a simple form of relief printing. However, just as rubber stamping a hundred pages would take a lot of time, letterpress printing, although high in quality, is slow to assemble, proof and print. Letterpress was the dominant form of printing until the 1960s when offset lithography replaced it. Letterpress is still in use today by graphic designers to create special cards, invitations, posters and announcements.
- In hand-crafted letterpress, each letter of type is placed into a holder called a composing stick. And because the printed image is a mirror image, the type has to be set left to right and upside down. Once on the press, ink rollers touch only the top surface of the raised area. The surrounding, non-printing areas are lower and do not receive ink. The ink is transferred directly to paper, and making a proof is cumbersome.
- Colour can be applied in letterpress printing, but each color has to dry before the next color is applied from a different set of letters placed on the press.
- Another major disadvantage of letterpress is the printing of images. Photographs and drawings must be converted to photo engravings, a slow and expensive process of turning images into raised metal dots and lines. In Benjamin Franklin's time, drawings were carved by hand.
- Letterpress is used in print shops today for off-line work such as scoring (a crease in paper to make folding easier), perforating (a partial cut to make tearing off a section of the paper easier), die-cutting (punching out shapes such as a star in the paper), embossing (raising an impression on the surface of the paper) and foil stamping (attaching shiny artwork to papers such as diplomas).examples -
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