Letterpress printing — the process of transferring ink from a raised surface directly onto paper under pressure — was the dominant means of producing printed text and images in Canada from the colonial period through to the mid-20th century. Its displacement by offset lithography and later digital printing reduced it from a commercial necessity to a specialized craft. That transition, which accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s, paradoxically preserved the technique: equipment that had lost commercial value became accessible to small studios, artists, and printers who could not have afforded it when it was the industry standard.

Today, letterpress printing occupies a well-defined position in Canada's craft and fine arts communities. It is used for edition printing, artist books, fine stationery, and as a component of bookmaking alongside traditional binding. This overview traces the history of letterpress in Canada and describes the technical landscape of contemporary practice.

Early letterpress in Canada: colonial presses and newspaper production

The first printing press in what is now Canada was established in Halifax in 1751 by Bartholomew Green Jr., who had trained in Boston. The press printed the Halifax Gazette beginning in 1752 — the first newspaper published in Canada. The equipment used was a wooden common press, essentially unchanged in design from Gutenberg's 15th-century press: a flat platen driven by a screw mechanism, with type hand-set in a composing stick from a case of individual lead characters.

Quebec City acquired a press in 1764, operated by William Brown and Thomas Gilmore, who had imported a hand press and type from Philadelphia. The Quebec Gazette / La Gazette de Québec — Canada's second newspaper — began publication that year in both English and French, a bilingual arrangement that reflected the colony's complex political reality following the Seven Years' War.

By the time of Confederation in 1867, virtually every town of any size across the new Dominion had at least one letterpress printing operation, typically a newspaper combined with a job printing shop that produced handbills, legal documents, business cards, and ephemera. The technology in use varied widely: wooden hand presses in smaller communities, iron hand presses (the Albion and Washington designs were the most common in Canada) in established towns, and cylinder presses driven by steam in the larger cities.

The Linotype era and industrial letterpress

The Linotype machine, patented in 1884 and widely adopted in Canadian newspaper printing from the 1890s onward, transformed the economics of letterpress production. Rather than hand-setting individual type characters, a Linotype operator typed on a keyboard that directed a casting machine to produce single "slugs" — complete lines of type cast in lead alloy. A skilled Linotype operator could set five to seven lines of type per minute, compared to roughly one line per minute for hand composition.

By 1900, most Canadian daily newspapers had transitioned to Linotype composition. The Linotype also made possible the rapid expansion of Canada's regional newspaper industry in the early 20th century — the technology was well-matched to the economics of papers serving small to mid-size communities that needed to turn around several pages of set type each day with a small staff.

Canadian printing trade journals of the period — particularly the Canadian Printer and Publisher, which documented the industry from 1892 through the 20th century — recorded the adoption of new press technologies, the training standards of the era, and the labour relations in an industry organized through the International Typographical Union, which was active in Canadian cities from the 1850s onward.

The shift away from letterpress: offset and the decades of closure

Offset lithography, which transfers ink from a plate to a rubber blanket before applying it to paper, entered commercial use in the early 20th century but displaced letterpress primarily in the 1960s through 1980s. Offset offered several practical advantages: the process produced sharper halftone images than letterpress, the plates were lighter and easier to handle than type forms, and phototypesetting (which produced camera-ready film for offset platemaking) eliminated the entire typesetting and type storage infrastructure that letterpress required.

Canadian commercial print shops converted to offset in large numbers through the 1970s. Those that had relied on Linotype machines, type cases, and cylinder presses faced significant disposal challenges: the equipment was heavy, the lead type had scrap value but limited resale value, and the presses themselves required specialized knowledge to operate. Much equipment was scrapped. Some, particularly the larger presses, was purchased by surviving trade binderies or archived by institutions.

A portion of the type and press inventory was acquired by arts organizations, university print shops, and individual craftspeople — a transfer of equipment that laid the groundwork for contemporary letterpress practice in Canada. The Alcuin Society, founded in Vancouver in 1965 and devoted to book arts in Canada, was one of the organizations that helped document and connect type collections during this period.

