wood type : a brief overview
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
a b r i e f o v e r v i e w
a l e x i s r e i d
Wood type is used in letterpress,
which is a type of relief printing using
a printing press. Individual letters, or
pieces of type, are moved around the
printing bed, and then inked, and paper
is pressed against the raised surface of
the letters, which creates an impression
on the paper.
Chinese wood blocks date back to 868 CE, and were originally used
as stamps, rather than on a press.2 Around 1450, metal moveable type
was invented, and the industry would remain the same for the next
500 years. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution that wood type rose
to fame, as more and more posters began to compete with each other
for the public’s attention. The goal was to be louder than the poster
next to you, so there arose a need for larger type. Until this point in
time, typesetting was always done with metal type, but extremely large
type couldn’t be cast in metal—it was too expensive and heavy.1 Wood
was also readily available, and didn’t get uneven like metal often did.
Thus wood type saw explosive growth, and in 1828, the first wood type
catalog was published by Darius Wells.2
It is important to note that wood type manufacturers were never
called foundries, as no hot metal was being cast. There were many
prominent wood type manufacturers during wood type’s heyday in the
nineteenth century, and often they would sample and even copy one
another’s work, by duplicating, stretching, ornamenting, and reworking
typefaces. This was very common, and even acceptable.8
“At this point in the development of our written language, most
type design could probably be described more accurately as type
stylization,” said Nick Sherman, who is currently a type designer and
wood type expert in the design community.
Throughout the nineteenth century, no more than three or
four manufacturers were operating at any one time in America,
and the major companies began to shut down in the second half of
the twentieth century. Empire Type Foundry in New York halted
wo
od
ty
pe
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production in 1970, Hamilton Mfg. Co. in
Wisconsin in 1985, and American Wood Type
Mfg. Co. in New York City shut down in 2001.5
Much of American Wood Type’s machinery and
type was acquired by Virgin Wood Type, however,
and is still in use today.3
Aside from the manufacturers of wood type,
many wood type printing studios existed in the
nineteenth and twentieth century, and a few
are still around today. Hatch Show Print is a
letterpress studio still running today in Nashville,
Tennessee, and in the 1920s-1952, Hatch
created thousands of show posters for circuses,
minstrel shows, and carnivals, as well as jazz,
blues, and country musicians. Hatch now prints
500-600 posters a year, and does work for art
books and food packaging.18 Many other studios
weren’t so lucky, however, as more modern
printing techniques were developed in the second
half of the century.
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that offset
lithography overthrew letterpress; with an etched
o f w o o d t y p e
metal plate, the need to set individual pieces of type fell away.
People began burning their wood type, throwing it into rivers, and
otherwise finding any way to destroy their collections of wood type.1
Recently there has been a tremendous growth in interest in wood
type and letterpress, however. Much as art deco and art neuveau
became popular in contrast to the industrial revolution, this growth
in letterpress could be a reaction to the popularity of computers
in design today, and letterpress and wood type have become very
popular in the design community and design education.
In his popular letterpress blog, Woodtyper, Nick Sherman lists
three reasons he personally prefers wood type specifically:
The typical extreme scale of wood type intensifies the figure-ground interaction and subtle contours of the forms. 1
2
3
Although it wasn’t invented here, wood type is very American in nature; it was in nineteenth-century America that the wood type industry became a huge phenomenon.
Wood type’s large size makes it a great tool for teaching. Its size makes it easy to convey typographic concepts and decreases the margin for error, as well as being easier to handle than small, metal type.16
Wood type is typically cut from end-grain maple slabs, which is wood that has been
sliced across the growth rings, rather than along the grain.8 End grain is used because
the tight end grain of the engraving block allows for a finer lines in cutting type. This end
grain maple is then cut and cured and cut to type high, which is .921” ± .003.”3
Those motions are scaled down mechanically to maneuver a routing drill.
An oversized letter template is traced with the control arm.
