The Press printed books on grammar, dictionaries, history, legends and moral tales for the Fort William College and the Calcutta School-Book Society.
The press supplied Bibles to almost all significant Baptist missions in the region, from Indonesia in the east to Afghanistan in the west.
The memoir of 1816 claims that a Chinese Pentateuch was in the press and that ‘the new moveable metal type, after many experiments, are a complete success’.
His early attempts to set up a mission on the soil of British India failed, as the company was hostile towards missionary activity.
Eventually, Carey was permitted to set up his mission in Danish-controlled Serampore—then known as Fredericksnagar—where he was joined by two other Baptists, William Ward and Joshua Marshman.
Panchanan Karmakar, the goldsmith trained in type making by Wilkins, was ‘borrowed’ by Carey from Colebrooke and then put under virtual house arrest in Serampore.
The then Governor-General of India, Lord Wellesley, did not object to any printing presses being set up outside British occupied land but was strictly against any in English territory.
Mr. Brown was informed that Lord Wellesley would enforce censorship on any publication done on English territory outside Calcutta.
The British government threatened to arrest missionaries who would trespass on the East India Company’s territory.
In the face of rigid resistance from the company, Ward and Carey decided to establish the Mission and printing press in Serampore.
Brown had to assure him of the purely evangelical intentions of the press since they had refused to publish a pamphlet that criticized the English government.
Brown also convinced Wellesley that the Bengali Bible published by the press would be useful for the students of the about to be opened Fort William College.
William Carey was appointed as the professor of Sanskrit in the college and after that he published a number of books in Bengali from the press.
The press also published dictionaries, grammars, dialogues or colloquies, Sanskrit phrasebooks, philosophy, Hindu mythological tales, tracts, and the first ever newspaper in Bengali, the Samachar Durpun or the "Mirror of News".
Altogether 38 such works were produced in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Urdu, Braj, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Telugu and Kannada.
At the beginning of 1804, the missionaries decided to publish translations of the Bible in Bengali, Hindoostanee, Mahratta, Telinga, Kurnata, Ooriya and Tamul.
By March 1816, the printing of St. Mathew was finished or nearly so in Kunkuna, Mooltanee, Sindhee, Bikaneer, Nepalese, Ooduypore, Marwar, Juypore, Khasee and Burman.
The New Testament was also printed in Bagheli, Bhatneri, Bhotan, Dogri, Garhwali, Javanese, Kumauni, Lahnda, Magahi, Malay, Malvi, Mewari, Siamese and Singhalese.
Mr. Buchanan, the vice-provost of the Serampore College suggested Carey that he should take up the translation of the Bible to Chinese after learning the language from Mr. Lasser.
In 1806 the original Sanskrit Ramayana with a prose translation and explanatory notes compiled by Carey and Mr Marshman was published.
In 1818 the Serampore missionaries decided to publish the Bengali newspaper Samachar Darpan to study the pulse of the public authorities.
In 1795, Carey wrote to the Mission in England that the printing of 10,000 copies of the translated New Testament would cost Rs 43,750, a sum that was beyond his means.
The missionaries sought to raise money by selling copies of the Bengali Bible for 2 gold mohurs each to the Englishmen in Calcutta.
Once the books became popular, the press started earning enough money to cover costs and leave some profit.
Owing to the lack of staff to take initiative, the press was gradually bereft of financial as well as expert guidance.
There was a feeling that any strong attack on local customs, practice and beliefs or religious ideas might enrage "native" opinion.