Arion Press

Arion Press makes books entirely by hand, describing itself as "the only printer in the United States to make books entirely by hand from comma to cover under one roof." Founded in 1974 as the successor to San Francisco's Grabhorn Press, it operates what it calls the last unified hot-metal type foundry, letterpress workshop, and book bindery still working together in America, based at 2 Marina Boulevard in the Fort Mason Landmark Building, open Tuesday through Saturday.

Arion Press states its foundry equipment once cast type for the United Nations Charter in 1945 — a claim repeated only in the press's own materials, with no independent archival or UN-history source found to corroborate it, so it is reported here as the press's own account rather than established fact. That same hot-metal casting, hand-typesetting, and hand-binding chain is still what produces each Arion edition today. The press pairs classic and contemporary literature with commissioned artists for small, hand-assembled runs — recent titles include Fables of Aesop with artwork by Kiki Smith, Octavia E. Butler's Kindred illustrated by Alison Saar, and A.A. Milne's Pooh illustrated by Sandow Birk.

Arion Press works alongside the affiliated Grabhorn Institute, which runs artist residencies and educational programs on the same premises, extending the craft beyond the press's own book production into teaching typecasting, printing, and binding to a new generation. Half a century after its founding, it remains a working type foundry and bindery, not a museum piece.