Our Story
The history of Printers Plus dates back to the mid-60’s, where we find Joe running a mid-1800 Gordon Treddle-Powered letterpress in the unused milkhouse on the farm property where he lived on the north side of Elkhart. The business grew under the name of Penn Printing, which then included three other brothers working part-time towards a common goal: increasing business. Joe’s call to Vietnam and loss of focus by the other brothers caused them to shut down.
In 1978, after schooling at Ferris State College and IUSB, Joe and Kathy purchased the remaining equipment from the brothers and restarted the business. They changed the name to Livings Graphics, DBA Printers Plus. The new Printers Plus was located at their home on Adamsville Road. The business expanded and was moved to Cassopolis Street in 1982. After additional growth, they moved again in 2000 to their present location of 2111 Cassopolis Street.
Location isn’t the only change that Printers Plus has encountered – technology has made major leaps & bounds. First there was the transformation of typesetting from handset cold type to hot lead linotype machines, then onto IBM goofballs with cassette memory, to 18-character display typesetting machines, onto the upgrading & connectivity of the computer front-ends. We have evolved into offset printing and digital printing.
Currently, our production machines include: color copiers, duplicators, offset presses with CTP, Digital presses and even a couple of old letterpresses for specialty work and die cutting. We have a wide variety of computer programs and use both Mac and PC software
We are a family-oriented business; their children have spent many hours growing up within the company. We buy as much as they can locally to help keep their community strong. With our heads up, we look toward the future & work on educating the next generation of Printers Plus family members.
When you work here, you’re family.
