The collective operated a printshop (offset lithography, bindery) that served many progressive political, cultural, advocacy, and self-help organizations, as well as cooperative businesses in Vancouver.
In 1975 Press Gang published its first title: Women Look at Psychiatry, an anthology edited by Dorothy E. Smith and Sara David.
Members of the Press Gang collective trained themselves in the use of printing equipment and graphic design.
Their nonfiction titles addressed social issues including racism, labour activism, lesbian identity, lesbophobia, censorship, and women in conflict with the mental health and criminal justice systems.
[2] In the later 1980s, facing changes in technology, the advent of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States, and increasing competition from larger corporate printshops created insurmountable financial difficulties for the printing collective, and in 1993 Press Gang Printers was forced to cease operations.