Penrith Museum of Printing

03/08/2026

Pictured is one of our very enthusiastic volunteers from the Australian Museum of Printing with his other passion, the Lithgow and District Model Railway Club. Robbert would love to show you this terrific display whenever you are in the Lithgow area.
Robbert divides his time between the two museums and loves them both equally, he is a tour guide and workshop teacher at our Print Museum at Penrith.
A great trip would be via the M4 Great Western Highway to the Printing Museum then onto Lithgow for the Model Railway Club, there is plenty of beautiful places to stop and take in the scenery along the way in the Blue Mountains.

03/08/2026

A 40th Birthday celebration with a difference was spent at the Australian Museum of Printing, in the same year Gutenberg celebrates 625 years! His invention proves very popular with workshops in Typography, Poster and print creation with over 5,000 pieces of wooden type, moveable type, 1000 blocks/images to play with then printed on the 1841 Columbian Press, the same model which printed the SMH in the 1840's.

Why not celebrate your next event at this great Museum, an interactive experience that connects guests through a shared history. Printing is a universal medium that has shaped modern communication, making it a relatable and engaging theme for diverse audiences.

Pictured are birthday girl Stephanie with Mum Dad and brother Kevin along with Gabriele (left) another enthusiastic student on the day.

01/08/2026

Over the past few weeks, our member Maurice Brown has been hard at work restoring our new Marshall Blocking Press.

Generously donated by Philip Hughes, this press is used to apply gold leaf or metallic foil to cardboard, paper, and leather. Over the years, this particular model had unfortunately been separated from its burners and burner box.

Luckily, our resident bookbinder, Greg Martin, was in possession of a suitable replacement and kindly donated a burner for the press. Maurice, a retired Fabricator/Maintenance Fitter, was then able to reverse engineer the missing burner box using a screenshot from a youtube video and measurements of our machine.

Last Sunday we got to see it assembled and running for the first time. What a beautiful result, we can’t wait to see what shiny creations ensue!

31/07/2026

Last week we also had the pleasure of welcoming the Nepean Probus Club and Community Culture to the museum. Their group journeyed through the history of letterpress, from Gutenberg to Intertype, and were delighted by demonstrations of our fully operational presses and machines! We were delighted to have a group of such engaged and curious people.

If you would also like to explore the history of printing, please visit us on Sundays between 10am and 2pm, or call 04 0841 2708 to schedule a group tour.

30/07/2026

On Friday we were visited by the year 10 visual arts class from The Kings School. Students enjoyed learning about composing, printing on the 1700s Common Press and 1841 Columbian Press, and watching demonstrations of the Intertype machine, Heidelberg Zylinder, Heidelberg Platen and Vertical Miehle printing presses. They also created thumbnail sketches of our museum. ✍️

To inquire about school bookings, please call 04 0841 2708. We are happy to chat about how our tours can be adapted to suit your curriculum.

17/07/2026

Another happy Typography workshop attendee from Newcastle spent the day learning, watching some great machines in action and really loved the Intertype and Ludlow in action. Followed by typesetting letter by letter and word by word as Gutenberg did in the 1450's . Then Galley proofing, reading (no spell check here) and final print on our 1857 Imperial press, which use to print the Horsham Gazette in Victoria many years ago. Also printed a coaster or two on our Adana.
Amy pictured shows her creations without using any passwords, batteries or Google can you believe it, not even electricity!
Why not have a go, details on our website for workshops, tours, membership come and enjoy the atmosphere, black ink and the analogue experience...

14/07/2026

Wow. To the posts point, imagine the noise. Pay us a visit to get a taste of it.

Here’s a shot of the Los Angeles Times composing room which was on the 4th floor of the Times’ building at 1st and Broadway in downtown LA. The photo was taken in 1912, which means these gentlemen were in the new Times building after the previous one was bombed by union radicals in 1912. I’ve never been in a newspaper composing room filled with Linotype machines, but it looks like it’d be noisy as hell. Can anyone reading this confirm or refute that? (Source: historyofinformation.com)

13/07/2026

Valuable info:

What is grain and why does it matter?

At its simplest,material grain is the dominant direction that fibres lay in.

A sheet will fold more easily along the grain because fewer fibres are being bent sharply. As a result, a sheet folds more easily and cleanly parallel to the grain, while a fold across the grain feels stiffer, springs back more, and is more likely to crack or appear rough.

In bookbinding the grain of the materials (text papers, endpapers, boards, cloth) runs parallel to the spine, from head to tail. When the grain of the paper and board runs parallel to the spine, the book opens smoother, with less page resistance, and the spine will flex more easily. When the grain runs across the spine instead of parallel to it, the materials resist the movements demanded of them.



Image from: MyHandboundBooks.blogspot

13/07/2026

What is the cylinder used for? It was donated along with some other pieces from Diana ex Fairfax at Broadway. They were often used in the Newspaper game in the 70's.

Come and visit the museum to see this great piece of history in action!
The Museum is open every Sunday 10am to 2pm.