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The wood blocks are then cut down on a pantograph. This machine mechanically scales down the motions t
a movable arm as a larger letter template is traced by the operator. A routing drill then cuts each letter at a
smaller scale, and the letter is then finished by hand using smaller tools to gouge out areas such as the crotches
of the M (see Figure 1).8 Aside from the end-cut method, the veneer method (phased out in 1890), and die-
cutting methods (phased out in 1906) were once popular, but were phased out because end-cutting was often
more durable and cost-effective. Wood type can also be laser cut, or turned on a wood lathe.10
die-cut method Die-cutting is done by compressing the
non-printing areas of a wood block. Making the metal dies
is expensive, however, especially because you have to make
a new set of dies for each size of type. In 1889, however,
George Setchell created a modular variation, where
different shapes were mixed and matched and used for more
than one letter. For example, the curve of the O, could also
be used to create the curve of the C and G.8 Die-cutting
still became less and less popular, and is rarely used today.
end-cut methodveneer method
celluloid method Wood type can also be created
through the celluloid or enameled production method,
which involves attaching a thin sheet of celluloid to a
wood block to create a coated printing surface. This was
done by either fusing the wood block to the celluloid and
then routing through both, or by die-cutting and hot-
pressing the celluloid into the surface of the wood block
to both cut and seal the surface at the same time.5
pressure only the non-depressed surfaces print
metal die
wood blank
Figure 1: The fine
details of letters are
finished by hand
a d h e s i v e f o i l
Adjust height of the printing plate to create a gradient
Adhesive foil allows different shades by adjusting the height of the printing plate
s h i m m i n g
a n d t e c h n i q u e s
c a r d b o a r d
p l e x i g l a s s
l i n o l e u m
l o n g - g r a i n w o o d
m e d i u md e n s i t yf i b e r b o a r d
e n d g r a i n w o o d
PROS: highly resistant to pressure; wood species strongly impacts visibility of its structure in the printing process
PROS: cheap, handles ink well, handles pressure well CONS: Fine detail eventually lost due to deformation
Varies widely in quality and price range; print quality depends on species of wood, its cut, and printing pressure
PROS: handles ink well, cheap, easy to
handle CONS: limited resistance to chemical
solvents and water
PROS: cheap, easy to treat CONS: nearly impossible to
clean (low number of print runs), fine detail breaks away
PROS: durableCONS: does not handle
ink well on large surfaces, expensive
Wood is definitely a superior texture for printing on. In
her project, Wood Type Now, Dafi Kühne experimented
with making type out of other materials, to mixed results.
Hamilton Wood Type began in 1880, when the editor of the Two
Rivers newspaper needed type for posters, and didn’t have time
to order it. Edward Hamilton quickly made the type himself,
and thus was born Hamilton Mfg. Co. By developing a business
model that relied on a national network of local distributors, and
by producing wood type using holly wood—which is cheaper
than other wood, such as maple—Hamilton was able to sell his
type at half the cost of competitors.2 However, after becoming a
force in the market and acquiring five of its largest competitors,
Hamilton doubled the price.1
Hamilton originally produced the type in a different fashion
than is used today, by using a foot-powered scroll saw to cut the
letters, and then mounting them onto another block of wood
before sandpapering and polishing the surface, rather than using
the traditional end-cut method. Later he began making type
cabinets and other furniture, before expanding his business to
the manufacture of other goods, including the first gas-powered
clothes dryer.2
After being acquired by Thermo-Fischer, Hamilton today has
become Hamilton Scientific, manufacturers of scientific fume
hoods and lab furniture, and has been relocated to Mexico. Two
Rivers is small, but has five museums, including Hamilton Wood
Type. Their goal is to get more young people involved in the
museum—as the people who work there get older, much of the
process and history remains undocumented.1
c o l l e c t i o n s & m a n u f a c t u r e r s t o d a y
w o o d t y p e
c o l l e c t i o n s & m a n u f a c t u r e r s t o d a y
w o o d t y p e c o l l e c t i o n
Rob Roy Kelly originally began collecting wood type in the 1950s to use at the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design with his students. He began his lifelong
research on the history, manufacture, and printing of wood type in order to
answer questions from his students.
