Hortvs Tenebrárivs Press is an independent small press and type foundry in Seattle. Everything made here is a direct refusal of machine-generated slop. A glyph is not a prompt. A page is not a feed.
The name
Hortus Tenebrarius, the garden of shadows. Out of the shadow, the mark (Ex vmbra, character): our woodcuts are carved out of the solid black block, where light is earned only by what the blade takes away.
What the Press makes
Books and small volumes, hand-printed zines, art prints, typefaces and occult curios, and bespoke design for authors, scholars, astrologers and independent publishers. Each piece is drawn, set and finished in the studio.
How it’s made
Every piece in the shop says plainly who made it:
- Hand-printed in the studio. Zines, small runs and prints, printed, folded and packed by hand.
- Printed by a partner press. Books printed as fixed editions by presses such as Bookmobile in Minneapolis, then held and posted from the studio.
- Printed to order. Some art prints are printed for you by a print partner, close to where you live, so nothing is printed that isn’t wanted.
Mission
We make working instruments and physical editions for scholars, astrologers, and designers who care about the bones of a letter and the weight of paper. Keeping esoteric and traditional astrological work in print means making things slowly, naming every hand involved, and letting the craft speak for itself.
Labour and the earth
Every edition names its printer, paper and binding in the colophon. Print runs stay small or are printed to order close to the buyer so nothing is pulped or wasted, and no synthetic filler or generative imagery enters the press.
The foundry
The type foundry draws on old inscriptions, woodcuts and astrological manuscripts, reworked as fonts for present-day use. Our typefaces (Physis, Nox Atra, and Ani Cursiva, in development) are drawn contour by contour, spaced and tested in-house. Browse the typefaces.
Editions and colophons
Each book and zine carries a colophon: who printed it, how, on what paper, and in how many copies. A numbered edition is printed once; when it is gone it is gone. “First printing” means the first run of a title; later runs are noted as such.
Who’s behind it
Hortvs Tenebrárivs Press is run by Hugh Tran, a designer, astrologer and type maker in Seattle. For design commissions, see HTD Studio, and for Hugh’s readings and writing, see About.
Work with the Press
For custom type, extended font licences, wholesale, stockists or collaborations, use the contact page.