I’ve collected together some general links and resources for letterpress printers.
General Resources
These are wide-ranging sources of information on the web. Firstly, the Alembic Press publishes Letterpress Alive a well-crafted page of information to help new printers, dedicated to the UK printer.
There are a number of web-based starting points with a US or world-wide focus. David Rose’s Introduction to Letterpress Printing is very comprehensive. Briar Press is a great work, and includes classified ads, a directory and (crucially) an online museum of presses.
Letterpress nuts of all types—commercial, hobby, fine press and lapsed printers—all hang out on the LETPRESS list. This is an email-based list and can lead to high volumes of mail. The archives are worth a search.
Books
Brand-new guide books on letterpress are hard to come by. One exception is General Printing by Cleeton, Pitkin and Cornwell which was re-published by the Liber Apertus press.
Lavishly illustrated and charting the rise, decline and revival in letterpress is Letterpress: The Allure of the Handmade.
The seminal work on letterpress printing as a hobby is John Ryder’s Printing for pleasure, which is still available second-hand.