Letterpress Printing

Letterpress printing is the oldest form of printing. Invented by the ancient Chinese and made practical by Johann Gutenberg in the year 1450 through his invention of moveable type, letterpress has been around a long time!

While I do offer the option of hand set lead type, it is rather limiting from the design perspective. Images are now engraved from digital files onto magnesium or copper dies and these dies are used to print graphics and text.

This is what we’re all about. Letterpress is our craft and our art. We strive to produce things of beauty that have the look and feel of fine craftsmanship. Other letterpress printers have said you can’t match PMS colors with letterpress. We say no problem! We know that matching the correct color is of paramount importance to enable the design to work effectively. We can make it happen.

Fireside currently is operating two Brandtjen & Kluge presses that are each suited to different tasks. Both use 10" x 15" chase sizes. One is a hand fed press suited to short runs and printing of products that would confound the automatic feeder of the other press. Wooden cards and odd shapes can all be printed or imprinted on this press.

A Brandtjen & Kluge Automatic press is the mainstay of our letterpress operation. The Kluge Automatic is vintage 1949. It is capable of feeding of a variety of stocks at speeds up to 2500 per hour. This press has a six roll inking system with anti-ghosting rollers that enables ink coverage unsurpassed by other platen presses. This press is able to print even the most demanding of designs including hairline registration.

In addition to letterpress printing, we can perforate, sequential number and die cut to your specifications. Letterpress is versatile.