The article discusses - based on Vojtěch Klimt's monograph about the Kryl and Scotti printing company - the history of the family printing company, the contemporary context of the work of elite printers and the significance of their work viewed in a broader literary, historical and cultural context. It focuses in particular on the cooperation of the Kryl family with leading Czech verbal artists, on the importance of their care for a beautiful book, as well as on the effects of the cultural policy implemented by the communists after 1948 on the demise of this unique enterprise.