De Milo Design

Description

In letterpress printing we ink a raised surface that is pressed into-ideally-soft and tactile handmade paper. The result is a rich combination of color, texture and dimension. For centuries after movable type was invented in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg (remember the famous "Gutenberg Bible"?), all mass printing was done by letterpress. It's use began to wane during the mid-twentieth century as offset lithography with its faster and more economical printing process became popular. The advent of digital type and desktop publishing served to push letterpress further underground. But it has always remained an art that is alive and well practiced on fully functional antique presses by those with a love for tradition, typography, and the tactile surface that reminds of of bygone days. Some presses have motors attached to them, but many are still run by plain old elbow grease! De Milo Design does all of it's printing on 2 Chandler and Price platen presses (built in 1895! Pictured in the upper left corner of this page) that are operated by pumping a treadle (similar to the treadle in old sewing machines) with one's foot. We joke that the presses are the only Y2K complient equipment we own! How do I know if letterpress is right for me? Think about your hobbies and what interests you. If you like to browse antique stores, keep heirloom family photos around the house, or collect odd and interesting items from fleamarkets the "oldness" of letterpress printing would be right up your...

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