How Do Letterpress Printing and Die Cutting Go Together?

September 21, 2017

Take a walk down the card aisle of the local grocery store and take a moment to look at all of the intricate designs, shapes, and patterns on display. What you are looking at is the product of a die cutting machine. Today we are going to talk about the process of die cutting and how it links up with the conventional approach of letterpress printing. Arts & craft fanatics would do well to pay close attention as what you learn here can drastically transform your art in the future.

Letterpress Printing and Die Cutting - An Introduction

We are going to approach this topic in generality in order to familiarise newcomers with this relatively obscure topic. We'll start by developing an understanding of the two primary terms and the processes behind them.

1. Letterpress Printing

Letterpress printing is a style of printing that has technically been used since 1440 thanks to the work of Johannes Gutenberg. Letterpress printing is a style of relief printing whereupon an image or string of text is imprinted onto a material, leaving an impression of the subject on the thin material, typically paper.

2. Die Cutting

Die cutting is a natural extension of letterpress printing, only in a different way than you might imagine. Die cutting is the process by which a specific shape or string of text is cut out of a thin material, again, most commonly paper. You can configure the shape or design in any number of ways in order to get a crisp, exact, and elegant cut-out in the blink of an eye.

Die Cutting and Letterpress Printing - A True Match

Now, you are familiar with both concepts and we are ready to introduce you to the primary thrust of our conversation: how these two concepts work wonderfully together. Letterpress Printing and Die Cutting both operate on essentially the same concept. Both styles of 'printing' utilise paper as a 3D object. The only marked difference is that Letterpress Printing doesn't go quite as far as Die Cutting.

Letterpress Printing stops short of actually removing a 3D shape from your thin fabric or paper. It merely imprints upon the material the design that you selected. With Die Cutting you actually remove that 3D element and can thus utilise it however you need. In fact, the two concepts are so close to one another that you can even use a Letterpress Printer, with modifications, in a similar way as Die Cutting. The material you operate on does not even have to be paper, so long as it is thin and rated for your machine.

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