Origins of Term “Letterpress”

General ask for the community. Would everyone who is willing share posts & links to previous articles and discussions on the origins of the term “Letterpress”? I’d also like to see writings and articles on how it is being used currently. I’ve seen many over the years, but I’d like to have them all saved in the same place.

Additionally, for friends who are overseas, how do you talk about the practice elsewhere? I know that some areas do not use the term “Letterpress” at all—how do those conversations go?

Thanks everyone, and if commenting do link to the things you’re referencing, even if it’s your own writing. Posting this other places as well, so sorry if you see it a few times. I know there are so many discussion on Briarpress, but sometimes it’s hard to find the good ones, and they are nested into other topics that aren’t so obvious.

Gerald F. Schulze

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Here are a few examples posted in the past. It’s really hard to search for “Letterpress” on Briarpress, since almost everything has that term in it.

http://www.briarpress.org/55481

http://www.briarpress.org/40138

Most European countries use the term Tipografie or some variant of that spelling in different languages - in Portugal it is Tipografia. The shops that still print that way are rare but they still use that term on their signage and references.

Bob

In the printing industry, as a printing instructor, conventional (analog) printing processes are characterized by the type of plate they use (i.e. how the image area is separated from the non-image area). Relief processes use plates where the image area is raised above the non-image area, and only the raised portion is inked. The two major relief processes are letterpress, which uses rigid plates and paste inks, and flexography, which uses flexible plates and fluid inks. Planographic processes have the image area and non-image area in the same plane on the plate, and the image and non-image areas are separated by chemical means (oil and water don’t mix). The major planographic process is lithography (often called offset). Lithography uses paste inks. Intaglio processes have the image area beneath the surface of the plate (cut or etched into the plate). The main intaglio processes are gravure and steelplate (or copperplate) engraving. Gravure uses fluid inks and engraving uses more of a paste type ink.

In the Dutch language we speak of ‘boekdruk’, the person who prints is a ‘drukker’, the place where he prints is called a ‘drukkerij’. The English term ‘letterpress’ has been adopted but nearly always indicates that the work that comes off the presses is ‘deep letterpress’. It has become a fashionable thing to hit the thick, soft paper hard.
In German it’s ‘Buchdruck’ and in Danish ‘Bogtryck’ and a ‘bogtrycker’ is the printer.

The Danish term for letterpress is ‘bogtryk’ - translated to English: book printing. The ‘bogtrykker’ is the person who owns the printshop - the ‘Bogtrykkeri’, and the ‘trykker’ - the printer - is the person who actually prints. The compositor is called the ‘sætter’.

In the days when there was only relief printing, the term ‘letterpress’ was seldom used as there were no other printing processes and no distinction was needed. However, the advent of other printing processes such as lithography and gravure meant that the term ‘letterpress’ became more widely used so as to distinguish relief printing from other processes.

I do apologise Jens, for spelling ‘bogtryk’ with a ‘c’ in it… It’s interesting to see that the Danish words are so similar to the Dutch, ‘boekdruk’, ‘boekdrukker’, ‘boekdrukkerij’, ‘drukker’ and ‘zetter’.
GgdK

In the US, it was once common to see printing businesses that did “Printing & Lithography” where “printing” was understood as specifically the letterpress process.
On the other hand, I have British Pitman manuals (late ’40s) that differentiate between “Letterpress Bookbinding” and “Stationery Binding” where “letterpress” just refers to a book with a text for reading whether LP or OS (as opposed to stationer’s books such as ledgers).

One of the hard things to explain (at least for me, in the states) is terminology around the equipment, the product, and the process. In any given week, I will hear:

“What kind of letterpress is that” (referring to the press)

“Is that letterpress” (referring to the print)

“How do I learn to do letterpress?”

None of this sounds good to me—and it’s also really difficult to talk about the practice when, as you are experiencing Thomas, most people associate the word “letterpress” with this specific stamped wedding invitation that’s been around the last few decades. So I’d like to eventually abandon the term all together in my shop for something else, because we don’t do that kind of work and aren’t interested in it.

I have a peer that often calls the process typographic printing, which I think makes sense, but it still doesn’t make a good way to talk about plates and wood engravings. I suppose I am trying to form something that makes sense as a conversation, especially when talking to students.

One of the hard things to explain (at least for me, in the states) is terminology around the equipment, the product, and the process. In any given week, I will hear:

“What kind of letterpress is that” (referring to the press)

“Is that letterpress” (referring to the print)

“How do I learn to do letterpress?”

None of this sounds good to me—and it’s also really difficult to talk about the practice when, as you are experiencing Thomas, most people associate the word “letterpress” with this specific stamped wedding invitation that’s been around the last few decades. So I’d like to eventually abandon the term all together in my shop for something else, because we don’t do that kind of work and aren’t interested in it.

I have a peer that often calls the process typographic printing, which I think makes sense, but it still doesn’t make a good way to talk about plates and wood engravings. I suppose I am trying to form something that makes sense as a conversation, especially when talking to students.