"The Little Prince" exclusive letterpress editionUser's  MTÜ TYPA project in the category Print

Our goal is to publish an exclusive letterpress edition of "The Little Prince" using only historic equipment in the Estonian Print and Paper Museum. This beautiful edition will be the perfect gift to all those who value Saint-Exupéry’s timeless masterpiece, and with only 250 numbered copies, will be something truly unique.

We ask for your support to cover the costs of printing, binding, royalties for the translation and materials. All supporters, regardless of the amount will be listed in the book.
 

Binding
 

WHO ARE WE?

We are a private museum-studio for letterpress and other traditional printing techniques I the tradition of Johannes Gutenberg, the first book-printer in Europe. Our activities are unique in the whole region and we also offer a hands-on experience to our visitors. For example you can print your own postcards, notebook covers and posters and by doing this, learn about the workings of the machines.

We are proficient in printing small jobs with our visitors and also creating business cards, invitations, posters, etc as special orders. During all this time we’ve also had a dream that one day we would print and bind a whole book using only our historic equipment and traditional techniques. With a little help from you, we would love to try out our skills and machinery to make a hand-made masterpiece that would not be possible in a big printing house.

Using Exupéry's words: printing is like a rose to us. We have taken good care of that and now we would love to share it with you!
 

Marbling
 

WHAT IS LETTERPRESS?

Letterpress is a technology which was developed by Johannes Gutenberg in th 15th century. Reliefed printing blocks – metal or wooden letters – are assembled into words, lines and pages, covered in oil-based printing ink and pressed on paper. Traditional letterpress technology was used from the 15th century until the end of the 20th century and is thus one of the most important technologies for printing texts. Professional letterpress is crisp, sharp and sometimes can include a slight embossing for extra effect. 
 

Letterpress
 

HOW THE BOOK IS MADE?

We create lines of letters from molten metal on a special line casting machine – the Linotype. Assembling the lines into pages, we print it on our largest press, the Victoria Polygraph 1020. Printed sheets get folded into folios by hand and will then be sewn together on a wooden rack to form the book block. Next we add tail bands, a bookmark ribbon and end pages – these will be hand marbled. Cover illustration will be printed in several colors and every color must be printed separately. 

The book will feature hard covers made from rigid binding board.

All other presents to our supporters, such as postcards and posters will also be created using traditional technologies (except for the tote bags). Even better — supporters who order the book, are invited to witness the different stages of preparing, printing and binding the book, including trying some techniques.
 

Metal letters
 

  • 263 backers
  • 17428€raised of 6000€ goal

Successful project

This project was funded on 05.Dec.2017