Submit a Design for Letterpress
When you work with Sesame Letterpress, you are supporting a small, woman-owned and operated business. Our antique presses date back to the 1880s and your cards will be printed one at a time using this traditional style of letterpress printing.
general Pricing for designer-submitted files
We will confirm your project cost once we receive your artwork files. If your project requires different card sizes or quantities (and our general pricing here is within your budget), let us know when you submit your order and we'll provide a quote.
Business cards, single sided
1-color printing, 184lb paper
2-color printing, 184lb paper
—
250.
320.
275.
365.
300.
400.
450.
575.
Business cards, double sided
1/1 color printing, 236lb paper
1/2 color printing, 236lb paper
—
—
385.
485.
410.
510.
435.
540.
700.
835.
A2 card (4.25 x 5.5")
1-color printing, 184lb paper
2-color printing, 184lb paper
A2 envelope with return address
245.
300.
150.
340.
440.
170.
470.
580.
190.
525.
680.
215.
625.
770.
315.
POR
A6 card (4.375 x 6.125")
1-color printing, 184lb paper
2-color printing, 184lb paper
A6 envelope with return address
325.
370.
170.
420.
510.
205.
530.
630.
250.
610.
700.
280.
660.
770.
315.
POR
A7 card (5 x 7")
1-color printing, 184lb paper
2-color printing, 184lb paper
A7 envelope with return address
400.
480.
205.
510.
625.
240.
650.
770.
290.
750.
850.
330.
815.
935.
370.
por
Our Process
1. read our faq below
Our presses are antiques and there are some things they can't print well. It's important to read through our FAQ to make sure your design will print well on our machines. You'll also want to make sure you can send us the type of files we need.
2. send us your files and details
If our specs and pricing work for your project, click the "start your order" link. A form will walk you through the steps to upload your files for printing. You’ll note your quantity and select your paper and ink color. Refer to our Customizing page to see these options. Submit your form to start your order.
3. Approval & Printing
We'll review your files, confirm the pricing and email you a PDF proof with your design and printing specs for approval. From there. we'll proceed to print. We’ll need 2-3 weeks to complete the letterpress printing.
FILE SPecifications and FAQs
We’ll need you to carefully review the following file specs to make sure the artwork you send is formatted correctly. Many of the answers to frequently asked questions can be found on our FAQ page. Here are a few additional questions specific to submitting your own design for printing.
No, we don't.
- We use Illustrator for our plates so we will need .ai files or .pdf files that can be opened in Illustrator.
- The artwork should be the final size we’re printing.
- To ensure there are no font issues when we open the file and when we make the plates, please save all of the text in outlines.
- If you need a return address printed on an envelope, you will need to send us the file for this as well.
Images need to be vectors, eps files or high res, bitmapped tif files. If you’re embedding tiff images, you will need to send these to us as well.
- We can't print large, solid areas or floods of color with our presses. We can't print areas with knock-out white type.
- We can't print a solid frame that bleeds off the edges of the cards.
- The minimum stroke weight for fine lines is .40 point.
- We don't print white ink on colored paper.
- Blind embossing is printing with clear or no ink. We find this is usually too subtle for a business card (especially if you are considering printing your name or logo without ink). We recommend a tinted embossing instead if you are interested in a very subtle effect.
We are a boutique letterpress print shop and we regularly stock the following deluxe papers, all of which are ideal for letterpress printing. These are all available in brilliant white or soft, natural white.
- Reich Savoy 118lb stock (best for flat cards and folded cards)
- Reich Savoy 184lb stock (best for heavyweight flat cards and business cards)
- Reich Savoy 236lb stock (best for larger prints when a heavyweight paper is desired or if you have double sided printing)
We don't stock colored papers but if you've sourced a specific colored paper for your project, you can send us a link and we can special order it (if it is letterpress-friendly).
You can choose from our standard ink colors, or specify a Pantone PMS color (solid uncoated line). We cannot match a CMYK color. If you don't have access to a Pantone book and have a specific color in mind, please mail us a swatch (we can't match from a computer screen) and we will mix the ink to match.
No, we can't print photos.
We discourage people from selecting double sided printing for letterpress as the debossed impression that is so characteristic of letterpress printing becomes compromised. We have to print with less pressure, limiting the impression and we risk the printing from the front showing through on the back and vice versa.
No. We send a final digital proof in pdf form for clients to approve and sign off on. We don’t offer a letterpress printed proof for approval as the set up and inking process makes this cost prohibitive. If you have any hesitation about the way your design or color will translate, we encourage you to reach out with your concerns so we make sure we're a good fit and can print what you're hoping for.
Once we have all of your project details, have sent you a pdf to confirm and you've approved it, we need 2-3 weeks to complete the letterpress printing. Because we make everything by hand, it's difficult for us to rush a job. If you have a deadline, we recommend mentioning this when you first reach out so we can make sure we'll be able to deliver your stationery in time.