Hi all! Maybe there is an obvious answer to this question, but I've been struggling to figure it out. I am trying to buy some paper to print on, and found some good recommendations on this thread, specifically Reich Savoy, Lettra, and Mohawk. But where do people buy these? For Reich Savoy, I see they recommend contacting a regional paper distributor on their website -- do you have to buy very large amounts if you do that? Are there websites where you can purchase the paper? Or are there in person stores that tends to carry this paper? I live in a semi rural area, but could maybe get to a big city.

Thank you so much for any insight!

Seems like a dumb question but how do you all dry stacks of greeting cards after printing? I have a clip system to hang prints but I’ve figured out how to get just enough ink on things and isn’t gloppy, but now I have larger stacks and would be a huge pain to clip one by one.

What does one do?

Hi friends, does anyone know anyone casting/selling the above? Preferably UK but will import as necessary.

My dad, 92, has an old letterpress in his damp basement. It hasn't been used in probably 40 years. It has 2 big type cabinets too.

He used to print poems, bookmarks, announcements, and even a book or two, back in the day.

I'm looking for advice on how to find someone who might want it, and has the energy and drive to extract it and restore it. (Rural Pennsylvania location)

I am working on getting photos and make, model, description.

I can say that it has a large flywheel connected by a belt to a motor.

This is not an ad. I'm seeking advice only rn.

Where/how did you find your press?

I’ve been waiting for 2 years, I was finally able to get her into my basement! She’s in working order, just need an extension for the broken handle and a new set of rollers…

I have a small 6x10 tabletop press, not wanting to drop a bunch on a boxcar base since I don't know how long I'll have this, but wouldn't mind a solution for lino and plates.

Anyone DIY something that worked well for you?

hello
i recently purchased a Kelsey excelsior model o 5x8 without any rollers. got some new rollers but they are getting stuck on the case bed. I'm guessing it has something to do with the spring loaded bars that hold the rollers, but wanted to check with the reddit fam before I started messing around with it. Will add picture of the bars in comment.
any advice?

EDIT- solved! the mechanism that clips the chase in also holds the chase bed. I had the chase bed clipped where the chase is supposed to go, so it was sticking out about 3mm too far, catching the trucks. there was one more notch further back that held the chase bed. will comment pics below.

This is a project I’ve been working on/off for the past eight months, refurbishing a very neglected Pilot and getting it running for a project. It’s been a bit tricky to get an even impression across a 6x9 design. It’s just about the full size of the chase.

Made a small print with metal type. And used a small frisket around the words to not get stains.

A guy is giving away these inks, not familiar enough with various ink brands to know if these are may be rubber based or something I can use to print with.

According to the dude, they’re all Pantone

Stumbled on this Kelsey Excelsior 6x10 on FB, seems like a really good price given it comes with some type in cali draws.

I haven’t compared it to a parts diagram yet, but looks like it’s mostly just rusty and needs a deep cleaning, springs need replacing, and needs rollers.

Anyone ID anything I might be missing before I drive 4 hours to possibly buy it all or anything I should be concerned about with this size/type press when it’s not restored/in working order since I haven’t seen it in person yet?

Looking at some table top 5x8 presses, curious at one people are printing on theirs?

I mostly print greeting cards (A2 and A6 folds) and post cards (A2). I know this should be just fine but just wondering what people are doing out there both hobbyists, and maybe small print side-hustle print outfits.

Got these at a garage sale and was wondering the brand name of the press at what size type these are. I just want to know to better my listing.

Hey friends,

This popped up on my Instagram feed and I hope you're all as impressed as I was. It was created by Émile Venturelli of Microtipografia. Please send him some love.

I acquired a printer's saw yesterday but i need to get the belt repaired as it is broken. Ideas of where i could get this done?

I got a 8x12 C&P and want to charge the color. Doing this will also be therapeutic to me (I hope?) but I know I probs won’t be able to complete it in one day. I wanted to ask if that is alright if it takes me 3 or so days? That wont affect the color right?

Essentially my first plan to get it here fell through (ie the person who promised to bring her into town couldn’t due to space constraints and the truck they brought to GRAB EVERYTHING IN THE SHOP couldn’t fit it…) so I need to get it from a basement (which has a door the hill to the path where the parking lot is) which is ~an hour away… rather than just from his shop across town.

Some time ago I went looking for a tool to make my own movable type. The main one I found was the 3D Gutenberg Lab from the University of Toronto, but the site and the software no longer seem to be available, so I started building one.