“[s]earching and collecting led to identifying and recording, and, for me, that
was the foundation for research and everything else became elaboration.”5
In 1963, he was asked by the Director of the Walker Art Center to write and
design an issue of Design Quarterly dedicated to American wood type. During
this process, Kelly found many shortcomings in his own research, and decided
to continue his work and publish a definitive book on wood types. In 1964, he
published the first and most comprehensive history of American Wood Type,
called “American Wood Type 1828-1900 Volume One,” which set off the revival
of interest in American printing types.5
In 1964, Kelly was named the new Chair of the Department of Graphic
Design at the Kansas City Art Institute, but rather than moving more than two
tons of wood type, Kelly decided to complete his book before moving to Kansas
City. Two years later, in 1966, the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired
Kelly’s collection, and later sold it to the University of Texas at Austin, where it
resides today. In the years following, Kelly wrote and contributed to many more
books on printing and wood type, and in the 1990s, was asked to participate
in the Adobe Originals program, focused on developing digital revivals of
historic fonts. Around that time, in 1990, David Shields began cataloguing the
collection in Austin, and discovered 60 undocumented types, thus expanding
the collection from 100 to 160.5
Today, only 27 of the 45 original copies of “American Wood Type 1828-1900
Volume One” have been accounted for.
• Nineteenth-century Old Style revival
• Reaction to the Modern style letter so predominant at the time
• Print in two or more colors
• Produced in register as corresponding pairs, were
• Designed so that one color would overlap another in certain
places to create a third color
• Type specimen books of the 1840s and 1850s
• Exaggerated stroke contrast
• Thick strokes were made dramatically fatter
and the thin strokes remained hair-line
• Block-like rectangular or slab serifs with
• Unbracketed (abrupt right angle) joints and a
• Heavy, uniform stroke lacking significant contrast.
• Variation of the Antique style in which the serifs are
bracketed—with a soft transition at the stroke joints
• Higher contrast between thick and thin strokes
• Originated as wood type
• Contrasted strokes
• Rounded or pointed terminals, with bi- or trifurcated
serifs (the serifs are divided into branches)
• Often a medial (mid-stem) decoration.
r o m a n o l d s t y l e
c h r o m a t i c
r o m a n f a t f a c e
s c r i p t b l a c k l e t t e r
b o r d e r & o r n a m e n t s
g o t h i c t u s c a n
g o t h i c m o d u l a t e d
g o t h i c l i n e a l
a n t i q u e e g y p t i a n
a n t i q u e c l a r e n d o n
a n t i q u e t u s c a n
c o l l e c t i o n s p e c i m e n s
f o n t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s
• Sanserif letters have no serifs
• Simple, low-contrast strokes
• In America the term used for sanserifs was Gothic
• Created in 1840 and unique to wood type
• A sanserif style with higher stroke contrast
• Rounded or pointed terminals that are often bi- or trifurcated
(divided into branches)
• Medial (mid-stem) decoration.
