The Art and Craft of Printing

In Short

This volume brings together foundational essays, technical lectures, and a detailed bibliography documenting William Morris’s Kelmscott Press. It traces the decline of typography from medieval manuscript traditions to nineteenth-century industrial mass production, offering a blueprint for revival. Through discussions on ink, handmade paper, page margins, and type design, Morris and his contemporaries argue that functional objects must simultaneously serve as works of art. The book endures as a primary manifesto for the Arts and Crafts movement, bridging historical bibliography with practical craft.

The Story

The book opens with William Morris reflecting on his motivation for founding the Kelmscott Press: a desire to print works that possess a definite claim to beauty while remaining clear and easy to read. Dismayed by the harsh, dazzling typefaces and cheap machine-made paper of the nineteenth century, Morris turns his attention to the fifteenth-century origins of printing. He examines the early Venetian and German masters who inherited their forms from medieval calligraphy. To recreate this lost standard, Morris breaks down the physical construction of a book into its core components. He selects handmade linen paper modeled after a 1473 Bolognese sheet, acquires pure black ink from Hanover, and designs custom typefounts—the Golden, Troy, and Chaucer types—derived from historical models like Nicholas Jenson and Sweynheym & Pannartz.

The text then moves into a precise historical chronicle kept by S. C. Cockerell, detailing the operations of the Kelmscott Press in Hammersmith, London. Cockerell records early, abandoned ambitions from the 1860s and 1870s, such as an illustrated folio of The Earthly Paradise, before documenting the formal establishment of the press. What follows is a comprehensive annotated bibliography of the fifty-two works produced across sixty-six volumes, ranging from minor leaflets for local societies to monumental folios like The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Each entry notes the presswork, typefaces, borders, vellum copies, woodcut illustrations designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and binding details executed by J. & J. Leighton.

In the subsequent analytical essays, including collaborative pieces with Emery Walker, the argument shifts from local press history to broader principles of typographic design. Morris outlines the "architectural" arrangement of a page, asserting that a book's primary unit is not a single page, but the two-page opening. He dictates that margins must follow strict historic proportions: the inner binder margin must be smallest, followed by the head, fore-edge, and finally the tail margin. He condemns modern printers for dumping text blocks into the middle of the sheet or trimming margins away. The text traces typography's historical descent from the Gutenberg Bible through the degraded, thin-lined styles of Bodoni and Didot, ultimately celebrating the mid-nineteenth-century revival of Caslon types while calling for a total integration of type, margin, and woodcut ornament.

How It Unfolds

The vision takes form Morris details his initial dissatisfaction with modern commercial printing, establishing his goal to create books that match medieval calligraphy and early typography in beauty and legibility.

Sourcing the materials The narrative examines the physical requirements of fine printing, focusing on linen-based handmade paper, pure black inks, and the cutting of new types inspired by historical German and Italian printers.

Chronicle of the press Cockerell records the operational history of the Kelmscott Press in Hammersmith, documenting its expansion across multiple hand-presses, its physical locations along the Thames, and its complete output.

The architectural page Morris presents his central theoretical framework, arguing that type, spacing, and page proportion must operate as an architectural whole, with the two-page opening serving as the fundamental design unit.

A historical reckoning The text traces the evolution of printing from the Gutenberg Bible to its eighteenth-century decline under printers like Bodoni, concluding with a call for a unified art where Utility and beauty coexist.

The People

William Morris The central visionary, printer, and author who seeks to rescue bookmaking from industrial degradation. Driven by a passion for medieval craft, he designs types, draws borders, carves woodblocks, and establishes strict rules for paper, ink, and margin proportions. His work is guided by the conviction that an everyday object of utility should also be a work of art.

Sir Edward Burne-Jones Morris’s close friend and primary artistic collaborator. He contributes dozens of intricate woodcut illustrations for Kelmscott Press editions, most notably the eighty-seven designs for the celebrated Chaucer folio. His line drawings provide the visual anchor for Morris’s bold typographic borders.

S. C. Cockerell The meticulous secretary of the Kelmscott Press who documents its history, administration, and output. He maintains the precise bibliography of every published work, recording print runs, paper variations, vellum editions, and minor ephemera.

Emery Walker An expert engraver and theoretical collaborator whose expertise in printing technology and historical typefaces informs Morris's essays, co-authoring the survey on the history and craft of typography.

Mr. Prince The skilled punch-cutter who physically translates Morris’s hand-drawn alphabet sketches into the metal types used at the press, including the Golden, Troy, and Chaucer founts.

In Its Own Voice

"I began printing books with the hope of producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye..."

Morris opens his note by defining the dual core of his printing philosophy: visual harmony balanced with practical readability.

"I think you will seldom find a book produced before the eighteenth century, and which has not been cut down by that enemy of books (and of the human race), the binder, in which this rule is not adhered to..."

Morris passionately attacks careless binders who destroy page proportions by chopping off the outer margins of fine books.

"...a work of utility might be also a work of art, if we cared to make it so."

Morris and Walker conclude their essay with the guiding principles of the Arts and Crafts movement.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book is a fierce rejection of industrial convenience in favor of intentional craft. It argues that the modern world has sacrificed beauty for cheap speed, resulting in objects that strain the eye and deaden the mind. Morris asserts that visual beauty is not a decorative luxury slapped onto a finished product, but an organic result of sound architecture, proper proportions, and respect for raw materials. By examining the physical anatomy of the printed page—from the wire marks in paper to the lateral spacing of letters—the text raises fundamental questions about how human beings interact with written thought. It insists that the physical vessel carrying a text directly influences the dignity of the literature inside it.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to typographers, book designers, historians, and anyone fascinated by the physical life of objects. It offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look into one of the most influential private presses in history, providing both high-level philosophy and granular technical details down to ink sources and vellum quantities. Reading it feels like sitting in a workshop with a master craftsman who is passionately dismantling bad habits and rebuilding a traditional trade from the ground up.

The text presents few barriers to a modern reader, as Morris writes in clear, confident, and direct prose. The primary difficulty lies in its heavy density of historical bibliography and detailed descriptions of long-out-of-print nineteenth-century editions. However, the reward is an enduring, hands-on lesson in design literacy that remains remarkably relevant in an age dominated by digital layout and rapid consumption.