My latest Economist blog article hearkens back to my roots as a graphic designer who specialized in type and typography. It's called "Debossed, yes. Debased? Maybe," which is a title designed to draw you in. Debossing is slamming letterpress type and art against paper (or vice versa, depending on your press), so that the raised type makes an impression in the paper. (Technically, you need a plate behind and in front of paper to deboss, just like you need the same to emboss. But the intent is the same.)
The reason for the post is Apple's inclusion of hybrid letterpress/laser-printed cards as an option for print-shop output in the latest version of iPhoto ’11. What most people think of as "letterpress" is a subset of what letterpress used to be. Most letterpress was carefully printed with the least impression and contact between paper and ink.