San Francisco Center for the Book Reviews

This a fabulously wonderful and inspiring place! A gallery and workshops with great instructors. A priceless resource in SF.

Great classes, incredibly well-equipped, excellent community of folks

Great letterpress classes, equipment, events, and people. Nice new space as of 2013.

Got a tour with some co-workers. What a fascinating treasure.

Such a wonderful place full of history and book-making magic! SF Center for the Book has a knowledgeable staff who are able to tell you all about the traditional book-making arts. They also have exhibitions of amazing and creative books. This place also offers classes and is a resource to for those who choose to self-publish (ie digital tools to rent/use for modern book-making). The museum is also no more than a block away from the Wattis muesum- which is also free! One can make a nice day of museum hopping just between these two, terrific places!

Always interesting things going on at the center. Loads of classes from printing to book binding. Their shop is large and they have many different machines to print in. The staff is friendly and helpful. Check out roadworks, where they bring out a cool fired steam roller to print on the street!

Amazing place to learn about books and printing - super friendly and knowledgeable staff!

I recently learned about Center for the Book, located in Potrero Hill, near the Whole Foods. I took two back-to-back Marbling classes from Pietro Accardi: one on paper Marbling, and one on Fabric Marbling. He is a wonderful, patient, funny teacher, and so generous with sharing his knowledge. Both classes were fabulous. At the end of the weekend I was tired, but happy at what I had learned and excited about following up and doing more Marbling. Highly recommended!

This is a gem in the neighborhood! Love the classes here

Exhibition hall, letterpress workshops and more, in a wonderful place to see and make books in SF

Amazing opportunities to explore book arts from printing to binding.

Unique, wonderful space. Highly encourage everyone to visit.

OMG had a blast. Roots of Motor Power from Willits Ca Brought a 1923 Kelly Spring field steam roller.

Wonderful place. They also provide classes in printing

I took a bookbinding class here. It was interesting but a little expensive and the books we made were pretty lackluster. However, I love that this place exists and the staff were knowledgeable and very friendly.

Took the Coptic Binding course - found it well worth my time and the instructor (Nina) was extremely helpful walking through the steps and making sure everyone in class was on track.

They offer great classes and have really good instructors.

Very cool place with tons of knowledge and a very friend staff!

An excellent spot for writers and crafty folks. Bookbinding classes are reasonably priced (for San Francisco, at least), and you can learn so much about bookmaking just by wandering around the place for free.

This is a unique place for anyone who is interested in the printed word. Did you know that people were writing books on palm leaves in Southeast Asia a thousand years ago? They have a whole collection of them here.

I learned how to use a Vandercook and a C&P platen press in a series of classes and now am certified!

Lovely space - bright, airy, clean and well maintained. I go as often as I can to the Open Press nights that are hosted by a knowledgeable printer. Great way to work on your own letterpress projects without all the hassle of owning and maintaining a press!

They are preserving traditional printing arts into the new millennium, what's not to love? I have attended a few open houses here and when I can find the time I plan to take their bookbinding and press printing workshops

This place is nothing short of transformative. I took a letterpress workshop here and it was so immensely rewarding. Top-notch teachers, friendly staff and their events are well-attended. And I'm sure that's barely scratching the surface. Check it out for yourself!

Such a great place to learn about the history of the printing press. Bookworms will love this place! There are workshops to teach about block printing and book binding.

My only experience with the San Francisco Center for the Book was going to the Roadworks Steamroller Printing Festival today on Rhode Island Street at 16th in Potrero Hill. This was a really cool event in which rather than using presses to put ink on paper in linoleum pressing, they used actual steamrollers. There was a modern looking steamroller, and a very old looking, coal-fired, steam-powered steamroller, that they kept saying was "seven tons of steel." In addition to the print-making there were (1) many booths selling prints and objects related to the printed word, (2) a DJ with great taste in music but who made the music a little too loud for young children, (3) a Whole Foods booth where children could paint, (4) an open house a the SFCB.

This was a really fun event. Really the only negative was the music being too loud for my young children. Other than that, it was fun. My boys didn't get at all tired of watching the steamrollers go back and forth over the prints. And the prints themselves were beautiful. If they turn down the volume we'll go back next year.

Remember books? Bookbinding? Prints? Printmaking? No, then come here and learn. Yes, then come here and enjoy.

Free to see exhibits and good place for book workshops .

This place is a blast for book nerds or people who just love learning new things.

I did an evening letterpress workshop at SFCB and loved it. The class was taken by talented designer and letterpress printing extraordinaire, Adam Ewing. He made the printing process look easy but, as we soon found out, it's a highly skilled process and labour of love.

The studio is a like a sweet shop for typography lovers, with drawer after drawer of old wood and metal type. The workshop gave me the opportunity to pull a print using both a Vandercook cylinder press and a tabletop platen press. The white ink on black paper worked beautifully. I'm still trying to decide where to hang the finished print.

With many other workshops specialising in different printing techniques, book binding, and hand lettering, I'd sign up for a different class every week (if only I lived in SF!).