San Jose festival celebrates the art of letterpress printing

In a world of inkjet and laser printers, there are still plenty of people who appreciate the craftsmanship of a bookmark or a postcard printed on a manually operated letterpress. Jim Gard, chair of the San Jose Printers Guild, says there’s a very good reason for that: Hand-printed materials feel more real and like vinyl records and film photography are making a comeback with a new generation.

“They’re objects you can pick up. The type is something you can put in your hand,” said Gard, chair of the San Jose Printers’ Guild, a group that’s been championing letterpress printing since 1992. “Contrast that to a computer, where it’s a never-ending stream of 1s and 0s. It’s doesn’t have that reality. It doesn’t have that physical presence.”

And right in the heart of Silicon Valley, there’s a place for those typophiles to celebrate their love: the print shop at History Park in San Jose — the epicenter of Saturday’s eighth annual Printers Fair and Wayzgoose (a word of vague origin that means printers’ party). April 29 is also the 50th anniversary of the opening of the print shop as the park’s first exhibit. It’s a date Gard knows for sure because he has an original invitation to the event in 1973 that once belonged to Willys Peck — a former Mercury News copy editor and celebrated Saratoga historian.

The print shop was originally a residence on St. John Street near San Pedro Street when it was built in 1884. Like many other downtown historic buildings, it was moved to History Park in 1972 and because two of the park’s founders — Leonard McKay and Theron Fox — were printers, it was converted into a replica of a late 19th century print shop that opened a year later. Gard arrived in 1974, a 14-year-old from Los Altos who had a letterpress at home and quickly made an impression — pardon the pun — on docents who relied on him to tell them what everything was for.

While Gard remains a helpful presence at the print shop, he has a lot of help from other volunteers to share the story now. And an exhibit on the history of printing — from Gutenberg and linotype to the WYSIWYG revolution of the Macintosh — occupies the print shop’s front room. But it’s the back where you can see the really fun stuff: drawers of big wood block type and small metal letters, proof presses, letter presses and boxes of colorful inks. The results of all this printing cover the walls and shelves, mostly in the form of posters made for special events.

The Printers’ Guild has a dream to put even more on display and is starting a fundraising campaign to put a second building on a vacant lot next to the current shop. That would allow them to exhibit bigger machines that are in storage right now including a hot-metal linotype machine, a Heidelberg Windmill press and a huge San Francisco iron handpress which printed a newspaper from the Gold Rush days. The new building would have a slab floor to accommodate the weight, Gard said, which is too much for the current shop’s wood floors.

Saturday’s event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will feature book artists, letterpress printers and demonstrations of printmaking. Of course, you can also buy prints, books, ink, papers and hand-printed items, too. Admission is free, and you can get more information at www.historysanjose.org or at www.sjprintersguild.com.

Gard also designed special bookmarks to commemorate the shop’s 50th birthday that will be printed live for visitors Saturday. It took quite some time to put together, with a combination of handset type, linotype casts and even a photo engraving that was done by an outfit in Michigan. It’s printed in gold ink on black paper. “That’s something you can’t do with a laser printer,” Gard chuckled.

‘COCO’ GETS SYMPHONY TREATMENT: Symphony San Jose’s next “Movies in Concert” event is this weekend with Disney Pixar’s “Coco” being shown at the Center for the Performing Arts while the orchestra, conducted by Susie Seiter, plays Michael Giacchino’s score live. Two performances are scheduled — 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, but ticketholders shouldn’t wait until the last minute to arrive. Before the show, there will be mariachis, facepainters and a market with Mexican food, drinks and crafts. Go to www.symphonysanjose.org for tickets.

IT’S SOFA TIME: This weekend’s expected warm weather should be perfect for the return of the SoFA Street Fair on Sunday. Downtown San Jose’s arty SoFA district, along South First Street from San Carlos to Reed Street, again will be filled with bands, vendors and a beer garden from 2 to 8 p.m., along with stages at Mama Kin, Guildhouse, MACLA and Haberdasher. And yes, races between drag performers on wheeled sofas are back, too, at 4 p.m. in front of San Jose Stage. Check out the schedule at sofaspring23.sched.com.