Our annual list of Christmas gifts for discerning printers has been purposely picked with this age-old problem in mind.

Typodarium

Cliff Richard may no longer top the pop charts, but he regularly tops the calendar best seller list. But if the 60s pop star really isn’t your type, how about splashing out on the Typodarium typographical tear-off calendar. Featuring 365 fonts, from 223 designers and 156 foundries in 31 countries, the Typodarium separates true typography buffs from the try-hards. And the real beauty of the Typodarium is that it comes packaged in a sturdy box so that you can archive the tear-off type sample sheets and use them as a reference tool for years. 

Price: £26.89, www.amazon.co.uk

3Doodler

Are you sick of hearing company’s claim that their product is a world first? Well here’s another one. 3Doodler claims that it’s created the “world’s first ever 3D pen”. The initial production run of the pen was funded on Kickstarter and it’s now commercially available to purchase from numerous retailers for the princely sum of just under £100 – a lot less than even the cheapest 3D printer would set you back. The pen literally allows you to draw in thin air using tiny threads of plastic that set instantly. It’s compact, easy to use, affordable and great fun – what’s not to like?   

Price: £99.99, The3doodler.com

The Moleskine Smart Notebook 

The online and offline worlds are increasingly converging. Witness the recent collaboration between Adobe and the legendary notebook and diary manufacturer Moleskine. The two companies have come together to create a ‘Smart Notebook’ that allows creative types to create hand-drawn sketches and then, thanks to Creative Cloud connectivity and an accompanying free app, you can work on your pen and ink drawings in Adobe applications, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, online. The Notebook is fitted with special page markings that allows users to process doodles through to carefully thought out design concepts as jpeg files before converting them into an SVG file. Unfortunately the companies behind the ingenious Smart Notebook, which is currently available for pre-order online, weren’t smart enough to realise that this would make a great Xmas present as it isn’t expected to start shipping until 31 December. 

Price: £25.50, www.moleskine.com/gb

There’s nothing more Christmas-y than an insanely difficult 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle featuring one of the seven wonders of the world – it beats watching the Clueless celebrity special anyway. The only problem is that there are only so many times that you can complete a puzzle of the Taj Mahal or the pyramids before you start to get a little weary. So why not put a bit of pep back into your puzzles by commissioning a personalised wooden jigsaw puzzle from Wentworth. You simply upload your own photograph to the company’s website and then choose the number of jigsaw pieces you want your image to be cut up into. Just imagine Granny’s surprise on Christmas morning when she gets to piece together a picture of her grandkids – if nothing else it might stop her overdoing it on the sherry before the Queen’s speech!   

Price: from £25.95, www.jigsaws.co.uk

The vast majority of neophite printers and designers will never get the opportunity to get to grips with old-school hot metal type. The closest encounter they’ll have is if they happen to come across a market stall in one of London’s trendier haunts where pieces of type are being sold off for decorative purposes to budding interior designers. That’s largely why graphic designer John Bonadies and programmer Jeff Adams dreamt up the LetterMpress app for the Mac and iPad. The app enables users to set a print job using type and then to ‘print it’ (on the app at least). It’s a lot cheaper than splashing out on your own Adana hand press, but the jury is out as to whether it’s more fun than getting your fingers all inky.

Price: £1.49 for iPad, £2.99 for Mac, Lettermpress.com

Graphos Playing Cards

When it comes to type, are you the font of all knowledge? (Apologies for the appalling gag!) But if you are then the Graphos deck of playing cards is right up your street. Printed in sans serif, serif, script and decorative typefaces, as well as being easy on the eye these cards are a great way of educating people about typography. Information is split up by suit with spades dedicated to anatomy, hearts focuses on classification, clubs are adorned in information about the world of glyphs, and diamonds addresses typesetting. If you want to play your trump card when you’ve got guests around for a dinner party then invest in a pack of Graphos and start dealing.

Price: £6.54, www.etsy.com (from Kiddocollective) 

‘I hate Arial’ shower curtain

If like me you haven’t felt comfortable stepping into a shower since you watched Psycho for the first time, you could try and make the showering experience much more relaxing and enjoyable by customising your bathroom decor with this ‘I hate Arial’ shower curtain. The company prints this, and other typography inspired designs, onto pillows, mugs, bags and iPhone cases.   

