The iron hand press is a workhorse from the nineteenth century that welds modern printing to its earliest incarnations over five hundred years ago.

This class offers an overview of the practices and principals of doing edition work on this venerable printing press. From the basics of imposing on the stone to locking the inner chase and packing the outer tympan, students will get a full tour of the handpress and its workflow and walk away with a keepsake inked and printed on the Center’s own iron hand presses. 

This workshop is ideal for novices and more experienced printers alike. The concepts taught in this class are valuable to any printer's understanding of the letterpress printing process, and are applicable across all different styles of presses.

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
None

About the Instructor:
Chad Johnson (he/him) is an artist, printer, bookbinder, and teacher who has been living in the Bay Area for over a decade. After earning an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he has worked in conservation labs, letterpress shops, and libraries. He has experience conserving historic books, analyzing collections of rare books, working with artists and authors, printing professionally on many different letterpress machines, and teaching and sharing his love of books and printing.
As SFCB's Studio Director | Resident Instructor, he brings knowledge and experience fueled by passion and enthusiasm for the art and craft of making books by hand. From digital typesetting to steamroller printing to fixing presses to talking about letterpress history, Chad is always happy to help students and artists learn to express themselves through the powerful medium of the handmade book.

Does this sound familiar: You have a print project you want to get started on. You know what paper you want to use but are unsure about pre-trimming your stock or planning for best usage or making sure the grain runs in the proper direction for your final trim. If so, then we have got the workshop for you: this one!

This in-depth introduction to paper cutting will help you understand what to buy (and how much) as well as how to plan for, understand, and safely (& accurately!) trim your paper. We will cover cut scheduling, grain direction, back trim, machine safety, and final trims of printed sheets with (or without) crop marks.

There are no prerequisites, but this workshop is especially great for students who have completed our Cylinder Core series and want to pursue their own projects outside of an 8.5x11” dimensionality. 

Students who complete this course will be certified to rent time on SFCB's guillotines and electric paper cutter.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to bring:
All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:
Alan Hillesheim (he/him) has been wrenching around printing presses for 35 years. Printing presses need to be moved, oiled, inked, cleaned, and maintained, in short they need attention like a six year old. Maintenance is a dirty business, but a necessary one for beautifully printed anything. Alan has a passion for the mechanics of the print studio and enjoys encouraging others to roll up their sleeves and grab a wrench. His 35 years in the letterpress business and “all-ten-fingers” count speak for themselves. Join him and wear old clothes.

Oh, and once the press is in fine order, Alan has a few secrets to divulge about perfect inking and stellar printing.

Bookbinding Core Certificate Program

The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates the craft and art of bookbinding. Our Bookbinding Core Certificate Program introduces students to four different binding models, leading them through the history and evolution of bookmaking.  It provides students a comprehensive foundation to delve into the practice of binding and qualifies them to rent studio time in our bindery. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.

Click here to learn more about the Bookbinding Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!

Bookbinding Core 4: Classic Rounded Back Cloth Binding

The final class in our Core Bookbinding series (taught in two sessions) uses skills learned in each previous class to create a beautiful and classic rounded back cloth binding. After sewing, the book will be rounded and backed before the boards are attached and covered. This binding style points to many historical structures that came before it, making it an ideal structure for anyone interested in learning to bind books with leather, or learning to repair books.  More terms, more tools, more techniques: such are the rewards of the skilled bookbinder!

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
Bookbinding Core 1, 2 and 3

Materials to Bring:
None, all tools and materials are provided.

About the Instructor:
Jane Knoll (they/them) was the San Francisco Center for the Book's 2025 Type Devil. After an undergraduate in writing and printmaking from Bennington College and a diploma in bookbinding from North Bennet Street School, Jane was awarded two fellowships at the Boston Athenæum's conservation lab and worked as Assistant Book Conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Currently preparing for a master's in book conservation, Jane studies the archaeology of the book, with special interests in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century structures, folk repairs, and personalized bindings, and has two publications on the American scaleboard binding.

