One of few analogue printing spaces in the UK
Location: Eldon Building
Our specialist letterpress, relief, and Intaglio printmaking facilities are primarily used by students of Illustration and Graphic Design, but students from across the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries are welcome.
There is an emphasis on experimental printmaking, encouraging students to explore and challenge these traditional processes, including collograph, drypoint, etching, letterpress, linocut, and mono printing.
Students are required to take an induction session run by a member of staff before they can use the facilities. Technical staff are always on hand to help with printing, registering, and developing students' ideas into print.
Explore our Printmaking and Letterpress facilities
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Etching room equipment and amenities
- Two etching presses — Harry Rochat 30” x 52” and Kimber England 18” x 30”
- Intaglio Printmakers press — set up for printing lino cuts
- Hot plates — to apply resist grounds onto zinc plates
- Various sized hand rollers — with differing densities to suit the variety of printing processes
- Oil-based inks, additives, and traditional sundries
- Offset lithopress — used for large-scale monoprinting
- Dedicated space for etching plates using the non-toxic Edinburgh Etch solution
We also have:
- Paper bath
- Blotting station
- Hand-printing barens
- Professional lino and etching tools
- Two hand-operated relief nipping presses
Letterpress printmaking equipment and amenities
- Albion press — a hand-operated printing press used since 1812 for printing wood type, linocuts, and other relief processes
- Extensive collection of traditional metal and wooden letter types — with various decorative ornaments/printers 'flowers' and typefaces including Gill Sans, Helvetica, Stephenson Blake, Bodoni, and Garamond
- The correct equipment to help you set and register type professionally and accurately
- A motorised Western Galley proofing press — to create proofs and finished editions
- 3x Adana printing presses — a small, iconic, British-made printing press
- Various hand tools to help you plan, set, and print type
We can also make our own wooden type using the facilities in the 3D Workshops.
Related facilities
3D Workshops
Our Workshops are ideal for model-making, with high-grade kit for crafting wood, metal, plastics, polyurethane, concrete and plaster works.
Print Workshops
Use our screen printing and screen coating rooms for your graphic materials, artwork, and fabric printing, with a host of traditional and digital equipment.
Eldon Art Shop
Whether you're studying a creative degree or want to pick up some supplies, our Eldon Art Shop has the materials you'll need for your coursework or project.
Related courses
Where to find us
Printmaking and Letterpress
Eldon Building
Winston Churchill Avenue
Portsmouth
PO1 2DJ