Pressroom & Machinery
Albion and the Press Lever
The Albion press is easiest to understand when it is treated as a working arrangement rather than as a sculptural object. A frame holds a bed and a platen in…
5 min readThe Print Field / Issue 01
Fifty ways to look
at a printed mark.
Long-form essays grounded in collection records, institutional references, and careful close looking.
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50 essays
Pressroom & Machinery
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…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
Babcock’s 1857 Jobbing Press
The file record for this cover identifies a Babcock jobbing press dated 1857. Its subject is a useful doorway into a part of printing that can disappear from…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
The Heidelberg Platen Press
The Heidelberg press pictured here belongs to the platen family, a group in which a flat printing surface and a flat bed meet to make an impression. RIT’s Cary…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
The Columbian Press and Leverage
The Columbian press belongs to the history of iron handpresses, where changing the way force was applied allowed printers to make larger impressions than the older…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
Marinoni’s Rotary Letterpress
The Marinoni press in this cover is described in its Commons record as a rotary letterpress dating to about 1883. The National Museum of American History’s history…
4 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
A Jobbing Press in Colombo
The cover record identifies this jobbing press as a machine made by Harrild & Sons in London and found at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka. That caption…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
Letterpress as a Teaching Practice
The cover image documents a letterpress printing session at Washington University in St. Louis during the 2011 Southern Graphics Council International conference.…
4 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
Samaja Press and Odia Printing
The image record describes the machine shown here as a 1919 letterpress at Samaja Press in Cuttack, Odisha, and identifies it as one of the early machines used for…
5 min read
Pressroom & Machinery
A Pressman at the Cocce Press
The Library of Congress record for this Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information photograph identifies a New York pressman at the Cocce press on…
5 min read
Type & Composition
The Composing Stick, Line by Line
The composing stick is a small tool with an outsized role: it holds one line of type while a compositor assembles words from individual sorts. The Library of…
5 min read
Type & Composition
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…
4 min read
Type & Composition
Inking with a Hand Roller
The cover reproduces an illustration of a composition hand roller from an American Type Founders catalogue dated 1906, as identified in the source file. The file…
5 min read
Type & Composition
Large Wood Type Beyond Metal
The wooden “Bodoni” type in this cover is identified in its Commons file record as a 120-point wood typeface. Rochester Institute of Technology’s Cary Graphic Arts…
4 min read
Type & Composition
Wood-Type Specimens as Records
The wood type specimen in this cover is identified by its Commons record as an American Wood Type Company advertisement for ornaments, held in the Houghton…
5 min read
Type & Composition
The Linotype Matrix as a Mold
A Linotype matrix looks modest when it is separated from its machine: a small brass piece carrying a character and the channels that guide it. In use, however, it…
5 min read
Type & Composition
Why a Linotype Line Is a Slug
The word “slug” sounds informal beside the machinery that produces one. In a line-casting machine, however, it names a very specific object: a single cast piece…
5 min read
Type & Composition
The Linotype Keyboard’s Frequency Map
A Linotype keyboard asks its operator for a letter, but it does not organize its keys like the familiar office keyboard. Its arrangement reflects the work of…
5 min read
Type & Composition
Chinese Type Casts in Hong Kong
The photographed display of traditional Chinese character casts at Hong Kong Open Printshop raises a question that a single tray cannot settle: how does movable…
5 min read
Type & Composition
Woodblock Tools and the Printed Book
A photograph labeled as traditional Chinese printing tools at the China Printing Museum shows objects gathered for display: pearwood plates, brushes, and other…
4 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Flatbed Letterpress Anatomy
A flatbed letterpress diagram turns an industrial machine into a set of relationships. The bed holds the locked type or relief forme. The ink system prepares the…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
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…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Fons Heijnsbroek’s Linocut Still Life
The Commons record describes this 1988 linocut as an untitled abstract still life by Dutch artist Fons Heijnsbroek. Those details are enough to guide a first…
4 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Ethel Spowers’s Swings
Ethel Spowers's *Swings* makes motion the subject of a still image. The work is dated 1932 and identified as a linocut in Te Papa's collection record. The National…
4 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Ethel Spowers’s Merchants, Port Said
Ethel Spowers's *Merchants, Port Said* is a linocut dated 1932. The National Gallery of Australia records that its colour impression was printed from six blocks,…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Ethel Spowers’s The Lonely Farm
