Melbourne Museum of Printing

Australia's working and teaching museum of typography and printing. Writers and editors have much to learn from handling and using traditional metal types. Come and see how it was done.

Media Studies and Journalism Jump Page

Roots of Printing Workshop

This full-day Professional Workshop is primarily for those who are working with typography but have never seen or handled the real thing. Roots of Printing shows them the origins of their craft and its many arcane terms.

Among those involved with DTP systems and Word Processing, many become quite enthusiastic about typefaces and design. They come away with a better understanding of what's going on inside their computer.

Roots of Printing gives a close-up on various hand and machine typesetting processes used over the years, typefounding, page layout and lockup, and the printing press. Practical work includes hand and machine typesetting and printing a souvenir page.

Certificate in Typographic Perspective

Another choice in our Educational programs.

This is a two-week full-time exposure to traditional printing technology. A total of 70 contact hours including verbal presentations, demonstrations, and plenty of practical typesetting and printing. The work is assessed for grant of the Certificate.

The maximum class size is THREE, ensuring many hours of close attention.

Graphic Students' Workshop

A workshop for up to 20 students and their teachers.

This part-day workshop shows the student of typography, the media, writing or editing the principles behind the modern systems of text formation, by looking at and using traditional printing.

Students come away with an appreciation of both old and modern systems of printing, the importance of text layout and spacing and the real meaning of the arcane terms of the trade.

Newspaper Composing Room Project

Our Newspaper Project is outlined in the Programs section of this site.

We already have much of the machinery to recreate a full sized and workable Composing Room. This will be beneficial to all those interested in journalism and newspapers, including those now working in that industry.

Typography Collection

See our Index of Artefacts to appreciate the breadth of our collection of design documents like artwork and proofs and our libraries of books and prints.

Our Library of Books as Artefacts holds thousands of books selected by their donors for their manner or circumstances of printing rather than their contents.

You can see books typeset and printed by various processes, designed with varying styles (e.g. running heads, chapter commencements, margins, typeface), printed or published by various firms, and in varying states of preservation (or otherwise).

Access to the Library is by arrangement.

Our collection of handmade prints, mostly made by artists visiting the museum's Access Studio, is currently on display in our Gallery.

Many of the prints show great imagination in the use of type.

Access Studio

Click here to read how visitors can make use of our types and presses to print something artistic, experimental (or useful) for themselves.

Glossary of Printing and Typography

Hundreds of terms defined in our Glossary.

Typography Links

Being developed on our Links Page.

Volunteering

Would you like toVOLUNTEER to look after any part of our collection? Or teach or demonstrate? Or assist us to present our message?

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