Our Design Philosophy

Since our founding in 1996, the Saint Austin Press has been known for its beautifully printed books.
We believe that beautiful books are more likely to be read and cherished. This philosophy has always guided our production processes and choices of materials, to produce classic looking beautiful editions that are attractive to read and cherish.
A lot of our work involves taking older texts and reprinting them. Sometimes these texts need corrections or additional texts added. To make a beautiful book we either restore the originals or re-typeset to reflect the original work as closely as possible. Where the original work was well produced, we try to emulate this by using the same design elements.
The unique joy of owning, holding and reading beautiful printed editions will, we hope, inspire many generations to re-discover the richness and beauty of the Catholic faith and cultural tradition.

What makes a good, traditional book?

The Saint Austin Press exclusively offers hardcover books, made using traditional natural covering materials because we believe that our titles deserve to be bound in elegant hardcover editions. Although more costly to produce than paperbacks, hardcovers provide better protection and are far more elegant on a bookshelf.

Printing

One of the printing machines at our printer.

It is essential that the manufacturing process maintains the highest standards in every copy. Our printer carefully monitors the printing process for evenness of ink-weight and freedom from blemishes.
Binding

Our books are sewn bound which is the traditional, but more expensive method to bind books ensures that the book pages are secure and open easily to make reading a pleasure. Cheaply bound hardback books use glue to bind loose sheets together which often results in loose sheets falling out.

A sewn bound book block, before the cover is added.


This book stays open easily because its sections are sewn bound.

Traditional cover materials, such as leather and cotton buckram are used with beautiful blocking designs to complete the books.



We use decorative elements such as head and tail bands and ribbon markers to add a distinctive look.
The end result is that St. Austin Press books not only look elegant on the shelf, but are a joy to read.