The Print FieldLetterpress · Relief · Print culture

Independent field journal · 50 essays

Made by hand.
Read in layers.

A closer look at letterpress, relief printmaking, working tools, and the printed objects that carry their histories.

See how a print is made
Albion and the Press Lever. Albion press manufactured by Harrild & Sons Limited, London. Press found at (outside) Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka.From the journalAlbion and the Press Lever

Where pressure meets material, decisions become visible. We follow those decisions across pressrooms, type cases, relief blocks, collections, and the printed page.

A relief print, in three moves

From a carved block
to an impression.

Relief printing makes the surface do the explaining: the raised image receives ink, then transfers to paper.

Based on the V&A guide to print and the National Gallery of Art’s printmaking basics.

  1. 01

    Cut the blank areas

    Remove the areas that should stay white, leaving the image raised on the block.

  2. 02

    Ink the raised surface

    Roll a controlled layer of ink across the parts that will make the impression.

  3. 03

    Transfer to paper

    Bring paper into contact with the inked block by hand or with a press.

At the workbench

Three words for reading a print.

A small vocabulary for the surfaces and tools in the archive.

Block
The carved surface that carries a raised image in relief printing.
V&A
Brayer
A roller used to apply ink to a linoleum block.
National Gallery of Art
Impression
One transfer of an inked design from its printing surface to paper.
V&A

A map of the field

Five paths into the archive

Start with a process.
Follow it to the page.

01Pressroom & MachineryMachines, shop practice, and the people who bring a press into use.02Type & CompositionThe tools, materials, and decisions behind setting a printable line.03Ink, Paper & RegistrationClose readings of impressions, alignment, pressure, and surface.04Relief StudioLinocut and woodcut works read through the visible decisions of the block.05Print HistoryPrinted objects considered alongside the records that preserve their context.

Selected from the journal

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More from the field

Four more ways in.

Open the journal
Pressroom & Machinery 5 min read

Kelmscott and the Goudy Albion

The press shown here is identified in its Commons file record as the Kelmscott–Goudy press at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection. RIT’s collection record gives the…

Type & Composition 4 min read

The Type Case as a Shop Index

A printer’s case is not a decorative box of letters. It is a working storage system that determines how a compositor reaches the type needed for a line. The cover’s…

Ink, Paper & Registration 5 min read

Registration in a Two-Colour Linocut

A two-colour linocut is not simply a black-and-white print with a second ink added at the end. Each color depends on a carved surface, an inking decision, and a…

Print History 5 min read

Popular Irish Stories: A Glasgow Chapbook

*Popular Irish Stories* appeared in Glasgow in 1850 as number 23 in a “New and Improved Series.” The National Library of Ireland catalogue describes it as a 24-page…

A working archive

The print is only
the visible part.

Machines, materials, skill, place, and time leave traces together. Each essay follows the evidence that survives—and marks where the record becomes quiet.

Browse all 50 essays