{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "printing-press",
  "version": "1.0.1",
  "status": "published",
  "kind": "object",
  "title": "Printing Press",
  "summary": "A hand press inks its type, slides in a sheet, presses it with the platen and slides the printed page out. Loops perfectly.",
  "description": "A hand press, printing a sheet every loop. An inked roller rolls across the forme of metal type, a blank sheet is lifted from the pile on the left and slid onto the bed, the iron platen comes down on a turning screw and presses the sheet against the type, rises, and the printed sheet is slid out onto the pile on the right. Choose the wood (oak, walnut or pine), the ink (black, red, blue or sepia), the seed that sets the lines of type, the backdrop colour and whether the camera sways.",
  "role": "Object (3D, three.js): a craft-and-history showpiece for publishing, books and heritage content.",
  "collections": [
    "satisfying",
    "product-reveals",
    "kinetic-text"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "printing press",
    "letterpress",
    "gutenberg",
    "type",
    "platen",
    "ink roller",
    "paper",
    "craft",
    "publishing",
    "studio",
    "loop",
    "3d"
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    "letterpress",
    "hand press",
    "gutenberg press",
    "book printing",
    "type forme",
    "platen press"
  ],
  "useCases": [
    "A publishing, book or print-shop title scene",
    "A heritage or craft brand scene",
    "A \"how it was made\" explainer"
  ],
  "featured": null,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-08",
  "implementation": {
    "target": "three",
    "runtime": "browser",
    "language": "javascript",
    "module": "esm",
    "entry": "src/printing-press.js",
    "exports": [
      {
        "name": "createPrintingPress",
        "signature": "createPrintingPress({ wood?, ink?, seed? }) => { group, setProgress(progress), dispose() }",
        "description": "The press with its piles of paper, about 16 wide, resting on y = 0; needs an environment map."
      },
      {
        "name": "INKS",
        "signature": "INKS: { black, red, blue, sepia }",
        "description": "Ink colours."
      }
    ],
    "reusable": [
      "src/printing-press.js"
    ],
    "demo": "demo.js",
    "harness": "index.html"
  },
  "dependencies": [
    {
      "id": "three",
      "version": "0.185.1",
      "reason": "Renderer, geometry and shader materials."
    },
    {
      "id": "chrome-material",
      "version": "1.1.0",
      "scope": "demo",
      "reason": "Studio environment light, backdrop and contact shadow."
    },
    {
      "id": "apw-runtime",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "scope": "demo",
      "reason": "Demo harness."
    }
  ],
  "params": [
    {
      "key": "wood",
      "label": "Wood",
      "type": "select",
      "default": "oak",
      "options": [
        {
          "value": "oak",
          "label": "Oak"
        },
        {
          "value": "walnut",
          "label": "Walnut"
        },
        {
          "value": "pine",
          "label": "Pine"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "key": "ink",
      "label": "Ink",
      "type": "select",
      "default": "black",
      "options": [
        {
          "value": "black",
          "label": "Black"
        },
        {
          "value": "red",
          "label": "Red"
        },
        {
          "value": "blue",
          "label": "Blue"
        },
        {
          "value": "sepia",
          "label": "Sepia"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "key": "seed",
      "label": "Seed",
      "type": "integer",
      "min": 1,
      "max": 999,
      "step": 1,
      "default": 14
    },
    {
      "key": "background",
      "label": "Backdrop",
      "type": "color",
      "default": "#2a241e"
    },
    {
      "key": "orbit",
      "label": "Camera sway",
      "type": "boolean",
      "default": true
    }
  ],
  "presets": [
    {
      "id": "default",
      "label": "Oak, black ink",
      "params": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "red",
      "label": "Walnut, red ink",
      "params": {
        "wood": "walnut",
        "ink": "red",
        "background": "#201814"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "blue",
      "label": "Pine, blue ink",
      "params": {
        "wood": "pine",
        "ink": "blue",
        "seed": 9,
        "background": "#2a2e38"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "sepia",
      "label": "Oak, sepia",
      "params": {
        "ink": "sepia",
        "seed": 31,
        "background": "#3a3024"
      }
    }
  ],
  "output": {
    "width": 1080,
    "height": 1080,
    "fps": 30,
    "durationSeconds": 12,
    "posterSeconds": 6,
    "alpha": false,
    "motion": "procedural",
    "loop": {
      "seamless": true,
      "cycleSeconds": 12,
      "method": "The roller inks, the sheet moves in, is pressed and moves out in fixed windows of the loop; the piles on both sides look the same at the first and last frames, and the camera sway is a sine of the loop, so the last frame meets the first."
    },
    "seed": {
      "param": "seed",
      "behavior": "Seed sets which letters of the forme are raised, so the lines of type: same seed, same page."
    }
  },
  "composition": {
    "inputs": "Time within the loop; the wood, ink, seed, backdrop and camera sway.",
    "outputs": "A full frame rendered in 3D with a studio environment.",
    "coordinates": "The bed (5.4 × 3.8) is at the centre at y = 1; the platen travels between y = 3.4 and 1.9; the blank pile is at x = −6.1 and the printed pile at x = +6.1.",
    "lighting": "A warm key light with a shadow map, a shadow-catching floor and the studio environment.",
    "timing": "setProgress(progress) places the roller, sheet and platen; frames render in any order.",
    "compatibleWith": [
      "chrome-material",
      "orbit-camera",
      "kinetic-title",
      "number-reveal"
    ],
    "notes": [
      "The printed page is drawn once on a canvas from the same lines of type as the forme."
    ]
  },
  "reuse": [
    "Publishing title: Oak, black ink.",
    "Warm heritage: Walnut, red ink.",
    "Soft: Pine, blue ink."
  ],
  "integration": {
    "newProject": "Create a WebGLRenderer with a studio environment and a shadow-casting light, add createPrintingPress().group and call press.setProgress(progress) each frame.",
    "existingProject": "Copy src/printing-press.js; add the group to your scene with an environment map."
  },
  "performance": {
    "notes": "A few dozen meshes plus an instanced forme of 154 type blocks and a shadow map: about a millisecond a frame on an integrated Intel GPU.",
    "limits": "Software WebGL renders in about a second a frame."
  },
  "limitations": [
    "The type is abstract blocks, not readable letters.",
    "The piles do not grow or shrink; the new sheet blends into the pile."
  ],
  "license": {
    "spdx": "MIT",
    "notice": "Copyright (c) 2026 AI Pixel Wizard. Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE in this folder.",
    "thirdParty": []
  },
  "provenance": "Adapted from the owner's threejs-sketches/objects-scenes/printing-press (MIT) and rebuilt for AI Pixel Wizard in October 2026 as an original studio object: a timber-frame hand press with a forme of instanced type, an inking roller, a screw platen and a sheet that is fed, printed and delivered in fixed windows on an exact loop.",
  "changelog": [
    {
      "version": "1.0.1",
      "date": "2026-10-08",
      "notes": "Instanced meshes are no longer culled using their first-frame bounds, so nothing can vanish when parts move far from where the first frame left them. No visual change."
    },
    {
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "date": "2026-10-05",
      "notes": "Initial release."
    }
  ]
}