Price: $68, Society6.com 

So Easy Screen Printing Kit

Sick of operating an all-singing, all-dancing, state-of-the-art press all day long in the press hall? Why not go back to basics with this screen printing kit from the Wicked Printing Stuff Foundation. The kit includes all of the tools you need to create a screen print without the need to expose your screen. If that doesn’t appeal, Margate-based artist and illustrator Nick Morley offers a linocut beginners kit for just £20 (Linocutboy.com). Morley also sells linocut ‘Anti Christmas’ cards that he prints on an Adana (£10 for four cards).   

Price: £70, www.wickedprintingstuff.com

Letterpress t-shirts

Do you know your Vandercook from your Chandler and Price? If so US-based Boxcar Press has got just the thing for you. The company is so obsessed with all things print – but particularly old letterpress machines – that it’s created an eye-catching range of t-shirts and printers’ aprons adorned with images of Vandercooks, Heidelberg Windmills and Sigwatt presses. It’s a great gift for print geeks who like to wear their heart on their sleeve (or their hobbies on their chest), but for mere mortals maybe it’s something that should just be worn around the house.

Price: from $7, www.boxcarpress.com

Typographic posters

Craft websites like Etsy have fuelled the creation of a cottage industry of print and typography creatives who historically might not have had the opportunity to sell their art to the masses. One of the biggest trends to emerge in this area over the last 12 months or so has been artists’ cleverly employing typography to create posters. 

Misterbenn.co.uk is a leading proponent in this area (prints cost from as little as £20). In addition to creating ‘Word Crowd’ prints consisting of lyrics from songs or words from film scripts that are bundled together, he creates portraits of famous musicians by building up layer upon layer of their lyrics – you can even supply your own words and he’ll create a personalised image.

Similarly impressive is former designer and self-confessed typography geek Pete Ware, who sells typographic prints from his 17th and Oak website (www.17thandoak.com). In addition to showcasing his own work, which includes uber-cool typographic Star Wars character prints made from the words they utter in the movie, Ware also sells prints from guest artists who share his typographic leanings (prices start from £3).

To help you navigate the fonts used by Ware and Co, US online print sales company Pop Chart Lab has come up with an educational infographic ‘Alphabet of typography’ print that acts as an “alphabetical primer on the wonders of typography” (popchartlab.com , price $29). The infographic includes serifs, hooks, diacritics, spines, ligatures and numerous other words that only typographic aficionados would understand.

And in the unlikely event that you happen to spot a mistake on any of these printed typographic treats you should arm yourself with PaperHammerTieton’s ‘Know your proofreaders’ marks’ poster (available from the company’s Etsy store for £9.80).

Bibliophile’s corner

There’s a bumper stock of print-related books available to buy for the bibliophile in your life this Christmas. One of the most noteworthy is the History of the Monotype Corporation, authored by Judy Slinn, Sebastian Carter and Richard Southall and edited by Andrew Boag and Christopher Burke (for more information visit www.vanbrughpress.com, £50). The book has been in the making for the last 20 years and features a dedication to the late PrintWeek columnist and print historian Lawrence Wallis, who worked at Monotype in the 1960s and was originally enlisted as a contributor to the tome. 

“From inscriptions on tombs to the first writings on papyrus; from scrolls to the first bound codex books in Roman times; from exclusive and expensive hand-scribed books to the creation of movable type and the invention of printing for the masses; and from the printed book to the digital book, the e-book reader and beyond” – if this rambling pre-amble piques your interest then you need to invest in The History of the Book in 100 Books (£25). This journey through time encompasses books from around the world covering subjects as diverse as religion, crime and fashion. 

In a similar vein Lother Muller’s White Magic: The Age of Paper, traces the origins of paper and the key role it’s played in history (£19.04 from Amazon). The author meticulously charts how paper made its way from China through the Arab world to Europe, and how the “paper technology revolution of the 19th century paved the way for the creation of the modern daily press”.

If you prefer fiction to facts, then why not give Alix Christie’s Gutenberg’s Apprentice a try (£10.95). The book tells the story of Peter Schoeffer who becomes Johann Gutenberg’s apprentice and commences his education in the darkest art...