Welcome to Littoral Press
Lisa Rappoport works under the imprint Littoral Press in Richmond, California. Books, broadsides, wedding invitations, business cards, and much more are printed the original way: by hand; one page and one ink color at a time; most often utilizing metal type. It’s also possible to print with photopolymer plates generated from digital files, combining the best of both worlds. Welcome to the website.
The process of letterpress printing remains essentially unchanged since Johannes Gutenberg “invented” movable metal type circa 1445 (baked clay type had been used in Korea centuries before, and in China even earlier). A cast iron press holds individual lead or wood letters in place, within a frame called a chase; the type is inked by hand or by the action of the press; the inked type is then pressed into a sheet of paper. You can often feel the three-dimensional impression, which is also visible as a kind of halo surrounding each letter. The amount of impression is a matter of personal taste, and is also governed by the kind of paper used and the nature of the type. (Elderly or rare type is especially jeopardized by a hard hit; photopolymer plates are not bothered.)
My 10”x15” Chandler & Price platen press is hand-fed: that is, I place each page to be printed onto the tympan, remove it once it’s printed, place the next, and so on. I usually operate the press using the foot treadle, but for very long print runs I use the motor. The press is over 100 years old.
Results of the 16th annual Broadside Contest, judged by Jack Crimmins, are posted at New(s) & Noteworthy.
Printed Matter
Browse our selection of Books and Book Objects, Broadsides, Recent Cards & Ephemera, or subscribe to the Littoral Press Subscription Series.
