Centuries-old printing technique makes a comeback
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E-mail chinadaily.com.cn, November 20, 2019
Zhou, a fresh graduate of visual communication design, decided to open such a shop upon graduation with two of her college buddies who are also fascinated with letterpress thanks partly to what used to trouble them back in college.
"We used to commission printing factories to get our designs printed in small numbers, but more often than not, we were rejected as they only took orders requiring at least hundreds of copies," the young designer told this website.
Noting that many more design majors like them have been beset by such a headache, Zhou and her buddies thought about creating a workshop that takes small orders to create convenience for students who are of weak spending power.
In addition to serving students, the 110-square-meter workshop also attracts many who are eager to try their hands on an ancient letterpress machine to DIY their own letterpress items, each paying about 200 yuan to 500 yuan ($28.52-$71.3).
Despite the high price, it seems more people are being drawn to this kind of ancient printing technique. "Some companies even organized their team building parties in our workshop, which is sort of out of my expectation," said Zhou.
The endeavors of artisans and designers have borne fruit as letterpress-printed products are winning more and more consumers in China.
"The beauty and elegance inhering in letterpress have kept drawing people to know about it, and pay higher prices for letterpress products," said Peng Junzhang, a letterpress enthusiast, better known as the king of high-end business cards in China.
Peng, who remolded the letterpress machine to make it less demanding and more efficient, applied the printing technique to business card making, which turned out to be a huge success.
"Although the need for exchanging business cards is shrinking in the age of social media, upscale ones, each priced at 300 yuan ($42.45) or more, are in greater demand than those priced at around 30 yuan ($4.25)," Peng noted.
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