The museums where you can see the history of typography and printing up close: presses, punches, wood type and poster collections.
The Plantin-Moretus Museum
Location: Antwerp, Belgium.
Date: Opened to the public in 1877.
The former printing house and home of Christophe Plantin, one of the greatest printers of the Renaissance, preserved with its presses, punches and matrices.
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, it holds punches by Claude Garamont and the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world.
The Musée de l'Imprimerie et de la Communication graphique
Location: Lyon, France.
Date: Opened in 1964.
A museum devoted to the history of printing and the graphic arts, from Gutenberg to the digital age, with hands-on workshops.
It is France's leading typography museum, in a city that was one of Europe's main printing centres during the Renaissance.
The Atelier-Musée de l'Imprimerie
Location: Malesherbes, in the Loiret, France.
Date: Opened in 2018.
A printing museum with an impressive collection of working machines, from hand presses to rotary presses.
It is one of the largest printing museums in Europe, where you can see the machines in action.
The Gutenberg Museum
Location: Mainz, Germany.
Date: Founded in 1900.
A museum devoted to Gutenberg and the history of printing, in the city where he developed movable type.
It holds copies of the 42-line Bible, the first major book printed in Europe.
The Museo Bodoniano
Location: Parma, Italy.
Date: Opened in 1963.
A museum devoted to Giambattista Bodoni, preserving his punches, matrices and books.
It lets you discover the work of one of the greatest typographers in history, in the city where he worked all his life.
The Klingspor Museum
Location: Offenbach am Main, Germany.
Date: Opened in 1953.
A museum devoted to modern and contemporary book art, typography and calligraphy.
It holds the archives of the Klingspor foundry and of great German typographers such as Rudolf Koch.
The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum
Location: Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States.
Date: Opened in 1999.
A museum devoted to wood type, housed in the former Hamilton factory, once one of the largest wood type manufacturers in the world.
It holds one of the largest collections of wood type in the world, still used in its workshops.
The Museum für Gestaltung
Location: Zurich, Switzerland.
Date: Founded in 1875.
Zurich's design museum, home to vast collections of posters, graphic design and design.
Its poster collection is one of the most important in the world, with many iconic works of the Swiss Style.