The beauty of letterpress is that it takes you back to an era when printing was a craft that took time to create. The tactile quality of letterpress printing commands you to touch and feel the final product, which has a simple elegance and quality. Letterpress is a printing process where each letter is inked and then pressed onto paper. The end result is that you can actually feel each letter on the page.
Historically, letterpress dates back to Johannes Gutenberg’s production of bibles in the 15th century. The comeback of letterpress in the 1990s can be attributed to Martha Stewart’s letterpress wedding invitations. Today, brides and grooms extend letterpress beyond invitations to reply cards, maps, envelopes, save-the-date cards, programs, place cards… Letterpress is also popular for baby showers, holiday cards and stationary.
Businesses have begun to use letterpress to print business cards and event promotion posters, and have even had QR codes imprinted onto their advertisements that take the viewer to the company’s website. Letterpress is popular with businesses because the finished product is high quality, demands to be touched and brings a sense of class to the business that offset printing could not accomplish.
Letterpress is an art because of its classic and expensive feel and it can be appropriate for one-time events like weddings or specific promotion events as well.