Reference · Updated September 2026

How to buy a printmaking press

Etching, relief, and combination presses explained, then the four decisions that actually pick the machine: bed size against the paper you print, how pressure is adjusted, tabletop or floor, and which blankets to buy. With a comparison table of every press we verified in stock, at every tier.

By the Austin Gallery editors · September 17, 2026

A press is the one piece of printmaking equipment you cannot improvise around, and the one most people buy wrong the first time, usually by picking a machine for the plate they have today instead of the paper they will print next year. This page is the decision guide. It explains what each type of press does mechanically, what bed size really means, how pressure is set, and what the money buys at each tier, and it ends with a table of every press we could verify in stock. For ranked picks with full reviews, our best printmaking presses guide covers the whole category and best etching presses goes deep on intaglio machines.

Etching press vs relief press vs combination press

An etching press is a roller press. A flat steel bed carries the plate, the damp paper, and a stack of felt blankets between two cylinders, and the top roller is screwed down until the stack passes with heavy resistance. That pressure is the point: intaglio ink sits down in the incised lines, and the paper has to be forced into them to pick it up. Drypoint, etching, engraving, mezzotint, and collagraph all need this. Nothing else delivers it.

A relief press is a platen press. There is no roller. A flat plate, driven by a lever or a screw, comes down on the inked block all at once. Linocut and woodcut ink sits on the raised surface, so what the block wants is moderate, perfectly even pressure across its whole face, and a platen gives exactly that without the curl and slur a roller can put into thin relief papers. The Speedball Woodzilla, the Linoartpress, and the classroom Speedball Model B are all platen presses.

A combination press is a roller press marketed for everything. The listings that say etching and letterpress, or list relief, intaglio, and foil in the title, are roller presses whose makers point out, correctly, that a roller press prints relief too if you back off the pressure and pack the block. That is true and useful. The honest caveat is that it is a compromise toward both jobs: a roller press does intaglio natively and relief adequately, and a platen press does relief natively and intaglio not at all. If you do both, buy the roller press. If you only carve, buy the platen and get better relief prints for the money.

The first serious etching press

Home Studio Pick

Creative Mark Basic Etching Press, 9 x 15 in bed

Steel rollers, dual pressure screws, and a 9 by 15 inch bed that covers letter and A4 paper with room for blankets. The listing states it handles engraving and relief block printing as well as intaglio. From the Jerry's Artarama house brand, so parts and support exist.

$289 at Amazon →

Bed size vs paper size: the spec you cannot upgrade

Every other part of a press can be tuned, replaced, or lived with. The bed cannot grow. So the sizing rule is simple and strict: the bed must be wider than your paper by about an inch on each side, so the blankets can seat past the sheet edges, and longer than the paper by a lead-in so the rollers grip the bed and blankets before they reach the plate. Sizing to the plate is the classic mistake, because the paper is always bigger than the plate, and the paper you use will grow as you get better.

Two practical notes. First, on a platen press the number that matters is the platen size, and the Woodzilla sizes (A4, A3, A2) name the largest block, not the paper, so an A3 Woodzilla prints an A3 block on A3 or slightly larger paper with the margins hanging past the platen. Second, several of the starter roller presses do not state a bed size in their listing at all. We list them as not stated in the table below rather than guess; if a listing will not tell you the bed dimension, assume it is small and plan for postcards and small plates.

Pressure adjustment: how it works and what separates the tiers

On a roller press, pressure is the gap between the top roller and the bed, set by two screws or handwheels, one at each end of the roller. You turn both in equal increments so the roller stays parallel, run the stack through, and adjust until a test plate prints its finest lines cleanly without embossing the paper into a relief map. Wiping and inking are the hard work of intaglio; setting pressure should be a two-minute job, and then it should stay set for the whole edition.

That last sentence is where the money goes. Starter presses use coarse screws that creep under load, so the fifth print is lighter on one side than the first and you find yourself shimming the bed. Art-brand presses like the Creative Mark hold their setting through an edition, which is most of what you are paying the extra $100 for. Geared professional presses like the RGM add a drive reduction, so full intaglio pressure turns with one hand instead of a shoulder, and a fine adjustment that makes matching pressure across an edition repeatable rather than approximate. On platen presses the equivalent spec is lever throw and platen flatness: a good lever press hits the block evenly corner to corner with body weight; a cheap one flexes at the edges.

The professional tabletop

Edition Pick

RGM Etching Press (RGPRESS2642)

The Italian machine-shop press: machined steel, geared drive, and pressure that repeats across an edition. Costs as much as three starter presses and weighs enough to become furniture. The right buy when printmaking is your practice rather than your experiment.

