![]() ![]() Photopolymer plates are much thinner than this and must be adhered to a specially made aluminum base that raises the plate to the exact height (called “type high”). Whether printing on a small hand fed tabletop press or a huge fully automated press. In the world of letterpress, anything that needs to be printed, needs to be inked. After a final baking period to fully harden the plate material, it is ready to withstand the intense pressure of a letterpress! The brush rubs away the soft unexposed material leaving behind only the areas that were exposed. Then the plate is washed in water and rubbed with a soft brush (this is usually done in a dedicated washout unit, but can be done by hand too). The exposed areas harden and the rest stays soft and pliable. It is then exposed to light in a controlled exposing unit. The digitally created design is transferred to a photo negative that is placed on top of the sheet of polymer. Simply put, a photopolymer plate is a sheet of polymer with one side that is light sensitive. Once the details of the design are finalized, the plate is made and we enter back into the analog world of letterpress where the digitally made design is given life through ink, paper and pressure. A design is made on a computer using desktop publishing software and has all the benefits of the digital world: access to thousands of typefaces, the ability to easily add custom artwork such as logos, illustrations, or hand drawn lettering, as well as the ability to create and preview many design mockups without having to print each version. What makes printing from photopolymer so unique is that it is born digital. For the first time, printers weren't limited by the amount of type they had in their shop, they now had access to digitally based typefaces and artwork!Ī family of large wood type which were generally used for signage and advertising. This opened up letterpress printing to the digital world, allowing for much more freedom in the design process. Instead of setting a block of text letter by letter, a single plate could be made directly from a digital file, and printed from that. ![]() Enter photopolymer plates! In the 1980's printers discovered that light sensitive photopolymer could replace movable type. ![]() Handset type requires a lot of space to store the physical type, which can be expensive to acquire and difficult to replace as metal type is easily damaged and worn. Though most printers kept the tradition of handsetting their type, some wanted a more accessible way to print. Newspapers and book publishers sold off their letterpress equipment when switching to offset, and artists and craftspeople who wanted to revive the tradition of letterpress printing saved many of the old presses from destruction. Even though typesetting was much faster and easier to do than ever before, it was only a short time before letterpress was replaced by offset printing (which still reigns supreme today). By the late 1800's typesetting could be done mechanically using hot metal typesetting technologies such as Linotype or Monotype machines. Once set, the type would be transferred to a press where it would be inked and pressed into a sheet of paper to create the print. Each piece of movable type was painstakingly set by hand to create a block of text by the compositor or typesetter. For hundreds of years, all printed matter, from books to newspapers to stationery, was printed from tiny pieces of metal type (and later wood type), each with a single letter, number or punctuation mark on it. The basics of letterpress printing were largely unchanged from the 15th century until the late 19th century. With a little modification, any vintage letterpress can sport a photopolymer plate, bringing a touch of the 21st century to a Renaissance era technology. They bring versatility, convenience, and a wealth of design options to the print shop. All these things can be printed in a letterpress, so why do we choose to work exclusively with the latter? Photopolymer plates are a new school material in an old school world. Lead type, wood type, Linotype, woodblocks, copper plates, linocuts, and photopolymer plates. If you've placed an order with us, you've probably noticed us talking about making your printing plate, or that we save your plate for future discounted reorders, but have you ever been curious about what exactly a photopolymer plate is? Read a bit further to learn more about this versatile printing matrix and how it's used at Hoban Cards. Here at Hoban Cards we use photopolymer plates for all our printing. ![]()
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