Edinburgh City of Print

'Those were the days when Edinburgh was the centre of printing… it was considered

quite a plum if you got yourself an apprenticeship in the printing industry'

Edinburgh is a city built on the production of books. Until the mid-1960s, Edinburgh was the major centre outside London for printing and publishing in the UK. Edinburgh was as well known for the three B’s of ‘Beer, Biscuits and Books’ as Dundee was for the three J’s of ‘Jute, Jam and Journalism’.

Edinburgh City of Print aims to provide access to the printing and publishing collections of the City of Edinburgh Museums. This site gives visitors the opportunity to view previously unseen items from these collections, to understand the history of these key industries that shaped Edinburgh and to discover the working lives behind them.

Edinburgh City of Print is a joint project between the City of Edinburgh Museums and the Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records (SAPPHIRE). City of Print is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Museum Galleries Scotland.