We will be learning the art of gilding (applying gold) and decorative painting by copying medieval samples. These finely-detailed medieval illuminations allow us to practice multiple skills: raised gilding, flat gilding, color washes, highlighting, outlining, and more.

We will be using modern gilding size (glue), paints, and paper. Modern materials are not just time saving and easier to source but also less dangerous, which enables you to easily transfer these medieval skills to your modern artwork. Medieval materials and differences will be discussed for those who want to delve deeper into history.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
None

About the Instructor:
Katie Leavens is a freelance illustrator & calligrapher here in San Francisco with a degree in Design. Her art explores the relationships between tradition & modernism through techniques, mediums, & subject matters. She has been studying calligraphy since 2015 and teaching since 2020. Katie is a member of IAMPETH and on the Friends of Calligraphy council. In 2025, Katie received the Certificate of Proficiency from IAMPETH in Illumination & Borders.

Reduction printing is a multi-layered printing process that uses a single block to create a multi-colored image. The process involves carving and printing, removing portions of the block after each layer is printed, usually working from lightest to darkest colors.

Students will carve their own small, two color design and learn the basic principles of reduction carving: what to carve and when. They will finish the class with a small edition of their two color design and usable stamp (single color design) to take home.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
Students should bring a few different ideas or sketches for a simple image measuring 2 3/4” x 3 3/4” that could be separated and printed in two colors. The instructor will help you decide what will work best in class.

About the Instructor:
Nathalie Roland (she/her) is a San Francisco-based printmaker and painter who has been creating woodcut prints since 1991. Working from her Sunset district garage studio known as Sunset Paperworks, she specializes in woodcut reduction prints using pine or mulberry wood blocks that transform through multiple stages of carving and printing. She has studied relief printing under Zarina Hashmi, screen printing at Ape Do Good, worked as a bookbinder at the Arion Press and was formerly the in-house Riso printer for Yellow Owl workshop. 

If you have heard about letterpress but are not really sure what it is or how it works, this class will allow you to peer inside the rich history and engaging techniques of letterpress printing.

This class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press. Participants will learn the basics of setting type using SFCB’s vast collection of lead type and decorative ornaments as well as inking, locking up and pulling a print.

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to bring:
None

About the Instructor:
Brian Lieske (he/him) wandered into SFCB many years ago and continues to haunt the place. He completed both the bookbinding and letterpress cores as well as several of the summer historic structure classes. He enjoys making fully hand-sewn books and still fights to not over-tighten his kettle stitches. He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years having arrived shortly after completing an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin.

Now that you've completed the Cylinder Core series, you can become certified on the jobbing platen, which was developed to meet the demand for greater volumes of printing with shorter production times. 

Day 1 :: Postcard ExpressDesign, set up and run an edition of 50 postcards in this class that introduces the efficient mechanics of a Chandler & Price jobbing platen press.

Day 2 :: Photopolymer on the PlatenThe development of photopolymer opened up a new world of possibilities for letterpress. This class teaches you to integrate platen printing with polymer plates, allowing you to print whatever ephemera you can dream up!

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:Cylinder Core 1-4. Students who register but have not satisfied the prerequisite will be de-enrolled.

Materials to bring:None. All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:Alan Hillesheim (he/him) has been wrenching around printing presses for 35 years. Printing presses need to be moved, oiled, inked, cleaned, and maintained, in short they need attention like a six year old. Maintenance is a dirty business, but a necessary one for beautifully printed anything. Alan has a passion for the mechanics of the print studio and enjoys encouraging others to roll up their sleeves and grab a wrench. His 35 years in the letterpress business and “all-ten-fingers” count speak for themselves. Join him and wear old clothes.

Oh, and once the press is in fine order, Alan has a few secrets to divulge about perfect inking and stellar printing.