Our Story

Who are we?

Welcome to Common Ink, a specialist handmade typewritten print store nestled in the heart of East London. Founded by two passionate Architects, with nearly two decades of combined experience, we pride ourselves on our meticulous attention to detail, our passion for beautiful paper and our love of restored typewriters.

Each and every sheet is hand selected, every text is individually measured and positioned with a watchful eye to ensure every print is perfect, and made just for you!

Our Process

Once your order is placed, we begin by preparing a fully scaled, custom digital draft, which we will then send your way for your confirmation. This way, we can ensure everything is absolutely perfect, and allow us to quickly adapt and change the layout and text as you prefer, for a fully bespoke experience.

Once your draft layout is confirmed, we then use this as a basis for measurements. Often typewritten texts can look off-centre or not be positioned correctly. At Common Ink, we measure each sheet individually and calculate every measurement individually, so we can ensure every single print is perfectly centred and aligned, and exactly as your draft.

Once measured, each print is then carefully hand typed using one of our vintage typewriters, having tested a lot of typewriters, we have found a careful selection of excellent, repaired and fine-tuned typewriters to give a perfect print to every character. All of our typewriters use a pica sized typeface (10 characters per inch) as we find this the clearest and most aesthetically pleasing font.

Our commitment to quality extends to a rigorous quality control process, with over one thousand prints dispatched without error. Each print undergoes a meticulous review and proofreading against your original text. Once we're satisfied that it meets our standard, your unique print is delicately hand-wrapped, and sent on its way to you.

At Common Ink, we take pride in our craftsmanship and precise attention to detail that goes into creating each and every one of our custom typewritten prints. Your idea is brought to life through a process that combines our high quality, handmade paper, typewriters and years of experience, resulting in a print that is as exceptional as it is personal.