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

?

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.

w o o d t y p e

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

w o o d t y p e

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.

w o o d t y p e

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

3 0 l i n eg o t h i c c o n d e n s e d

1 4 l i n es l a b - s e r i f u p p e r c a s e

8 l i n eg o t h i c

6 l i n eg o t h i c

1 4 l i n es l a b - s e r i f l o w e r c a s e

7 0 l i n eg o t h i c c o n d e n s e d

3 0 l i n eg o t h i c

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 !