Scotland’s Printing Heritage promotes interest in the history of the printing industry, which is one of Scotland’s oldest and works with institutions across Scotland to ensure that printing archives and artefacts are not lost. It is the public face of the Scottish Printing Archival Trust, formed in 1988 to conserve knowledge and examples of Scotland’s printing heritage.
Our activities include exhibitions (most recently in in the Glasgow Herald’s former printing works in 2018), guided walks and training workshops on traditional letterpress skills. We worked with National Museums Scotland to ensure that the 1904 Cossar Patent Flat Bed Web Newspaper Printing Machine from Crieff was not scrapped, and worked with the National Library of Scotland and Print Scotland to celebrate 500 years of printing in Scotland. You can find out more on the Projects page.
Our publications on the history of the Scottish printing industry are all available through our online shop:
- four books in the Reputation for excellence series covering the printing industry in towns and cities throughout Scotland
- Print Trail leaflets for Glasgow and Edinburgh
- a poster of Rules for the printing shop
- Mechanical to Digital Printing in Scotland by Prof John Gennard, charting the 100 year history of the Scottish print employers organisation, published in association with Print Scotland.
For more information about our work, contact the Honorary Secretary, use the contact form or follow us on X/Twitter.
Material from this website should not be reproduced without permission.
Last updated 16 February 2024
SPRAT is grateful for support from The Watson Foundation