Letterpress vs Private Press
活版印刷 / プライベート・プレス
Letterpress comes from Relief Printing and Private Press from Publishing and Editing. One is technique and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Letterpress
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Sets physical type, joining the repeatable order of text with the touch of impression on paper.
Private Press
A movement answering industrialized printing: type, paper, composition and binding unified under one ideal, remaking the book as a total work of art.
| Letterpress | Private Press | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 15th century– | 1891–1930s |
| Family | Relief Printing | Publishing and Editing |
| Kind | Technique | Style |
| Cues | The regularity of type / Impression into paper / Limited widths / Ink variation | House-designed type / Handmade paper, hand presses / Margins designed by the spread / Illustration united with text |
| Best used for | Tactile weight for books, cards and invitations · Making the choice and setting of type the subject itself | Limited-run poetry and commemorative books designed whole, from paper to type · Publishing where the object itself must state the maker's convictions |
| Type | One type family in limited sizes for the hierarchy | One type throughout, with the fewest possible changes of size |
| Composition | Respect physical leading and margins; restrict alignments | Work by the spread, fore-edge and foot margins beating gutter and head |
| Material | One or two colors, thick paper, a slight bite and ink variance | Letterpress impression on handmade paper, red headings printed as a second pass |
| Caution | Don't over-perform deep impression and dry ink. Let type, paper, pressure and ink set the form. | Borrowing only the decorated initials and the handmade paper leaves the text setting loose and yields an expensive antique looking pamphlet. Read it as a publishing movement about production, labor and quality. |