Introduction to Letterpress Printing

3 units

This class will serve as an introduction to printing with the Vandercook handpress. Through a series of assignments students will learn a systematic approach to planning, arranging and printing type on a page. The students will receive a basic introduction to typography, history of letterforms, and history of the book. The mechanics of relief printing with the cylinder proof press, ink composition, and resolution of the typographic image will also be explored. As an exploration of the publishing process students will produce a chapbook of a short literary work. The class will primarily focus on typographic composition, but one assignment will employ a combination of word and image.