We are a letterpress studio in Denver, Colorado.
We 🖤 Letterpress
Letterpress is a printing technique in which a design or segment of text is pressed into a piece of paper after being inked. Each card is hand fed into the press and printed one color at a time!
Our vintage printing presses are sure to make a lasting impression on you.
Our first printing press, Dorothy, was fabricated in 1948 by Chandler & Price, a printing press and machinery manufacturer which was founded in the late 1800’s. C & P was the leading manufacturer of hand-fed platen presses from the 1930’s until the 1950’s, when offset printing eclipsed letterpress as the print method of choice among newspapers and other printshops.
Dorothy arrived in Colorado from a defunct newspaper shop in Kansas and we are so so happy to call her our girl. We adore Dorothy’s functionality and precision and are looking forward to creating some truly beautiful pressed pieces with her in the years to come!
After spending years printing the newspaper, she now lives her life in the River North Art District of Denver, Colorado printing luxury letterpress invitations and delightful stationery. We hope her prints leave a lasting impression on you.
Dorothy
Nora, our Vandercook 4, was manufactured in 1950, and spent the first 73 years of her life teaching students at Carnegie Mellon University letterpress. After CMU retired her, a nice gentleman saved her from her the scrap pile.
We adopted her in early 2024 and drove her to Denver, Colorado where she now lives out her days printing luxurious invitations with ink coverage and an impression that can't be beat!
Vandercook printing presses are flatbed cylinder proofing presses. This type of press utilizes a flat bed where the printing surface (type or plates) is placed. A cylinder then rolls over the bed, applying even pressure to transfer the image onto the paper.
We love her because of her precision - every print she makes is just as perfect as the previous one.
Fun fact: we are only the second owner of Nora, which is a rarity in the printing world!
Nora
We are located in the River North Art District in Denver, Colorado. Our studio is open to the public, but we do ask that you make an appointment to come to visit us. We do all letterpress in our studio and all other assembly for your invitations.
Our studio
In-house Services
💌 : only for our clients
💕 : for other designers
💌 💕 Letterpress Printing (more info below)
💌 Envelope printing
💌 💕 Die cutting
💌 💕 Paper trimming
💌 💕 Notepad production (trimming, & gluing)
💌 💕 Duplexing (and triplexing)
💌 💕 Hand typesetting
💌 Custom envelopes
💌 💕 Laser cutting
💌 💕 Scoring
💌 Assembly
💌 💕 Hole drilling
💌 💕 Hot foil pressing
💌 💕 Corner rounding
We would love to help make your project come to life. We offer printing at an affordable price for other designers. We have a minimum run of 25 pieces per design. We offer letterpress printing, die cutting (one-time fee per die), duplexing, and paper trimming for designers looking to offer high-quality items for their clients.
You may also rent out our large workspace to assemble your items on for an hourly rate. We have a large selection of items to help you assemble invitations or other stationery that takes up a lot of space.
Available assembly tools: wax seal guns, paper trimmers, scoring machine, cricut, laser printer, and inkjet printer.
There is a small fee associated with using the above items, since there are portions of them that are ‘consumable’ we will let you know how much that is after you inquire.
E-mail us at printing@knappdesignco.com to learn more.
Print shop for hire
Looking for a print partner?
We would love to be that for you! We offer wholesale printing for stationers and designers. Check out our sister company, Stationer to Stationer to see how we can help make a lasting impression on your clients.
Learn More
© 2025 knapp design co.
info@knappdesignco.com
Made with ❤️ in Denver, Colorado
Be nice & don’t steal.
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