$854 at Amazon →

Tabletop vs floor press

Every press in this guide is a tabletop machine, and for good reason: floor etching presses with 24 to 36 inch beds cost thousands, weigh hundreds of pounds, and mostly sell direct from a handful of makers. A tabletop press is enough for almost every home printmaker, and the honest way to decide is to ask three questions. What is the largest paper I print regularly? Up to A3 or an 11 x 15 inch quarter sheet, tabletop is fine; a 15 x 22 half sheet or a 22 x 30 full sheet needs a floor press. How often? Occasional editions suit a tabletop; weekly production or teaching argues for the leverage and bed of a floor machine. What will it sit on? A press wants a solid, level bench, and the lighter starters need clamping down or they walk under load. If the bench is the kitchen table, buy the smallest press that covers your paper and clamp it.

A lever platen press changes the calculus for relief printers. The A2 Woodzilla prints a 16.5 x 23 inch block, which is half-sheet territory, from a machine that lives on a table and looks like furniture. If your work is carved rather than etched, the platen route reaches large formats without a floor press.

The relief press that fits a dining room

Relief Pick

Speedball Woodzilla Press, A4 (8.25 x 11.75 in), Dark Green

The Dutch-made beech lever press, distributed by Speedball, in the A4 size that covers letter-size blocks. Even platen pressure for lino and woodcut, no blankets, no roller, and no intaglio. Step to the A3 ($540) or A2 ($716) for larger blocks.

$409 at Amazon →

Felts and blankets: what they do and what to buy

Intaglio needs a blanket stack between the top roller and the paper. The stack does two jobs: it cushions the paper so the roller can push it down into the plate's lines, and it spreads the roller's force so the pressure is even across the plate instead of concentrated at the contact line. A traditional stack is three felts: a thin sizing catcher against the paper (it absorbs sizing and moisture and is the one you replace most), a cushion in the middle, and a thicker pusher on top. Small tabletop presses often run two, and a rubber offset blanket under the felts is a common base layer that protects the felt from the bed.

Size the blankets to the bed, not the paper: they should cover the full bed width and be long enough to run past the plate at both ends. The 12 x 26 inch felts above fit the 9 x 15 inch class of press; the 15 x 21 inch offset blanket suits wider beds. Relief printing on a roller press does not use the full stack; a sheet of mat board or a single thin blanket over the block is enough packing. Platen presses use no blankets at all, which is one of the quiet savings of going the lever route.

What to budget at each tier

Read the tiers as tuition. The starter class answers the only question that matters at the start, which is whether you love the work, and it answers it for under $200. The home-studio tier is where prints become editions, because pressure holds. The relief tier is a different machine for a different craft. And the professional tier removes the ceiling permanently, which only matters if you have found one. Add blankets, ink, paper, and a bench to every number; our linocut kits guide covers the carving side of the supply list.

Every press we verified in stock

Amazon prices, buy box confirmed, September 17, 2026, rounded to the dollar. Affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Bed sizes are taken from listing titles; where a listing does not state one we say so rather than guess. Type is our classification from the listing and the mechanism.

A few patterns in the table. The sub-$200 roller presses (Morzhunis, JIAYOFWCHI, KAIKAFEI, EWANYO) are the same idea at four price points, and none states a bed size; treat them as small-plate machines. The two presses that do state a bed, the Creative Mark at 9 x 15 and the TECHTONGDA at 12.6 x 19.7, are the ones to compare if paper size is your constraint, and the TECHTONGDA's extra width is the difference between A4 and A3 for ten dollars more. On the relief side, the Nestly and Linoartpress A3 lever presses undercut the A3 Woodzilla by $230 to $410 for the same nominal capacity; the Woodzilla premium buys Dutch beech joinery, Speedball distribution, and a press you will not hide in the garage.

What to avoid

A press for the plate instead of the paper. Covered above, and still the most common regret. A platen press for intaglio. It cannot do it, however the listing is worded. Pasta-roller and die-cut machines sold as etching presses. They pull a monotype and will not deliver intaglio pressure. Skipping blankets to save $50. A roller press without felts prints a blind emboss and not much else. A light bench. The press is only as rigid as what it sits on. And buying the professional press first. The RGM is a magnificent machine that does not teach a beginner anything a $289 press cannot; buy it when your editions have buyers.

Frequently asked questions

Austin Gallery is an Amazon affiliate. Product links on this page are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Prices were read from the Amazon Product Advertising API on September 17, 2026 and will change. We compared listings, stated specifications, and owner feedback patterns; we did not physically test these presses. See our full affiliate disclosure and how we research.