WHY LETTERPRESS
Letterpress is the oldest printing technique in which a raised surface covered with ink is gently pressed into the paper. Using letterpress printing in a modern way allows to create a tactile impression while printing one colour and one sheet at a time.

MORE ABOUT TIPOGRAFIA CARATTERE - a letterpress and paper studio based in Italy.

I got in love with letterpress printing technique and impression it creates years ago and now share this passion crafting beautiful stationery and paper products.

Human beings have always had the desire to communicate, and Gutenberg’s invention made this task much easier and more beautiful. Today if we walk in our cities, we realize how pressed word characterizes every part of our existence. It is enough to look up and you realize that you have printed messages all around - images, pictures, fonts, letters and more. The letterpress printing system reached its peak in the sixties and was then slowly replaced by faster commercial printing methods such as offset, digital, laser.

Modern systems generally capture the attention of the masses, so it is inevitable that production and marketing will shift to the new. The typography made with machinery from the last century such as the historic "pedalina" (and Italian word meaning hand-fed platen press), or the German Heidelberg Windmill, is a printing technique that has lost in the time the commercial appeal.

Though, the beauty of handmade printing process did not disappear and there is always more and more value given to the craftsmanship which is needed to print beautiful prints. Letterpress printing is limited, requires knowledge and practice but at the same time allows to create unique paper products.

In my creative studio I take care and print with two Heidelberg Windmill presses, as well as one hand-fed platen press from 19th century and some other antique machinery I have saved from closed printshops.

With love,
Inga