About
Typesettingsg
The start of modern printing was introduced by the Missionaries from London Missionary Society in 1823 with the setting up of the Mission Press by both Claudius Henry Thomsen and Samuel Milton. The Mission Press closed down in Singapore in 1846, the set up was relocated to China but printing activities continues. The earliest English newspaper started in 1824, Singapore Chronicle, earliest Chinese weeklies Tifang Jih Pao (地方日报; Local News) in 1845 and Jit Sheng (日升; Rising Sun) in 1858 and as well as Chermin Mata, a Malay (Jawi) quarterly journal (from 1858). The printing method Letterpress remain as the main printing method up till the 80s when major newspaper transit to phototypesetting and later on desktop publishing. No museum nor space were set up dedicating to this form of printing. As a country with multilingual population, letterpress printing in Singapore was undertaken with various language in Jawi, Tamil, Latin Alphabets and Chinese types, thus giving it an unique letterpress setup, with the Chinese types in a standing type case and the western types in a drawer cabinet.
Typesettingsg began as a personal project in that aimed to preserve and promote traditional letterpress in Singapore, focusing mainly on moveable types for all printings. The studio was established in early 2014 as an educational hub to share this form of printing and its history with a wider audience as well as the design community. We conduct letterpress typesetting workshops, letterpress talks and rental of our studio press for individuals or communities who are interested in letterpress and its history. With our movable types, we are also able to conduct customised printing for functions, events and school workshop.
The studio has save and accumulate a wide range of Singapore printing heritage, printing presses, Chinese metal types, printing tools to printed specimens and letterpress related books from 1930s. House over 13 printing press, over 150 fonts and borders in varies sizes.
A member of the International Association of Printing Museums.
Letterpress programs with the community
Talks
‘Arts in Your Neighbourhood - Traditional Letterpress Talk & Demo’ at Jurong Reg Library, Nov 2014
‘Design Talks: Letterpress’ at Orchard Library, Feb 2015 ‘Artists Anonymous’ at Central Public Library, Mar 2015
‘[ArtSEEN] Chillout: Letterpress workshop by Typesettingsg’ at Tampines Library, Oct 2015
‘A Day with Type’ at Orchard Library, Apr 2016
'早报文创空间五：在方寸里看世界' at Singapore Chinese Culture Centre, Jun 2017
'Letterpress Sharing Session' at TP, Jul 2017
'Typesettingsg & Letterpress Printing in Singapore' at Hong Kong Zine & Print Fest, Dec 2017
'Tapping Culture for design' at National Design Center, Jan 2018
'Chinese typesetting' at Singapore Chinese Culture Centre, May 2018
'什么是活版印刷?' at Singapore Book Fair 2018, May 2018
'Singapore Printing History & Printing Heritage in SEA' at IAPM Conference Korea CheongJu, Oct 2018
[CANVAS/S] Letterpress with Typesettingsg: Artist Talk, Library@orchard Jan 2019
SYSMH Letterpress talk, Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall Feb 2019
196 Years of letterpress printing Singapore, Beijing China BIBF Aug 2019
A History in Objects: Letterpress Printing in Singapore, NUS-YALE Oct 2019
Art Lab: Designing Red Packet Characters with Typesettingsg, Apple Orchard Jan 2020
'200th year of letterpress printing in Singapore
' at Tokyo Printing Museum
4th Printing culture conference (Nov 2023)
Exhibition
‘The Art of Reading Group Exhibition’ Letterpress Artist Book (Mar 2016)
‘A Day with Type Letterpress Exhibition’ at Orchard Library (Mar - Apr 2016)
'The Singapore Writers Festival Broadsides Exhibition' at Art House (Nov 2016)
‘Artists’ Book Exhibition at Singapore Contemporary Printmaking Festival (Jan 2017)
“Type • Printing • Culture” Collection Exhibition at Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (May 2018)
"[CANVAS/S] Letterpress with Typesettingsg: Letterpress Exhibition", Library@Orchard(Jan 2019)
"A History in Objects: Letterpress Printing in Singapore" NUS-YALE (Oct 2019)
Events & Festival
Singapore Heritage Festival - 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2023
Singapore Design Week - 2015 / 2018 / 2019
Singapore Writer Festival - 2015 / 2016 / 2023
SkillsFuture Festival (SFF) - 2019
Opening of the National Gallery - Carnival - 2015
Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall - 2018 / 2019 / 2022
Singapore Chinese Culture Center - 2017 / 2018
Malay Heritage Centre Exhibition - 2016