Ethel Spowers's *The Lonely Farm* is a colour linocut dated 1933. The Australian Prints + Printmaking database records it as printed from five blocks in grey, blue,…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Ethel Spowers’s The Plough
Ethel Spowers's *The Plough* is catalogued as a colour linocut dated 1928. Te Papa's record for the closely related image *Birds following a plough* identifies the…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Maud Hunt Squire’s Clam Diggers
The cover file identifies Maud Hunt Squire's *Clam Diggers* as a colour woodcut dated 1917, with Mary Ryan Gallery named as the reproduction's source. Those are the…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
John Drew in Linocut
Alfred J. Frueh's *John Drew* is a color linocut dated 1915. The Library of Congress catalog describes it as a monolithic bust portrait caricature of the…
5 min read
Ink, Paper & Registration
Inking Up a Chandler & Price Press
The cover photograph records a Chandler & Price 10-by-15 press being inked up for a job. That caption captures a moment before printing: rollers and type are being…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Rocks in Bretagne
The Commons object description identifies Ingeborg Bernhard's linocut as *Rocks in the Bretagne, France*, dated 1977, with dimensions of 21 by 30 centimetres. The…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Carving a Chandigarh Stamp in Linoleum
The photograph shows a sheet of linoleum being carved for a stamp. Its caption identifies the design as a stamp featuring Chandigarh's Open Hand Monument, the Rock…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Yvonne Drewry’s Convolvulus Linocut
The Commons file record identifies this image as a linocut of convolvulus flowers by Yvonne Drewry, dated 1975. The photographed impression is the starting…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Maggie Laubser’s Swan and Arum Lilies
The work titled *Swan and Arum Lilies* is attributed to Maggie Laubser and described in its Commons record as a linocut measuring 25.5 by 30 centimetres. The file…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Sargis Hovhannisyan’s Antireligious Poster
The Commons record identifies this work as an antireligious poster by Sargis Hovhannisyan, made in linocut on paper, with a listed size of about 21.8 by 17.5…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Gwen Frostic’s Cards and the Heidelberg
The cover photograph shows greeting cards associated with Gwen Frostic and identifies a Heidelberg press in the printing process. The Henry Ford's collection holds…
5 min read
Relief Studio
An Amsterdam Riverside Linocut
The Commons file describes a linocut of riverside buildings in Amsterdam and credits Subhashish Panigrahi. Its permission text explicitly says that the linocut or…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Maternity, 1971
The Commons file for this tall linocut carries a Russian description: “Материнство, 60х30см., линогравюра.1971 год.” Translated, it identifies the subject as…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Alan Kitching’s Braque
The square image is a letterpress typographic artwork by Alan Kitching, titled in the file description with a line about silence and Braque. Kitching's own shop…
5 min read
Relief Studio
Allan Jordan’s Small Woodcut
The cover image shows a one-colour woodcut by Allan Jordan, described as self-titled and measuring 5.2 by 6.8 centimetres. Its Commons record dates it to the 1930s…
5 min read
Print History
Robert Bryden’s Carlyle Woodcut
The file record identifies this image as Robert Bryden's woodcut of Thomas Carlyle, made for *Some Woodcuts of Men of Letters of the Nineteenth Century*. The file…
5 min read
Print History
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…
5 min read
Print History
Monardes’s Armadillo Woodcut
The Commons record identifies this image as a woodcut illustration of an armadillo from Nicolás Monardes's 1574 *Historia medicinal*. The illustration belongs to a…
5 min read
Print History
Tobacco on a 1574 Title Page
The 1574 woodcut of a tobacco plant appears on a title page in Nicolás Monardes's *Historia medicinal*. The file record identifies it as a plant illustration and…
5 min read
Print History
Monardes’s Sassafras Woodcut
The woodcut of a sassafras tree is identified in its Commons record as an illustration from Nicolás Monardes's 1574 *Historia medicinal*. The same book appears in…
5 min read
Print History
Hokusai’s Hawk and Cherry Blossoms
The cover image is catalogued as a woodcut diptych by Katsushika Hokusai, dated 1833–1834 and made in Japan. Its description places a hawk on an ornamental perch…
5 min read
Print History
The Title Vignette of Beauties of Glasgow
The title-page woodcut comes from an 1802 edition of *Beauties of Glasgow*. The National Library of Scotland's digitized copy identifies the book and preserves the…
5 min read![The Lenox Gutenberg Bible. The Gutenberg Bible [Bible, Latin Vulgate. Ca. 1455]. Biblia Latina. [Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, ca. 1455]. Rare Books Division. From the Lenox Library…](/assets/images/cover-48.webp)
Print History
The Lenox Gutenberg Bible
The photograph shows the Lenox copy of the Gutenberg Bible at the New York Public Library. The NYPL identifies it as a Latin Bible printed in Mainz around 1455 and…
5 min read
Print History
An Illustration of Printing in La Colombe du Massis
The cover image is described as an illustration of book printing from an 1856 issue of *La Colombe du Massis*. The Pan-Armenian Digital Library catalogs the…
5 min read
Print History
Pope’s Day in Boston, 1769
The cover file is catalogued as a woodcut broadside of “Pope's Day” in Boston, dated 1769. That caption identifies a subject and year but does not name the printer,…
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