Letterpress, the
slow and proper way.
Wedding invitations, business cards and small-batch stationery — printed on a hand-cranked vintage Heidelberg, on paper milled in the British Isles.
A small press shop
by the sea.
Ink & Ribbon opened in a converted lifeboat shed on Margate's old town in 2014. Two hand-cranked vintage Heidelberg presses, a Vandercook proofing press, and a long shelf of metal type carry every job from sketch through to deckle-edged finish.
We make impressed-into-the-paper stationery — wedding suites, identity pieces, gift cards and stationery editions — for couples, designers, restaurants and small luxury brands across the UK. Editions are hand-cut and numbered. Nothing leaves the studio that we wouldn't happily hand to our own family.
Our paper comes from family-run mills in Cumbria, Somerset and the Scottish Borders. We keep around eighty stocks on the shelf at any time — cottons, blotters, dyed boards, fluted edges. If you'd like to feel them, the studio is open by appointment every Thursday and Friday.
Eight recent commissions.
A small cross-section of the last twelve months — wedding suites, identity pieces and stationery editions. Each shown with the paper, ink and plate count we used.
Five things we do properly.
Letterpress Wedding Invitations
Full suites — save-the-dates, invitations, RSVPs, menus, place cards. Cotton stock, deep impression, edges painted or deckled to taste.
Bespoke Business Cards
Duplex and triplex cottons, single-hit or multi-colour, optional gilt or rose foil. Plates kept on file for repeat editions.
Foil & Edge-Painting
Hand-applied gold leaf and pigmented foils. Edge-painting in any colour we can mix — finished on the bench, never machine-trimmed.
Small-Batch Greeting Cards
Numbered editions of 100–250, sold direct to a small list of UK independents. Designed in-studio.
Brand Identity Print Sets
Cards, letterheads, comp slips and tags as a coordinated print set. Designed alongside your brand studio or in-house team.
Four steps,
and a few weeks.
Design
A first conversation, a paper-stock viewing and three to five sketched directions. We refine to one route before any plates are made.
Plate
Artwork is finalised and photopolymer plates are cut at 152 lines per inch. Foil dies are tooled separately when needed.
Press
Inks are mixed by hand on the slab to the agreed Pantone. Each colour is a separate pass through the press, hand-fed sheet by sheet.
Finish
Edges are painted or gilded, suites are hand-cut, scored, folded and numbered. Packaged in tissue and a stamped kraft sleeve.
Typical lead time · 4 to 6 weeks · longer for foil suites
Eighty stocks,
all on the shelf.
We hold a working library of cotton, rag, mould-made and blotter stocks from family mills across the British Isles. A handful of our most-pressed below — visit the studio to feel the rest.
“The suite arrived in tissue paper and a stamped sleeve and we cried a little. The impression on the cotton is properly deep — you can feel it with your eyes shut. Worth every penny.”
Start a conversation.
We take on roughly forty commissions a year. Tell us a little about the piece, the quantity and the date you need it in hand — we'll come back within two working days.
Email the Studio →Margate, Kent CT9 1JD
Saturday viewings by request