I was so fascinated today to learn about the wonderful world of letterpress machinery. I definitely gained a new respect for the craft. I never realized how much work actually went in to getting letters on a page. Microsoft Word makes it look so easy. For example, I took so many things in Microsoft Word for granted like the Font (or typeface), font size, line spacing, words per line, etc. Many of the features that I use every day in Microsoft Word actually came from letterpress. Even though it is so easy to change any of the above-mentioned features in Microsoft Word, it is actually a very physical and arduous process to change it on a letterpress. I could not believe how long it must have taken to press actual novels, especially lengthy novels.

 

It seems that, just like illustration, letterpress is also an art. Getting inked letters onto a page was a very subjective task. You can arrange the letters pretty much however you want on the page. You can mess with the spacing of the lines, the offset of the characters on the page, the margin width, and so on. Even though we can quickly do this with Microsoft Word, it seems you become much more in tune with the tools you are using when you must physically add line spacing yourself. It is the difference between drawing with a pencil and paper and drawing on a digital pad that transcribes onto a computer. Either way, you are drawing, but pencil and paper attaches the illustrator to the work.