But if you go further back to manuscripts, the ink and metals floated on the page and could be scraped off. Is flat printing a happy medium or insipidity?
If you go back beyond ink and metal on pages you get incised letters on clay or bone, dyes on textiles, and other mediums. I think they all have their place, along with words like the ones I’m typing now, which are made of electrons.
Flat printing is the only kind I’ve done so I would like to think it doesn’t have to be insipid. Still the tactile quality of letterpress printing is uniquely satisfying when holding a book in hand.
Sylvia
But if you go further back to manuscripts, the ink and metals floated on the page and could be scraped off. Is flat printing a happy medium or insipidity?
xensen
Thanks for that observation, Sylvia
If you go back beyond ink and metal on pages you get incised letters on clay or bone, dyes on textiles, and other mediums. I think they all have their place, along with words like the ones I’m typing now, which are made of electrons.
Flat printing is the only kind I’ve done so I would like to think it doesn’t have to be insipid. Still the tactile quality of letterpress printing is uniquely satisfying when holding a book in hand.
Nancy
I’ve linked to this in my blog. I started out working for old fashioned printers so I have a deep love for this kind of type.
xensen
I regret never having done letterpress.
Nancy
Well, the SF Center for the Book has classes all the time. I’m taking an intensive class this summer and I can hardly wait.