• A majority of Gothic Tuscans produced in the second half of
the nineteenth century originated as wood type in America
• Tuscans originate from both Antique or Gothic styles, since
reducing from or adding to the visual form can produce
similar resultsany Gothic Tuscans could also be categorized as
Antique Tuscans
• Broad-pen scripts developed in the Middle Ages
• Darkness of the letters overpowers the lightness of the page
• Based on cursive handwriting with a brush rather than a
flexible steel nib or a broad-edged pen
• Brush scripts tend to be informal designs and often
resemble sign-painter’s lettering
• Minor presence in wood type catalogs
• By the early-1860s all wood type manufacturers showed
border material in solid, grooved and ornamented styles
s c r i p t b l a c k l e t t e r
s c r i p t b r u s h
b o r d e r & o r n a m e n t s
g o t h i c t u s c a n
g o t h i c m o d u l a t e d
g o t h i c l i n e a l
f o n t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s
Virgin Wood Type began after wood
type manufacturing was halted in
2001 by the American Wood Type
Manufacturing Company, and all
of the equipment and templates
were sold off. Bill Jones and Geri
McCormick travelled to Ohio
and bought 100 crates of original
patterns as well as a pantograph, and
then travelled back to Rochester,
New York, where Virgin Wood Type
was born. The remaining equipment
most likely remains in Ohio, but
some is rumored to have been
donated to the Smithsonian and Yale
University.4
Included in the purchase were the
rights to Shadow, Gill Sans, and
other American Wood Type originals
that are now sold in the Virgin Wood
Type shop today, along with revived
Victorian faces and brand new faces
that have never before been sold as
wood type.3
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m o d u l a r t y p e
The pantograph Virgin Wood Type uses was entirely custom-built sometime in
the 20th century for American Wood Type, and when Virgin Wood Type acquired
the pantograph, it had no manuals, and no one around who knew how to use it.
Bill Jones simply worked with the machine until he understood the basics, fiddling
around in order to learn.
“For example, written on the front of a small letterpress notebook Bill wrote,
“Lower ruler settings make smaller type,” VWT wrote on their blog. “This likely was
a light bulb moment, and he wrote it down, not IN the notebook but ON the cover
of the notebook.”
After Bill Jones passed away in 2012, VWT went on a hiatus, and began retracing
Bill’s footsteps, using notes and files he’d left behind to figure out how to do things
like adjust the pantograph settings and cut the the wood blanks down to type-
height. Until his death in 2012, Bill had been cutting down the wood blanks to type
high—which is exactly .921” ± .003”—with a band saw, which is incredibly difficult
to do, and after his death, VWT began working with with a local carpenter to
accomplish this.3
Today, VWT is still perfecting their wood-cutting process. After a letter is cut
and its edges (where there are wood shaving “cuticles”) are filed down, it then goes
to be hand-trimmed, where smaller details are cut out with traditional wood carving
tools, such as the deep crotches and apexes of the A’s and M’s. VWT then proofs
the letters on their own Vandercook 3 press before shipping them out, in order to
check type height, dings, etc. But Virgin Wood Type is known for selling “virgin”
type—that is, type that has never been inked before. So in order to proof the
freshly-made type, a piece of carbon paper is placed between clean pieces of paper,
and rolled through the press, thus creating an inkless impression.3
Virgin Wood Type’s Modular Wood
Type is based on a 1920s Italian
design, Fregio Mecano, whose
designer is unknown. With multiple
pieces, you can create your own
wood type, making different
versions of a letter, patterns and
experimental letterforms.
Virgin Wood Type offers revivals
of historic fonts, American Wood
Type originals that Virgin acquired,
and “extra virgin” faces that are
unique to Virgin Wood Type. A few
are documented here.
m o d u l a r t y p e
Preissig Scrape was originally cut into linoleum
by Czech designer Vojtech Preissig. It was
digitized in 1997, and then cut into wood by
Virgin Wood Type in 2011—a strange sequence
compared to the evolution of most typefaces.
p r e i s s i g s c r a p eBuffalo was originally a part of Photo-Lettering’s film type collection, designed
by type design legend Ed Benguiat in the 1960s. House Industries purchased the
Photo-Lettering collection in 2003, and the wood version was created in 2014 in a
collaboration between House and Virgin Wood Type. Typefaces historically have begun
as metal or wood type, and are eventually digitized, but Virgin Wood Type is leading the
way in bringing digital faces to the world of wood type.
b u f f a l o
a l d i n e e x p a n d e d
Aldine started out as 20 characters
found in a pile of junk in the basement
of the Genesee Center for the Arts in
Rochester, NY. Virgin then redrew the
font, and cut it into wood, and created
special glyphs made from the counters
of the letterforms.
s o m ev i r g i n
f a c e s o f f e r e d
Scott Moore taught high school Industrial Arts for 35 years before
retiring and becoming interested in the production of wood type. When
Scott Moore’s daughter was given a letterpress as a wedding gift, she
asked her father to make a few wood ornaments for her. Moore became
interested in building his own pantograph, and made several trips to
Two Rivers, Wisconsin to study under Norb Brylski, a retired wood type
cutter at Hamilton Wood Type. He spent eight months modifying an
engraving machine in order to make a reproduction of the pantograph
at Hamilton.
