We love when the people we get to work with come to our shop for a visit! Annie came all the way from Monterrey, Mexico to tour the Boxcar Press studio, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to show her around the shop (and the city of Syracuse) a few weeks back.
Annie works with us for photopolymer plates, and we’re amazed by the printing she’s been doing lately. Click here to visit Filomena Press on Facebook to check out some of Annie’s work!
(looking for our favorite letterpress cards for valentine’s day? Check that out here!)
Need holiday gift ideas for the letterpress fanatic in your life? We’ve put together a list of our favorite gifts for this holiday season—we found some amazing letterpress pieces online, along with some great books and handy supplies that any printer would love to receive.
1. Boxcar Press apron: A heavy duty printing apron with deep roomy pockets, made right here in Syracuse, New York. $16
2. 9SpotMonk letterpress placemats: 10 by 15 inch placemats, letterpress printed on 100% Recycled Kraft Paper, and packaged in a sealed, clear cello bag with 3 non-toxic crayons. $14 for a set of 24.
3. Studio on Fire calendar: Positive Apocalypse Edition. $30
4. Gutenberg Printing Press: A miniature Gutenberg Printing Press. $37.39
5. Wood type: The bold Preissig design is offered as a woodtype font – prices range from $22 – $470.25
6. Johann Gutenberg and the Amazing Printing Press: This book focuses on Johann Gutenberg as an innovator who developed a way of casting metal type, a linseed-based ink, and a press to allow the transfer of inked letters to paper. Great for ages 5 & up. $16
7. Pantone iPhone case: Available in 9 colors. $36
8. Rubber based ink: Rubber-based inks are our ink of choice for general letterpress printing. Choose from a variety of colors (prices vary). Oil-based inks, acrylic inks, metallic inks and other supplies also available. $31.20
9. Glow in the dark posters: Goodmorning, goodnight glow in the dark prints by Dolce Press. $45
10. Vandercook Press book: A new, essential Vandercook reference book by Paul Moxon based on his “Vandercook Maintenance” workshop with notes on significant models and competing presses. $55
11. The Cloudy Collection: Monster Parade:A four-color, 8″x10″ letterpress print created exclusively for the Cloudy Collection. The print comes in a custom folder that features metallic silver printing on black paper. $75
12. Boxcar Press t-shirts: Choose from the Vandercook Universal III; the Chandler & Price Craftsman 12 x 18; the Heidelberg Platen 13 x 18; and the baby Sigwalt 5 x 8. Made in the USA! View them all here. $16
13. Letterpress Woodland Creature clocks: This bird clock was letterpress printed by the Sesame Letterpress Shop. $30
14. LetterMPress App: Experience the craft of letterpress on your iPad or Mac. $9.99
15. Roller setting gauge: This handy tool will help you accurately measure the height of your rollers so your press can produce the crispest printing. $22
16. Mark Twain’s Book of Animals: Twenty-five impressions of each of the thirty-one prints Barry Moser designed, drew, and engraved for Mark Twain’s Book of Animals have been printed on an archival sheet from the Zerkall Paper Mill in Hurtgenwald-Zerkall, Germany. $3,500
17. Letterpress holiday coasters: Printed by Paisley Tree Press. $10 for a set of 8
18. The History of Printmaking: A highly interactive tour of the history of printmaking covers Sumerian cuneiform, the innovations of typographer Frederic Goudy, the works of Rembrandt and Henri de Toulouse-Latrec, and comic books. $13.77
19. Dead Feminists Broadside: On a Mission: A 10×18 broadside, printed by hand on an antique Vandercook Universal One press. Each piece is printed on archival, 100% rag (cotton) paper, and individually signed and numbered by both artists. $35
20. Gutenberg Printing Press pencil sharpener: A detailed, cast metal miniature model of the Gutenberg Printing Press, complete with moving parts, is also a pencil sharpener! $6.95
21. Letter from Santa: We love great type and letterpress, but man, seeing real live amazing gorgeous calligraphy gives us the chills. This is a hand-calligraphed, personalized letter from Santa (if Santa was a really talented calligrapher) $15
22. Hamilton Wood Type: A History in Headlines: A 65 page book outlining the history of the Hamilton Wood Type Company and the importance of wood type to the growth of printing world-wide. $20
To guarantee a happy, press-ready Boxcar plate, follow our Top 10 checklist before finalizing and clicking UPLOAD to your job ticket. These handy steps will go a long way towards a smooth, quick platemaking turnaround. If you are having files created for you – pass these on to your graphic designer so they too can follow this Boxcar Checklist.
1 ) Are the file dimensions 17″ x 22″ or smaller? Is the file size less than 26 MB? (Our maximum plate size that we can proof at this time is 17″ x 22″ – if you need larger, please call.)
2 ) If my plate type is the KF95, Jet 94FL or 94SB, are my lines 0.25 pt or thicker? Are my dots 1 to 1.25pt thick? Dots (in a dotted line or by themselves) need a greater minimum thickness so they can hold on the plate by themselves.
