A walk down the lanes of North Kolkata’s markets and you might chance upon a printing press that still uses the letter press, the oldest of the traditional printing techniques from the time of the Gutenberg Press circa 1450, until the development of lithography late in the 18th century.
In India, Kolkata was the hub of India’s printing trade in the 19th century, but with the advent of desktop publishing, the industry has modernised and the old hand-printing practices have nearly died out. The few that still exist are tucked away, understated yet continue to function resolutely while slowly being nudged out of existence.
