Printing Arts Leipzig

The Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts

Every four years, when the print and media world meets at the drupa trade fair in Düsseldorf to gather information on the latest developments and trends, a glance back at the history of this industry is an essential part of an otherwise forward-looking event. As in 2004, the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts will be at drupa, bringing to Düsseldorf a microcosm of printing from a city with a long tradition of book publishing and production: lead typefaces and wooden letters, a historic etching press with wooden wheel, a traditional letterpress printing machine and many other items of interest.

In today’s information society, museums act as knowledge repositories and thus form a bridge between history and the present day. This is certainly true of the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts, where the production of print media can be experienced with all the senses. In Hall 9 at drupa, on a stand covering some 300 square metres, the museum is exhibiting items from its collection and a selection of items produced in-house. To illustrate the skill and complexity involved in the production of printed matter, whether text or pictures, the presentation is accompanied by regular demonstrations using the printing machines exhibited on the stand.

A very special experience awaits those who are able to visit the Museum of the Printing Arts in Leipzig. By combining a working print shop and a museum, it provides a close-up view of five hundred years of printing history. In this unique setting, more than 200 working machines and presses demonstrate the techniques of copperplate printing, litho-graphy and letterpress. The museum’s four floors are devoted to manual and mechanical typesetting and the various printing processes. A type foundry in full working order shows visitors how lead type is cast either by hand or by machine – a genuine rarity.

Visitors become acquainted with the “black art“, as printing has always been known, which is vividly brought to life in this ‘hands-on’ museum whose motto is “see, smell and touch”. Guided by the specialist staff, visitors can set lines of text themselves or have various motifs printed on the platen presses as they tour the exhibition. In addition to printing machines, the Leipzig Museum of the Printing Arts has some forty tons of lead type, matrices and steel dies in its collection, for a wide variety of typefaces of European and oriental origin. It also houses a fully equipped bindery where books can be bound by hand.

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