RGM Etching Press Review: The $850 Italian Tabletop Press Our Readers Keep Buying

The RGM RGPRESS2642 is the press our readers click on more than any other, and after comparing its listing, RGM's own catalog specs, and the pattern of owner feedback against everything else in the category, we understand why: it is the cheapest machine on Amazon that is unambiguously a real intaglio press. The number in the model name is the print area in centimeters, 26 by 42, which works out to 10.5 by 16.5 inches. That is enough bed for a 9 by 12 plate with margins on every side, a standard 8 by 10 with room to spare, or two small plates ganged for a card edition.

Two honest caveats that the Amazon listing does not spell out. First, this model is direct drive: the wheel turns the roller one to one, with no gear reduction. RGM does sell 1:3 geared presses, but they start at the 35 by 50 cm size and cost far more. On this press, full intaglio pressure on a big zinc or copper plate takes real arm effort, which is fine for a home studio and tiring for a long editioning session. Second, at about 11 kg (22.5 lb) it is light for its capability. That is a gift on delivery day and a liability at the bench, because a press that walks under load ruins registration. Clamp or bolt it to a solid table and the problem disappears.

On felts: retail listings describe a thin 3 mm felt with the press. Treat that as a way to pull a test print the day it arrives, not as a blanket set. Intaglio wants a proper stack, and we cover exactly what to buy in the felt section below. Budget it into the purchase rather than discovering it later.

Who is this for? The printmaker whose intaglio work has buyers, students, or a deadline. If you are still deciding whether printmaking sticks, the Creative Mark or the Morzhunis starter below will teach you that for a third of the money. But if you already know, the RGM removes the equipment ceiling from the conversation for as long as you print at this size. Our best printmaking presses guide ranks it against the whole field, and this review exists because it keeps winning the click there.

If the RGM is the press to grow into, the Creative Mark is the press to grow out of, and most people take years to do it. The listing states a 9 by 15 inch print capacity and steel rollers with dual pressure screws, which is the same basic architecture as the RGM at a smaller scale and a much lower price. It is the pick in our best etching presses guide for exactly that reason.

The question between the two is plate size, honestly answered. If your work lives at 5 by 7 and 8 by 10, the Creative Mark prints it well and the RGM's extra 1.5 inches of width buys nothing. If you already own a 9 by 12 plate, or intend to, the Creative Mark cannot print it with margins and the RGM can. Decide on the plate, not the press.

There is a real argument for buying the cheap press first, and it is not about money. It is that nobody knows whether they love wiping plates until they have wiped fifty of them, and $130 with a felt and plate included is the cheapest way to find out. The Morzhunis pulls legitimate small drypoints and monotypes.

Its limits are the usual starter-class ones: the rollers are not the RGM's solid 35 mm steel, so pressure falls off toward the edges and large plates print unevenly. Read that as a curriculum, not a defect. When you notice it, you are ready for the Creative Mark or the RGM.

This is the alternative for people who clicked on the RGM because they want a press, not because they want an etching press. If your work is linocut, the roller is the wrong mechanism: a roller press prints a block by squeezing it through a nip line, which works with careful packing but curls thin paper and demands registration fiddling. A platen press like the Woodzilla lowers a flat plate onto the whole block at once, and relief printers who switch rarely go back.

The A4 model handles blocks up to 8.25 by 11.75 inches, which is US letter, and Woodzilla's own spec lists 30 mm press plates in a fully welded, powder coated steel frame at about 6.5 kg. The felt blanket and anti-skid feet ship in the box. We covered it in depth in our Woodzilla press review, and the A3 version appears in our linocut and block printing kits guide.

Every intaglio press review should end with the felts, because that is the purchase people forget until the first print comes out with a hard roller line across it. Blankets do two jobs: they push damp paper down into the incised lines to lift the ink, and they spread the roller's force so the plate does not emboss a bar into the paper. A single thin felt cannot do both.

The Richeson cushion is the thick layer. At 12 by 26 inches it clears the RGM's bed on both dimensions, and the quarter-inch thickness is the traditional cushion spec. Put a thin catcher blanket between it and your paper (the Richeson baby press catcher in the table above is sized to match) and you have the two-blanket stack most small-press printmakers run. Store them flat, wash them rarely and gently, and they last years.