Contemporary letterpress in Canada

Current letterpress practice in Canada divides broadly into two technical approaches:

Traditional hand-set type and Vandercook presses

Studios working with metal or wood type set type by hand in composing sticks, arrange it in a chase (a metal frame that locks the type form), and print on Vandercook proof presses — heavy cylinder presses originally designed for proofing type forms before production printing but now valued as precision studio presses. Vandercook presses in the SP-15, No. 4, and Universal I models are the most commonly used in Canadian hand-press studios.

Wood type — large display typefaces cut from end-grain hardwood — has survived in Canadian studios in greater quantity than metal text type, in part because its size made it harder to scrap and its visual distinctiveness made it attractive to studios working on large-format printed ephemera. Collections of wood type can be found in studios in Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto, and are occasionally documented by CBBAG and Alcuin Society publications.

Photopolymer plate printing

Photopolymer plates — flexible polymer plates exposed to UV light through a film negative and washed to reveal a relief image — allow letterpress printing from digitally designed artwork. The plate is mounted on a base block and used like type on a Vandercook or platen press. This technology has substantially expanded what letterpress can produce, allowing studios to print from custom typefaces, fine-line illustrations, and complex designs without hand-compositing type.

The shift to photopolymer has drawn a large number of new practitioners to letterpress who have graphic design backgrounds rather than traditional print trade training. This has changed the aesthetic range of Canadian letterpress output: alongside the classic typefaces associated with traditional letterpress, current work includes hand-drawn typography, botanical illustration, and graphic design sensibilities more characteristic of offset and screen printing.

Presses in active use: technical notes

The presses most commonly encountered in Canadian letterpress studios:

  • Vandercook cylinder presses: The standard studio press for hand printing. The paper is held on a cylinder that rolls across the inked form. Impression depth and ink coverage are precisely adjustable. Vandercook presses require experienced mechanical maintenance; several Canadian studios have trained operators who do their own press work, and a small community of Vandercook mechanics operates across North America.
  • Chandler & Price platen presses: Clamshell-action platen presses, originally produced in Cleveland but widely used in Canadian commercial shops. These presses are faster than Vandercooks for short runs and were the standard small-shop job press through the mid-20th century. Operating one safely requires specific training — the clamshell action can cause serious injury to the hand if the operator's timing is wrong.
  • Kelsey and Victor tabletop presses: Small amateur presses that were sold for home use from the late 19th through mid-20th centuries. Widely available, inexpensive, and suitable for lightweight printing work, but not capable of printing full pages at the impression depth associated with fine letterpress work.

Paper selection for letterpress

Letterpress printing places specific demands on paper that offset and digital printing do not. The pressure required to produce a visible impression compresses the paper fibres at the point of contact, which is desirable on soft, "squishy" papers (sometimes called antique-laid or dampened rag papers) but can crack or damage hard-surfaced coated stocks. Papers selected for letterpress in Canadian studios typically have:

  • High cotton fibre content (25–100%), which provides softness and prevents cracking under impression pressure
  • Relatively soft surface finish — no clay coating or glazing
  • Sufficient weight (typically 110–300 gsm for greeting cards and stationery work; lighter for book printing)

Papers from Crane, Lettra (Crane's letterpress-specific line), Rives BFK, and French Paper Company are among the most commonly referenced in Canadian letterpress studio notes. All are imported; there is currently no Canadian-manufactured paper specifically marketed for letterpress printing, though several Canadian heritage paper mills have produced suitable uncoated sheets.

Dampening paper before printing — moistening the sheets to soften the fibre and increase impression depth and clarity — was standard in hand-press printing through the 19th century and is occasionally still practised by Canadian fine press printers working on editions where tactile impression depth is a primary consideration. Dampened printing requires careful control of moisture content and paper tension, and is not commonly used in contemporary studio letterpress work.

Letterpress and bookbinding in Canadian practice

Letterpress has a long association with fine bookbinding in Canada: text printed by letterpress on high-quality paper, then hand-bound, represents the standard of fine press book production. The overlap between the letterpress and bookbinding communities is significant — many Canadian practitioners work in both disciplines, and organizations like CBBAG serve members across both.

Canadian fine press printing has a distinct history that includes the Morriss House Press in Toronto, the Alcuin Press in Vancouver, and a number of smaller studio presses that produced limited-edition books in the mid-to-late 20th century. The Alcuin Society's Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada have, since 1981, recognized outstanding letterpress-printed titles alongside broader book design categories.