Cranky Pressman is a commercial letterpress printer located in the historic but hidden away town of Salem, Ohio. The sole reason we still operate this primitive sweatshop is to serve our growing list of persnickety customers throughout the country.
We produce custom letterpress printing for graphic designers, illustrators, art directors and all manner of creative professionals with their black turtlenecks, pipes and lofty ideas. We don’t tout design work ourselves but instead break our backs to make you look good.
What we do offer is old-fashioned know-how, full letterpress production and binding capabilities, all at damn reasonable prices.
The bulk of our workload includes materials such as business cards, letterheads, stationery, envelopes, folders, booklets, postcards, folded cards, invitations, tickets, coasters, hang-tags, labels, packaging and all form of letterpress ephemera. Die-cutting, embossing, short and long print runs are accommodated.
Look at some examples of Cranky Pressman’s work here. We hope to add more photos to the portfolio page soon. A bigger selection of our work can be found here on flickr.
A few of our custom letterpress printing services, such as basic business cards, are available for online ordering here. This may be handy for those who don’t want to endure our irritable voices on the phone.
However, since most projects are totally custom, many customers like to e-mail us their job specifications or bark instructions down the phone to us at 1-330-337-3341.
Or alternatively, submit a Quote Request using the online form located further down this page or right here.
Designing for letterpress requires a different creative approach. We’ve cobbled together parts of this website to help people better understand this old-time medium. Any fresh-faced designers or those who need to brush up on how to work with letterpress should visit the Letterpress Trade School.
Letterpress is not the easiest form of print production, but those familiar with the tactile look and feel it brings to a graphic piece understand why we go to all the bother.
In case you are unfamiliar with letterpress, it is not suited for every type of project. Anyone who’s looking for slick full-color printing should drop us a line and we will gladly tell you where to go.
If however you know what you want, that being letterpress, then please do get in touch to discuss your job. You are sure to catch us sweating over someone’s work.
Get straight to work
No time for messing around? Give us a call at 330-337-3341 or fill in the form below with your project details and we will get straight back to you.