You can choose from 42 in-house colours - all of them the same price. Sage Green, Tahiti Blue or Squid Black won't cost you any more. These colours are hand mixed and have been chosen from print clients' most popular choices over the years.

An Artisan Press specialty is custom colours. Hand mixed to match fabrics, flowers, photos and Pantone colours. For colour reference the industry colour guide, the Pantone Matching System (PMS) is used for consistent and accurate colour. Due to the time involved in hand mixing these on demand custom colours incur an additional fee.

Printing "without ink"

Letterpress uses pressure, so it offers some unique options when it comes to making marks on paper. These include blind stamping, embossing and die-cutting.

Put simply, blind stamping is a pass of the sheet through the press with no ink. The plate is simply pressed into the paper fibres creating an "image valley". The image is pressed into the paper.

The best results for detailed images that you wish to appear "blind stamped" is to use a transparent white or opaque white ink. This adds just enough subtle contrast between image and paper to give a crisp and sharp result. Combined with a nice soft paper and a delicate fingered pressman, the result is understated and elegant.

Either with or without ink blind stamping requires a plate and time to prepare the press and is considered a colour for the purposes of quoting/costing.

Embossing is where the image is pressed from behind to raise the image up from the paper surface creating an "image mountain". This process requires a male and female die to be created and can only best used on lighter weight stocks of 250gsm and under.

Another unique feature of letterpress is its ability to do die-cutting. After printing they are put back through the press with the inking rollers removed. In one pass a plain sheet can be cut to shape, have the corners rounded, creased in several places for folding, have slots cut in it, a window cut out of it, a tear-off section perforated, and holes punched. This processes requires the use of a special die made up of steel rules. The Artisan Press can order this for you if required.

Can you print on both sides?

Modern letterpress printing requires the impression to be quite deep. People like the process to be visible. If the paper stock is not thick enough – printing on two sides is not an option. For this reason printing on both sides is not advised for any paper stocks under 400gsm.

If you've got any questions about any of these processes please feel free to contact The Artisan Press.