About us

Also in the printing-house near Driksna Manor
They set to work with all their art and fantasy
To set, to bind, to print, then send the mind’s new fruits
Into an unknown world where they begin a new life.*

*A description of Gerhard Radeckis’ printing house located next to a branch of the Lielupe River near Driksna from Christian Bornmann’s 200-verse historical poem Mitau, printed by the Jelgava Printing House in 1686.

Each book bears witness to its age. It grants us a perspective on the world that the author has discovered and put into words that have not existed before now. It is impossible to determine from what depths of inspiration the words have come; the seed turns into fruit secretly and over a long period of time. Grain transforms into bread by passing through the earth and the oven. Printing machines act like the oven in this sense. We work so that when you open a book it smells like an invitation and a celebration.

The book layout that you send us is the blueprint for a complicated construction we help to calculate. We help books become immaculately beautiful and we take responsibility for every fold, every wrinkle, every tear. Our experience makes it possible for us to eliminate inefficiencies and not allow carelessness. Our work is to bring to fruition the final stage of your dream of a book and the first stage of your book’s way to its readers.

Your aspirations are the signposts we follow as we strive to create the most economic meth-ods of reaching our goals. Time is a resource for you and for us. We respect it, care for it, and save it. More than twenty years’ experience and unwavering interest in end results lets us ful-ly appreciate our special status as the very first to lay hands on something has never existed before. A new book. A calendar. A catalogue.

A well-made book is our history, our present day, and our future. Bearing witness to your joy is our daily bread. We have seen authors shed tears of joy as they watch with bated breath together with the printers when their book is opened for the very first time. We have stood next to artists as they embrace their new book like a long lost friend.

There is a string of daily responsibilities at the printing house—verifying files, drawing up calculations, searching for solutions; but as we do this work in the din of the machinery we are aware that this only touches the surface. Beneath the black uniforms of the printable letters hide boundless spaces of sense and meaning that we strive to lift into the light. This we do with great pleasure and gratitude for the confidence shown in our abilities. We are determined to be precision instruments through which the power of words reaches the world.

Each of us does our work and for each of us this work is something more than an obligation or hours account for. Our mutual interest in the results of our labour unites us and leads us forward. Taking joy in the precision that is necessary for making calculations, processing files, working with the machines, and packing books. A colleague is not merely an easily replaced part in the complex printing mechanism, but a human being. Our concern for each other is rooted in our shared interest in each individual’s ability to notice, get things done, and solve problems. Satisfaction is our goal. Taking joy in the results of the work we do, which can be held, opened, smelled, read, and given every day.

Nature is our investment and the legacy we leave to our children. Long-term planning means giving today. We gladly choose paper produced from sustainably managed forests; we work with environmentally friendly materials and technologies and are economical with our resources. We believe that making more difficult choices today will bear fruit tomorrow; the fruit that will be enjoyed by those who follow in our footsteps. Just as we are following in the footsteps of Johan Fridrihamn Stefenhagen whose printing house, founded in 1769, began our 250-year-long history. We pride ourselves on this history that serves as the foundation upon which we have evolved, depended, worked, and grown, and will continue to inspire our creative efforts for you in the future.