Letterpress Production Photos

May 18, 2011

People always ask us what the letterpress process looks like and short of signing up for a reality show and having cameras follow us around the shop, we hope these photos tell at least part of the story. We posted Randy Schmidt’s letterpress pupCards yesterday and these photos were taken during the production of his cards.

We tried to caption each of the photos. Check the bottom of the post for a short video as well as some additional details.

Photopolymer plates and proof for the front / back of the cards.

Getting silver metallic ink ready to put on press.

First plate for the front of the card setup on the base and a closeup of a Hi-Speed quoin used for lockup.

Chase in press ready for printing metallic silver for front of business card.

First proof of metallic silver, checking color / coverage / registration. Once approved the proof is clipped to the press for comparing during the run.

Paper running through the press, with a quick stop to add a touch more ink.

Measuring the proof and setting up second color (blind) on back of cards.

First proof for second color, checking for impression depth and registration.

[flickr video=5732984521]

Two short clips of paper moving through the press from a slightly different perspectives. The woosh of the suction is a noise any printer recognizes and is sort of like a printer’s metronome.

[flickr video=5732981883]

All of the photos/video were taken with my iPhone 4, which can produce some really surprising pictures under the right conditions. We will be posting some more process shots with another set of business cards we printed for a different client soon.

Let us know in the comments below what you thought of the photos and if you’d like to see more of these type of posts in the future.