Paper and type, compared side by side

The default letterpress card. Takes a deep impression cleanly and is acid-free, so it does not yellow.

100 per cent cotton linter. Caliper 0.36 mm. Prints well from 9 pt upward. Foils cleanly. Score before folding — it cracks above 250 gsm if you do not.

A heavy cotton board for covers and folders where the impression should be felt as much as seen.

Caliper 0.72 mm. Needs a board shear rather than a guillotine. Score every fold and dampen the score line slightly for a clean crease.

No grain direction at all, so it folds equally well any way you lay it out. Uneven thickness shows in the impression.

Abaca fibre, four deckle edges, 400 × 500 mm. Thickness varies about 12 per cent across a sheet. Print with extra packing to absorb the variation.

The workhorse card. Cheap, consistent and takes a good impression, though the edge is less crisp than cotton.

Caliper 0.32 mm. Slightly acidic so not suitable for archival work. Score above 200 gsm. Prints from 8 pt.

Heavier card for covers and boxes. Takes a very deep impression but needs a crease rather than a fold.

Caliper 0.42 mm. Check the press maximum before running. Foil stamping works well at 110–130 °C.

The best surface for foil and blind deboss, and the worst for folding. The coating cracks before the fibres do.

Caliper 0.33 mm. Foil at 100–120 °C. Score every fold or the coating cracks along the crease. Not recommended for letterpress text below 12 pt.

Proofing stock. Cheap, and it shows you the impression without spending cotton rag on a test.

Caliper 0.06 mm. Acidic and yellows within months. Never use it for anything that needs to last.

Standard text weight. Good for book blocks where the paper needs to be thin and take ink without bleeding.

Caliper 0.11 mm. Prints from 9 pt. Folds cleanly with the grain. Poor for foil — the surface is too absorbent.

A book paper with a slightly creamy tone and a neutral pH. The sensible default for a text block.

Caliper 0.125 mm. Bulk 1.25. Folds cleanly with the grain and takes a light impression well. Buffered against acid migration.

Visible laid lines running one way. The texture is the point, and it swallows fine detail.

Caliper 0.14 mm. Laid lines run parallel to the grain. Below 10 pt the lines interfere with the type. Best for display setting.

The standard cover board. Dimensionally stable, cuts square, and takes paste without warping if you paste both sides.

Density 0.72 g/cm³. Cut with a board shear. Always paste both sides of a board or the cover will cup within a day.

For books above about 250 mm tall, where 2.0 mm board will bow under its own weight.

Density 0.72 g/cm³. Heavier to cut; use a board shear with a sharp blade and take the cut in one pass.

Hand-marbled. Every sheet is different, which is either the whole point or a problem, depending on the job.

Caliper 0.15 mm. Cut the grain parallel to the spine or the joint will crack the moment the book opens.

Coloured with pigment in a starch paste and worked with a comb. Softer and cheaper than marbling.

Caliper 0.16 mm. Made rather than bought. The paste size means it pastes down very well.

Long kozo fibres make this the strongest paper in the workshop for its weight. Used for repair and lining.

Caliper 0.05 mm. Tear it, never cut it, so the fibres feather into the repair. Grain effectively random.

The eighteenth-century English old-style. Robust at small sizes and forgiving of a heavy impression.

Available in metal from 6 to 72 pt. Works at 9–11 pt for body text. Heavy serifs survive ink spread better than a didone.

High contrast for its period, and a large x-height. Elegant in a title, slightly fragile at small sizes in metal.

Metal from 8 to 72 pt. Below 9 pt the thin strokes fill in. Prints beautifully on a smooth sheet and poorly on a rough one.

Extreme thick-thin contrast. Spectacular at display sizes and unusable for body text in letterpress.

Display sizes from 24 pt upward. The hairline serifs fill in below that. Needs a hard packing and a light impression.

Designed for legibility in schoolbooks. Large x-height, sturdy serifs, and it survives a heavy impression well.

Metal from 8 to 48 pt. A safe choice for a first book. Prints legibly at 9 pt even with ink spread.

A humanist sans with letterforms that hold up in metal. The standard English sans for much of the twentieth century.

Metal from 8 to 72 pt. Works well at 10 pt and above. Monoline, so it is sensitive to over-inking.

Geometric and cold. Very good at display sizes, awkward in a paragraph because the letterforms are all the same width.

Metal from 6 to 72 pt. The geometric forms look mechanical in a long text setting. Best used for headings.

A slab serif built for posters. Very heavy, very legible at distance, and takes a deep impression without losing form.

Wood and metal from 12 to 15 pica. Excellent for wood type display. At small sizes the slabs close up.

A sturdy advertising face with a distinctive short descender. Warm and slightly old-fashioned in a way that suits craft work.

Metal from 8 to 72 pt. The bold is very heavy; use the oldstyle for text.

Warm, slightly irregular, and the face most associated with American fine press work.

Metal from 6 to 72 pt. Very good at 10–12 pt on a textured sheet. The italic is particularly fine.

Gill's serif. Sharp, small on the body, and elegant in a short setting. Needs a light impression.

Metal from 8 to 48 pt. Small x-height means it looks smaller than its nominal size. Not for heavy inking.

Designed for newsprint and fast printing. Compact, economical and completely unremarkable, which is its virtue.

Metal from 6 to 72 pt. Very economical on the measure. The most widely available typeface in any format.

Neutral and closed-apertured. Very good at large sizes and slightly airless in a paragraph.

Metal from 6 to 72 pt. The tight apertures fill in when over-inked. Use a light impression.

Small caps with tiny pointed serifs. The traditional face for formal stationery and visiting cards.

Metal from 8 to 36 pt. All caps, so it is slow to set and greedy on the measure. Needs generous tracking.

A Venetian old style with a calm, even colour on the page. One of the finest book faces ever cut.

Metal from 8 to 48 pt. Excellent at 10–12 pt. The italic is more decorative than most and should be used sparingly.

Blackletter. Very heavy and very specific — it reads as a period piece and nothing else.

Metal from 12 to 72 pt. Only for display. Legibility drops sharply below 18 pt.