Customer Reviews

The Practice of Printing: Letterpress and Offset

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The most ubiquitous letterpress printing manual of the twentieth century, and one of the better ones. This is the standard, in print for over 40 years, from which most current letterpress printers first learned, and is an indispensable reference for the print shop. Although out of print, it is readily available, in one or another of its many editions, from most book arts dealers and online sources. In later years, it was distributed by the Kelsey Co. as the advanced printing manual for their mass-market presses. By 1971 (the edition you've found here at Amazon) it was updated to de-emphasize handset type, and was re-issued as "The Practice of Printing: Letterpress & Offset". If you are primarily interested in letterpress printing, try to get one of the earlier editions. It is unlikely that this book will be back in print per se, but certainly check Amazon zShops or Auctions for copies available for sale.

The book was first printed in 1926; my review is based on the 1971 edition.

I am a hobby printer and I like creating printed materials that preserves older aesthetics and feel. I'm not an artist - I just make things like stationery, visiting cards, invitations - the usual stuff.

This book is wonderful for my purposes. The authors' focus is on creating harmony and legibility in printed text. So, they provide abundant information on type selection (aesthetics, meaning, and uses of effects and contrast) and spacing around different types (something very few guides mention).

They also provides samples (with ample commentary) of tickets, business cards, advertisements, letterhead, envelopes, and the like. It also provides the usual information any basic printer will need, as well as rarely found material, such as how to set multiple-page spreads.

The one draw-back to the manual is that does not provide technical information on printing using different machines.

Printed on wear-resistent glossy paper, it is strongly bound, and also lies flat on my composing table. Alas, it is now sadly out of print, and I think it is well worth reprinting for the hobbyist.

I was fascinated to learn about the practice of letterpress printing from this book, which is a textbook used in schools in the past (1920-60's)to teach the craft. As an artist I enjoy learning about almost any kind of hands on work and this book gave a step by step education on printing as much of it was done up until fairly recently. I gained a whole new respect for printers and the complexity of the work they faced. Truly it took expertise to produce a book, flyer, or even an invoice form. Interesting how much things have changed with computers. This is kind of a time machine trip into the past, a living history experience. Very interesting.