San Francisco Center for the Book

This series of workshops covers typesetting and printing on a Vandercook cylinder press with metal type, wood type, and photopolymer plates. Students will have the opportunity to work on independent and collaborative projects.

Learn how to make detailed, high-quality photopolymer plates from digital files and film for letterpress printing.

Strong, elegant, and pleasing to use, this was the “daybook” of choice for the great Romantic English poets and artists.

This ingeniously designed album is a new offering from Michael Burke this year, and is the perfect accompaniment to the Ideal Sketchbook. This structure is an extremely elegant one suitable for presenting suites of prints, drawings or photographs

This style of binding immerged in the English tradition in the 1830s. It was immensely popular for both ‘ordinary’ work (that is, inexpensive bindings which were simply decorated) and ‘extra work’ (fancier bindings with more gold tooling). It remains today the method for making fine leather bindings.

One workshop, five booklets! Ever been curious about how to make a book? Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. In this three-hour workshop, learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know.

Explore the joys of making your own historical decorated papers, then experiment with contemporary designs and inventive techniques.

Open Studio is a great way to print or bind your own projects. A trained and qualified volunteer is always on hand to answer questions.

Make your own gorgeous letterpress greeting cards under the tutelage of a professional printman.

In this class, Master Bookbinder, Dominic Riley demonstrates all aspects of the restoration of cloth bindings. The workshop will begin by pulling the signatures of the book, cleaning the dirty pages and performing simple tear repairs.

Hand lettering for all, even those with the shakiest of handwriting! Ease into the art of calligraphy with this beginning class in penmanship, letter formation, layout techniques, and calligraphic processes and materials.

This workshop is ideal for those who are curious about creative ways to make paper with minimal equipment and maximum fun.

When leather bindings break at the joints, the traditional approach is to reback the binding with leather. In this workshop, Dominic will show how to use Japanese tissue as an effective alternative.

Make a limited-edition chapbook with master printer Mary Risala Laird in this beginning-level letterpress workshop that has been a staple of the SFCB curriculum for fifteen years.

OpenStudio is a great way to print or bind your own projects. A trained and qualified volunteer is always on hand to answer questions.

A blank book is a wonderful place to gather one’s thoughts, ideas, and impressions, and pair them with images, found material, and more. In this two-day evening workshop, students will learn how to integrate the visual and linguistic maps of their experiences in the book form.

Learn a historically inspired binding technique, the crossed-structure binding, in this workshop for novice to advanced bookbinders.

Protect books in elegant full cloth-covered slipcases for books. Learn the tricks of constructing durable and attractive book slipcases working from a template provided by the instructor.

Open Studio is a great way to print or bind your own projects. A trained and qualified volunteer is always on hand to answer questions.

One workshop, five booklets! Ever been curious about how to make a book? Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. In this three-hour workshop, learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know.

Learn how to construct four hardcover, hand-bound, multisection books over the course of this bookbinding workshop series. Each binding in the series will add to the skills previously learned and integrate new techniques. Become familiar with bookbinding's basic vocabulary, its fundamental tools and their uses, as well as the materials (paper, cloth, board, and adhesives) and techniques (folding, sewing, and gluing) of the craft.

Open up the range of possibilities for the look and feel of book, box, and portfolio covers by learning two methods for making book cloth.

Learn how to make detailed, high-quality photopolymer plates from digital files and film for letterpress printing.

Upcycling is the method of using waste materials to create useful products, like the journals that will be made in this workshop. Disassemble an old hardcover book, leaving its signatures mostly intact, and interleave the signatures with blank journal paper.

Imagine networking with handmade letterpress business cards! Take this beginning-level class and walk away with letterpress skills and a handful of attractive business cards.

Get medieval! Learn the history and fundamentals of Gothic Textura in this introductory calligraphy workshop. Practice using the broad-edged pen and learn to write a basic black-letter alphabet in this workshop designed for novices.

Make a limited-edition chapbook with master printer Mary Risala Laird in this beginning-level letterpress workshop that has been a staple of the SFCB curriculum for fifteen years.

Hand lettering for all, even those with the shakiest of handwriting! Ease into the art of calligraphy with this beginning class in penmanship, letter formation, layout techniques, and calligraphic processes and materials.

Gain the tools to screen print textiles at a semiprofessional level in this five-day intensive at Mission Grafica.

Learn the fundamentals of printing on an antique C&P platen press. Increase production and print on oddly shaped and thick papers, such as coaster stock.

Make charming little books with colorful papers and threads using sturdy handmade papers as sewing supports. This workshop will explore many creative variations on exposed-spine sewings, including crossed structure, long stitch, and link stitch.

Open Studio is a great way to print or bind your own projects. A trained and qualified volunteer is always on hand to answer questions.

Whether hand drawn or type set, initial capitals adorned with textures, patterns, and colors are certain to draw attention to any text.

Learn how to maintain your floor model platen press; get tips on troubleshooting and basic repair.

Learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know in this three-hour workshop. If you’ve ever been curious about how to make a book, Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. One workshop, five booklets!

Open Studio is a great way to print or bind your own projects. A trained and qualified volunteer is always on hand to answer questions.