Later, he designed and built a Type High Surfacing Machine in order
to easily cut down the end grain maple to type height, and is currently
in the process of building a border stamping machine.10 In addition
to these, Moore Wood Type also uses a Vandercook Plate Gauge,
Type Trim Saw, Showcard Proof Press, and various hand tools in the
production of their wood type.
In the beginning, Moore cut, dried and cured the maple wood
himself, but he now relies on the local Amish because of the time and
expertise the process requires. After acquiring the wood, Moore uses
Illustrator to create vector files to use in cutting the type, which can be
used to make large patterns for the pantograph, or to control the laser
cutter that Moore Wood Type also owns.
Located in central Ohio, Moore Wood Type now sells historic-based
ornaments, catchwords, and replacement letters to letterpress printers
everywhere.
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Gojo hand cleaner is used to
clean wood type. Used to get
grease off of hands, Gojo is
non-abrasive, and additionally
contains mineral oil, which
rehydrates the wood, thus
safeguarding it against
cracking. Automotive shop
towels and Q-tips are typically
used, as anything more
pointy could scratch the type.
Cleaning a font takes around
2-5 hours, and an additional
hour is needed to print an
ABC specimen of the font.
Many wood fonts have the
manufacturer’s information
printed somewhere on the
type, usually on the uppercase
A, which can help you find
the name of the typeface
and the year it was issued in
the manufacturer’s specimen
book.15
c l e a n i n g & i d e n t i f y i n g t y p e
There are hundreds of letterpress
studios operating today, and wood
type is still alive and well. Fonts
that have never before existed in
wood are being cut, and places
like Hamilton Wood Type are
working hard to keep the history
of wood type alive. Innovations are
still being made in the industry:
Nick Sherman has talked of
plans to retrofit a Vandercook
with an electromagnetic press
bed. If type is mounted with
magnetic material, the blocks
could be freely pushed around
without the need for a lockup, and
experimentation could become
quicker and easier—your lockup
would stay in place until you
turned the magnet off again.
Although it will never be back to
t h e
o f w o o d t y p e
The Rochester Institute of Technology Cary Collection is home to more than 400 families of wood type, 100 of which
have recently been liberated from storage. The Adop-a-Font program was designed in order to recruit volunteers
to clean and catalogue these type families. In the 90s, printing student David Wall created a Specimen Portfolio of
Wood Type in the Cary Collection as his master thesis, proofing and identifying all the fonts in the Cary Collection
and incorporating them into the specimen book. After the additional 100 fonts were rescued from storage, they also
needed to be catalogued. The goal of Adopt a Font is to identify each of these fonts and to incorporate them into the
specimen book.15 In exchange, volunteers are taught how to set letterpress type and print a broadside.
a d o p t - a - f o n t
where it once was, wood type
all over the world is being
rescued and documented
today, and with places like
Moore, Virgin, and Hamilton
creating and preserving wood
type, it still has a place, even in
the ditial world today.
[1] Typeface. Dir. Justine Nagan and Gordon Quinn. Prod. Maria Finitzo Finitzo. Perf. Dennis Ichiyama, Greg Corrigan. Kartemquin Films, 2009. Amazon. Typeface. Kartemquin Films. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://typeface.kartemquin.com/>.
[2] “Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.” Hamilton Wood Type Printing Museum RSS. Hamilton, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://woodtype.org/>.
