Nowadays, books and newspapers use the latest lithographic offset technology or expensive gravure techniques that give more and more perfect results. We seldom find any of these products to vary in their quality or be irregular in any way, which is a long way from the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages or the inky newsprint of a few decades ago. But if you look hard enough there are still echoes of the past to be found with hand made or hand printed products making a welcome return to add a more personal touch. Items such as greetings cards have become so homogenized in recent years that card shoppers in particular are choosing the hand made variety over mass produced products for which the leaflet printing UK presses have been to blame for.
Printing has only recently been seen as an art form and its main appeal over the centuries has been the production of large runs of pamphlets and flyers and to great effect as the world has become mostly literate. However, mass production usually ends in mediocrity as the same design is seen all over, and formats are over used. It's as a reaction to this that the unusual forms start to become popular again and people start to look again at alternatives. Although you may expect handmade cards and other handmade items to be expensive, this is not always so with many websites and small companies providing these kinds of products reasonable prices can be found.