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Double Dagger is a 16pp broadsheet printed by letterpress on a Heidelberg SBB Cylinder Press using type that has been machine set on a Monotype Composition Caster.

The ability of the Monotype Caster, invented by Tolbert Lanston at the end of the nineteenth century, to produce individual hot-metal characters at a rate of three per second in justified galleys of type was a breakthrough that spread beyond the worlds of publishing and printing.

Recently printing by letterpress from hot metal and wood type has seen something of a revival, partly fuelled by a generation looking for an antidote to the screen.

The page of letterpress printed text cannot be reproduced digitally and offers the senses – touch, sight and even smell – something completely different to much of today’s commercial printing.

We are not arguing that all technological advances in print should be reversed 50 years, but, when printing from original artwork there is no better companion than to use type which has been cast in hot-metal.