[3] Crowe, Derek, Geri McCormick, and Matt Rieck. VIRGIN WOOD TYPE. Virgin Wood Type, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.virginwoodtype.com/>.
[4] Shields, David. Web log post. Wood Type Research. David Shields, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <woodtyperesearch.com>.
[5] Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection. University of Texas at Austin, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/rrk/index.php>.
[6] “Letters, Wood, and Other Cutting Edge Technology.” The Detroit Wood Type Co. N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <detroitwoodtypeco.com>.
[7] “Good Wood.” Good Wood. Vote for Letterpress, 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <goodwood.voteforletterpress.com>.
[8] Sherman, Nick. “Intercut Wood Typeface Project.” Web log post. Nicksherman.com. Nick Sherman, 2006. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <http://nicksherman.com/design/Intercut/>.
[9] Nagan, Justin. “Typeface.” Kartemquin Films. Kartemquin Films, 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <typeface.kartemquin.com>.
[10] Moore, Scott. “Process.” Moore Wood Type. Moore Wood Type, 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <moorewoodtype.com>.
[11] Wolske, David. Letterpress Daily. David Wolske, 2009. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <letterpress.dwolske.com>.
[12] “Frank Romano Visits Virgin Wood Type.” Interview. Youtube.com. Virgin Wood Type Mfg Co, Dec. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC3QE_HG2aThke5tojKcgpQ>.
[13] Thompson, Jim. The International Printing Museum. The International Printing Museum, 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.printmuseum.org/museum/>.
[14] Kühne, Dafi. “Woodtype Now!” Woodtype Now! Visual Communications Zurich, 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.woodtype-now.ch/>.
[15] Kuhn, Alyson. “Adopt-a-Font: Spring Cleaning at the RIT Cary Collection.” Felt & Wire. Mohawk Connects, 27 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.mohawkconnects.com/feltandwire/2013/02/27/t-a-font-spring-cleaning-at-the-rit-cary-collection/>.
[16] Woodtyper. Ed. Nick Sherman. Nick Sherman, 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <woodtyper.com>.
[17] “Art Boards™ Wood Engraving Supplies Wood Engraving Blocks of End Grain Maple.” Art Boards™ Archival Artist Panels. Art Boards, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <art-boards.com>.
[18] “History of Hatch Show Print.” Hatch Show Print. Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://hatchshowprint.com/ContentPages/history-of-hatch>.
[19] Heck, Bethany. The EndGrain. Bethany Heck, 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <end-grain.net>.
[20] Knopp, Justin. “A Cornucopia of Wooden Types.” Typoretum. N.p., 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://blog.typoretum. [1] co.uk/2013/09/14/a-cornucopia-of-wooden-types/>.
[21] “Wood Type Impressions.” T.26. T.26 Digital Type Foundry, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.t26.com/merch_items/84-Wood-Type-Impressions-2-br->.
[21] Wilson, Doug. “Doug Wilson.” E-mail interview. 6 May 2015.
[21] “Adam Bowlin.” Personal interview. 5 May 2015.
Photos courtesy of Eric Pervukhin, Missouri State University
l i b r a r y o f w o o d t y p e
7 l i n es e r i f
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a c t u a l s i z e
m i s s o u r i s t a t e w o o d t y p e
Type is named based on its type (usually serif or sans-
serif, otherwise known as Gothic in the letterpress
world), and on its line height, measured in picas.
A 30 line letter measures 30 picas high. All type
represented on these pages is printed at actual size.
Missouri State University has eight full alphabets
of wood type, seven of them uppercase, and one
lowercase, in addition to seven sets of numerals.
Some numeral sets correspond with alphabets, some
do not. Much of the wood type at Missouri State
was acquired by Maria Michalczyk around 2000,
but one or two fonts were donated by John Horn
of Shooting Star Press in Little Rock, AR in 2004-
2005. The 70 line Gothic Condensed was acquired
by Adam Bowlin from Hammerpress Print Shop in
Kansas City in 2015.
1 pica
t h a t ’ s a l l !