San Francisco Center for the Book

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.

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.

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

The traditional method of binding books in Ethiopia survived relatively unchanged for over a thousand years. This workshop will yield a flexible non-adhesive book that opens fully.

Learn to use the Kwikprint gold foil stamping machine, essential for lustrous, professional-quality titling.

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

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 weeklong letterpress intensive for high schoolers culminates in the creation of a book of students’ original writing.

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.

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.

Become acquainted with the world of letterpress by pulling prints off both a Vandercook cylinder press and a tabletop platen press.

Become acquainted with the world of letterpress by pulling prints off both a Vandercook cylinder press and a tabletop platen press.

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.

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.

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.

Gain exposure to letterpress and typesetting while making personalized note-card stationery.

This weeklong workshop covers typesetting and printing on a Vandercook cylinder press with metal type, wood type, and photopolymer plates. Learn from Master Printer Mary Laird adn work on independent and collaborative projects.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

A popular bookbinding workshop. No longer a secret, the secret Belgian binding is an ideal structure for guest books, sketchbooks, and photo albums, as the pages lay flat when the book is open.

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.

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

Discover how to dampen paper, use bearers, and finesse rubber- and oil-based inks on Vandercook and platen presses for better ink coverage and control.

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.

In this workshop students will delve into the expanding and contracting world of the book, learning four different ways to make an accordion binding.