Paste-up is the traditional process of arranging printed text, photographs, rules, and illustrations on a board or sheet before making a reproduction proof or printing plate. Designers physically cut and positioned material, using adhesive or wax to create the final page layout. Poetry magazines and small presses often relied on paste-up to produce hand-crafted pages with unusual lineation or collage elements. Its visible traces can lend historic editions a tactile, assembled character distinct from digital composition.

Paste-up was a pre-digital layout process in which type, images, and rules were physically arranged on boards. Understanding it helps explain older chapbook and small-press production methods.