letterpress

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   printing in which an inked raised surface is pressed directly onto paper

   The invitations were produced by letterpress on thick cotton paper.

2. 2
   noun

   chiefly British and historical: printed text, as distinct from illustrations in a book

   As a child, she studied the engravings but cared little for the letterpress beneath them.

3. 3
   noun

   a machine used for letterpress printing

   The restored letterpress still prints one sheet at a time.

A compound of letter + press, first referring to printing from movable type or another raised inked surface. In chiefly British publishing use it also came to mean the printed words of a book in contrast with its pictures, the sense used in Jane Eyre.

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