WHAT IS LETTERPRESS?

Letterpress has existed for a long with the first form created in China in 1041 and then again four centuries later in Europe. It’s hard to say the exact details of the invention of letterpress printing but most history books credit Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz Germany around the year 1440. His creation of an adjustable mold allowed many pieces of type to be cast at once, allowing books to be printed at a rate never seen before. Infact, letterpress printing was the prime form of printing until the 19th century. 

Since then, letterpress has come a long way evolving with the 21st century, the technique now uses polymer plates which allow for greater stamping capabilities. It has become a premium handcrafted method for leaving a tactile impression for high end stationery and printing. The custom-made plates are created from a digital PDF file of your artwork and then used to stamp onto the paper using a letterpress machine, creating a tactile debossed effect. Letterpress printing uses pantone colours only with 1 or 2 colour PMS colour options available. The chosen paper is fed through the machine one by one, the more pressure applied to the surface, the greater the debossing effect. If printing a second colour the ink is left to dry before the press is inked up again for a second round of print application.    

Letterpress options

Letterpress printing using Pantone colours with 1 or 2 colour options available, sometimes 3 PMS colours for custom jobs. Typically used on premium cotton stocks ranging from 300-700gsm, we encourage single sided print only as the impression can come through the reverse side. On jobs where double sided print is required we can letterpress two cards separately and fuse the two together, also known as duplexing. Letterpress printing can be used for stand out items like the invitation or throughout for each item of your wedding stationery which we can bundle in a package, just depending on your budget. You can opt for all letterpress or team it up with other print methods such as digital printing, hot stamp foiling, white ink print or embossing. We can also add special embellishing to your letterpress order such as die cutting and foiled edges for an extra luxe finish.

Design Options  

When choosing a design for letterpress printing there are a few factors to consider. The chosen content can be  a border, graphic or selection of generic text but not personalised names of variable data. When designing for foil it's recommended to avoid fine lines, or small fonts or graphics as they can get lost or fill in during the stamping process. A good guide for letterpress designs is using lines at least 0.5 pt in thickness and fonts no smaller than 8 pt in size. We can also only letterpress from a vectorised artwork and not photographs or images, so stick to fonts or lined graphics.  

Not sure you can provide suitable artwork for letterpress? No problems, our team at Storm Design can help setup your provided file for print or design an artwork from scratch. 

What next?

Whether you choose to letterpress one stand out item or deck out your entire stationery suite in letterpress, Sydney Wedding Printing have you covered. We can help in producing that beautiful handcrafted tactile finish your envisioned for your dream wedding stationery. 

Contact us today for a wedding consultation by filling out our online form or call 02 8203 1800.