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In 2020, we published a special book - the English version of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's beloved work "The Little Prince". The pages of the book were printed on TYPA's collection of antique machines, using historical letterpress techniques. The book was completed in a limited edition (350 copies), half of which we bound by hand in the TYPA binding studio. Read more about this unique publishing project.

At the beginning of 2019, we presented our first high-volume publication at TYPA, “The Little Prince”, which proved to be a great success. Unfortunately, because we published the book in a limited and numbered edition, many of the prince’s friends were unable to get their copy. In addition to this, there were many interested people who asked if we did not plan to publish the book in English.

Based on the feedback from friends and supporters, we decided to repeat the project in English in order to put the acquired knowledge and skills back to work. Already at the end of 2020, the special edition “The Little Prince” was completed in letterpress and limited edition.

Buy "The Little Prince" here

The design and layout of a letterpress book is not quite the same as a modern book. The limitations and possibilities of the old machines, the choice of the matrix in the casting machine, the peculiarity of the high-printing technique itself and the unpredictability of the whole process come into play. Read more about how “The Little Prince” was laid out and what obstacles the book designer Mana had to deal with.

Read about designing "The Little Prince"

Once the design and layout were completed, Mana handed the work to our Print Master Jörgen. Jörgen composed the lines of text on our Linotype machine and then printed them on an 8-ton cylindrical press. Sounds easy? Read more about its complications here.

How we set and printed the book

The printed content sheets moved from the printshop to the binding studio, where the binding specialist Pauline sewed the ‘signatures’ together by hand. Manual binding is the most time-consuming step in making a book. Read more about binding, marbling and finishing covers and find out how long it took to bind a book.

The bookbinding process of "The Little Prince"

Väike prints

14 April 2021

The Little Prince

14 April 2021