End of May

(Mostly) set up in the chase

It's been a busy week at the press. Invitations for a dinner celebrating the 1812 bicentennial in Sackets Harbor and new address postcards. The invitations had seven press runs, the postcards two. Oh! And those digitally designed cards are done now too!

Type

We're currently working on a digital project here at BCP, and that doesn't make for very photogenic images, so here are some to show type from start to finish!

bars of type metal (pre-melt)

The very abbreviated version:
There are a variety of machines that can melt down the metal and make it into type, but the one that we've seen and used is called a Monotype Super-Caster. This uses a matrix to make individual pieces of type. These individual pieces are then sorted into a California Job Case, from which the printer sets type. Then the type is locked up in a chase, and we print!

I didn't have a picture of metal type locked up,
but this wood type gives you the general idea.