If you don’t have access to letterpress printers owned by others and don’t want to make your own letterpress printer, you can still replicate the experience if you have an iPad. LetterMpress is a $5.99 iPad app that mimics the steps you would go through to design and print your own letterpress creations.
First, you pick from 13 typefaces that really did begin life as wood type decades ago. There are also dozens of images. You then arrange and size your text and images, using virtual models of traditional tools to space it out and lock it up. When your layout is final, you choose a paper color and type, select ink colors, and crank a handle to “print”.
If that were as far as LetterMpress went, it would still be a fun toy. But you also get the end result as a high-resolution digital file that you can open in Photoshop, InDesign, and many other software programs. What you do with your creation then is up to you.
Here’s a sample print:
Click the video below to get a feel for how LetterMpress mirrors the traditional printing process:
For more videos and other information, go to the LetterMpress website. And if you’re in central Illinois, stop by Living Letter Press studio for hands-on printing classes and workshops from the minds behind LetterMpress.
This article was last modified on January 8, 2023
This article was first published on July 7, 2011
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