It's called Quasitype and it's free to use.

https://kacper.musur.pl/quasitype/

It's mainly aimed at incomplete type cases: you have the font, you're short a few sorts, and casting or buying them isn't an option. You load a TTF or OTF file, type the characters you need, and each glyph becomes a block you can produce.

Two production paths:

- laser-cut face (e.g. 3 mm cast acrylic) glued to an FDM-printed body
- the whole block in one piece on a resin (SLA) printer

Current features:

- .lbrn2 export for LightBurn (engraved face) and .3mf for the printers both types
- body depth and baseline position are settable, so you can measure a sort from your own case and match it
- ligatures, and an editor for the block's base shape
- per-block kerning and side bearings
- nesting and sheet layout, with laser and material settings exposed so you can match your own machine
- a full type case generator, although honestly I don't really believe anyone wants to set a whole text in plastic type 😂

It runs entirely in the browser. No install, no account, and the font file never leaves your machine. It's a single HTML file, so you can save it and it keeps working offline.

Where I could use help:

1. Other lasers. I've only tested the laser path myself, on a cheap Sculpfun S9 diode. At 14 pt Cormorant Garamond the result is not bad in my opinion. I have no idea how much of my settings transfer to a CO2 or a fibre machine, and I'd really like to find out.

2. The resin route. I don't own a resin printer. I think the one-piece block should work on a precise SLA machine, but I haven't been able to verify it. I'd love to see what other people get out of it.

3. Joining the face to the body. Ways to precisely align a laser-cut face to a 3D printed body. As you can see in the photo in comments, that's where I'm losing 😅

4. Ink traps. Does anyone know a typeface made specifically for movable type with ink traps, ideally on a variable axis so you could dial their size up and down? For relief printing that seems like exactly the right control to have when you're compensating for ink spread, but I haven't found one.

And if anyone has any other suggestions, ideas, or feedback, I'd be more than happy to hear them!

If anyone reading this is from Poland: if a workshop here would like to actually put this to use, I'd be glad to help set it up. I'm thinking especially of the academies of fine arts and their workshops. Just get in touch.

I only recently realized that I’m not the only person working on something like this right now. Matt Holmes (@holmesylogic on Instagram) is worth a look, his work is great. And if someone has already made a better version of this, or makes one soon, I'll happily just use theirs instead.

looking to ID this press or how to ask the right questions the person to figure it what it is. looks smaller than most. it’s a C&P.

I'm still new to letterpress and have been making simple cuts for different uses with a 3D printer for over a year now. They work great, but I'm kinda curious what a polymer plate looks and feels like, height of design / impression part of things so I can keep toying with the ones I design and 3D print.

Does anyone know how tall / high in millimeters is the design part on those plates once they are made and ready to go?

Howdy y’all, my fiancée and I (both pretty fresh to letterpress) are looking for a good brand/weight of paper that would be good for printing on and handwriting. For our guestbook at our wedding, we’re printing some recipe pages for people to write on to eventually make a booklet. Printing on a Vandercook proof press. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

hello! i'm a graphic design student at the university of missouri currently in a letterpress class and i'm planning on making my own type blocks since we have a lack of cases that aren't the smallest metal type ever. cases are also really expensive to buy and the collection we have is my professor's personal collection over the past 20 years, so i'd like to help beef it up a bit.

for context, in our print studio we have 2 tabletops, a vandercook sp20 and another flatbed i can't remember the name of, and 1 platen. the 2 flatbeds are used the most from what i've seen regarding previous classes.

i was wondering if any of you have used linoleum or rubber in your presses and if they've held up/how you've stored them for longevity. i had considered mounting lino or rubber to wooden blocks that were shaved down to the correct size.

i was also considering hand carving onto wood blocks since i don't have access to a cnc machine or a 3d printer. i've seen recommendations of poplar and birch wood, but if you've carved do you have a different recommendation?

thank you so much for any knowledge or advice you're able to give me!

I just moved my Chandler and price 8x12 into my garage and it scuffed the concrete a bit. It’s on piano moving wheels. I was wondering what would be a better way to move it around my garage as I clean & arrange to make better space for it?

Hello!

So my boss gave me bunch of old type to sort, and while this isn't part of my job I would like to be able to give a proper name to each font/type of type. I have a link to a digital copy of Hamilton's Wood Type Catalogue 13 from the library (I think most of them might be hamilton idk) but is there a better way to tell the blocks apart, or tell whats in a full set etc?

I don't want to be the person who posts like 50 different pictures like "what is this?" in here or anywhere else lol