3 ) If my plate type is KF152, 152SB, 145HSB, or 148SHSB, are my lines 0.35 pt or thicker? Are my dots 1 to 1.25pt thick?
4 ) If I created the art in Illustrator or InDesign, is the artwork in 100% CMYK Black (as in 0% Cyan, 0% Magenta, 0% Yellow, and 100% Black)?
5 ) If I’m doing color separations, are they assigned to a spot color or a Pantone Swatch Color?
6 ) Is my text outlined into vector shapes if I’m using InDesign or Illustrator for the text? (You can convert them to shapes by selecting the text and going to Type>Create Outlines in either Illustrator or InDesign.)
7 ) Have I indicated what linescreen (LPI) I’d like in the comments section of my ticket if my image is in greyscale or halftone and I want to keep the tonal qualities of the image? (We like 100 lpi for all plate types)
8 ) Is my image converted into bitmap mode of tif if I’m using only Photoshop (and not choosing a linescreen) ?
How to easily create an image in bitmap mode of tif:
9 ) If I have added crop marks to my file, do they meet the minimum line thicknesses? Are they in registration black if I have more than one color?
10 ) We don’t need a faxed hard copy of the file, simply a PDF and the original file. Are these both uploaded? (e.g, an .EPS and PDF of the same file.)
Stay tuned for more in-depth blogging on file prep when we amaze you with “Did You Know That…”!
Turns out, the Boxcar Press staff loves food nearly as much as they love letterpress.
In 2008, we partnered with Grindstone Farm, a 240 acre organic farm located in Pulaski, NY. Boxcar Press now subsidizes the CSA Shares for all of their employees, and provides a pick up location for the community. Turns out, it was an easy way to make a positive impact for a cause we care about! According to Grindstone owner and farmer Dick de Graff, participating in a CSA is one of the best ways to support local farmers; by purchasing a “share” of the farmer’s crops at the beginning of the season, the buyer shares in the risk and reward of whatever the season brings.
Pictured here are some of the “rewards” of this year’s harvest season, which is about to come to an end.
Interested in finding a CSA in your area? Check out localharvest.com for information on CSAs, U Pick Farms, Farmers Markets, and Co-ops near you!
We want to hear from you! We love how much letterpress community members pitch in to help others. What causes does your letterpress shop support?
Want to see more photos from our trip to Grindstone Farm & our CSA pick-up location here at Boxcar Press? Click here to view our slideshow on Flickr!
We may be into letterpress printing & doing things the old-fashioned way around here, but we’re into modern technology, too — did you know we’re on Youtube?? We’re sharing some of the printing tips and techniques we’ve learned along the way. We’re always looking to share new ideas, too, so get in touch if you have some tips to share! The video below gives tips on how to use 1 plate to print multiple colors, but that’s just a sampling of what’s in store (so be sure to visit)! And don’t forget, we’re on Facebook & Twitter, too!
You may have guessed that we really love (letterpress) printing around here. We also love seeing our name in print, so we were honored when the Wall Street Journal contacted us a few months back to talk letterpress.
Felt & Wire also interviewed Harold, one of Boxcar’s owners, about the revival of letterpress — it’s pretty neat, check it out!!
We’re psyched when we see some of our customers in the news, too — in August, Norman’s Printery was featured in a really nice post on the Gutenblog. The post also links to their Flickr photostream, which is pretty incredible…take a look!
The Boxcar Institute Training Series (aka BITS) is filled with helpful tips and tricks — check out one of our latest videos for tips on how you can get the most use out of one plate.
We’re diggin’ these coasters we recently printed for the shop – check ‘em out!
We’re preparing to move our website to a new server Tuesday night. As a result, there will be some instability on boxcarpress.com on Wednesday, August 31. You may experience a lag time in requests to our website and even in our email correspondence due to DNS caching.
If you are in need of new photopolymer plates or other supplies within the next few days, we strongly recommend getting your order in by the end of the day tomorrow – Tuesday, August 30. Things ought to settle down by Thursday, September 1.
Printing customers: The server change will not affect you beyond the delays in correspondence mentioned above. We’re always available via phone.
Platemaking customers: During this time, we’ll be wiping all credit card information, so don’t be alarmed when you make a new purchase & your information is gone. The platemaking ordering process has been re-written from the bottom up, but you should not experience major changes otherwise. Let us know if you have any problems submitting orders!
Supply customers: We will not be able to process credit cards initially, but we will still take your order through our shopping cart. We will touch base offline to work out payment details. You can call us at 315.473.0930 & provide payment information over the phone.
We apologize in advance for the disruption, but rest assured that our IT team is working to make this transition as painless as possible. So don’t forget to grab a bag of popcorn and check the @letterpress on Twitter for real-time updates for the exciting transition!
