In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. Used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular in Western printing during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was lighter and cheaper than large sizes of metal type.[1]
Wood has been used since the earliest days of European printing for woodcut decorations and emblems, but was not generally used for making typefaces due to the difficulty of reproducing the same shape many times for printing. In the 1820s, Darius Wells began industrial wood type production using the powered router, and William Leavenworth in 1834 added a second major innovation of the pantograph. This made it possible to mass-produce the same design in wood repeatedly. [2][3][4][5][6]
In the twentieth century lithography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting replaced it as a mass-market technology. It continues to be used by hobbyists and artistic printers.
Historical background
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704165347im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/La_Joyeuse_%26_magnifique_Entr%C3%A9e_de_Monseigneur_Fran%C3%A7ois%2C_Fils_de_France%2C_et_Frere_Unique_du_Roy%2C...%2C_Duc_de_Brabant%2C_..._en_sa_tres-renomm%C3%A9_ville_d%27_Anvers_MET_DP153097.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Hand-carved wood type was quite common in historic printing in China, with clay type and metal type also used.[12]
In Europe, woodblock printing precedes European movable type printing, and the block book appeared in Europe around the same time as letterpress printing.[13] However, a major disadvantage of woodcut lettering is that once made by wood engraving, it could not be easily duplicated by casting, whereas a metal mould and matrix could be used to quickly create many metal copies of the same letter. European printing used a standard system of printing body text with separate metal types for each letter, which was used from the beginning of European printing or at least very early on.[14][15]
In European printed books, wood engraving was used for both decorations and for large lettering, like titles. It was possible to duplicate woodblocks by carefully casting in sand. According to John A. Lane "the duplication of woodblocks by sandcasting is documented in 1575, probably goes back further, and...duplicated decorated initials became common in the Netherlands around 1615."[16]
James Mosley comments "there is probably a prehistory of wood types in big letters cut by hand, especially among provincial printers, but there is no evidence that wood letter was widely used until machine-cut types were introduced."[17] Mosley and Justin Howes have documented some cases where heavy roman woodblock lettering was used, for example on lottery advertising, shortly before metal types in the same style became available.[18][19]
In the early nineteenth century, London became a centre of development in bold display typefaces, the arrival of the printed poster spurring demand for bold new types of letter like the fat face and later the slab serif. However, these types were initially made in metal (one isolated example of a slab serif appeared as woodblock first, as did heavy roman lettering on lottery advertisements).[19] In 1810, William Caslon IV introduced "sanspareil" matrices, made like a stencil by cutting out the letter in sheet metal and riveting it to a backing plate, producing much sharper type than sandcasting; it was quickly copied.[20] The large metal types produced were cast with hollows in them to reduce the weight.[21][18]
Decorated types were cut in wood and multiplied by a variation of stereotyping known as "dabbing", in which a woodcut was struck into molten metal on the verge of solidifying to form a mould.[22][23][24] Modern printing historian Giles Bergel has experimented with the technique and reports that "perhaps the most counter-intuitive feature of the process is the fact that wooden blocks can survive direct contact with molten metal. Apart from some scorching around the edges and some cracking (perhaps made when prising them loose rather than from the heat) the blocks were undamaged and could be dabbed over and over again."[25]
Introduction of wood type
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704165347im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Pantograph_animation.gif/220px-Pantograph_animation.gif)
Modern wood type was invented by Darius Wells (1800-1875), who published his first known catalogue in 1828.[1][27][28][29][30] He introduced the lateral router to cut out wood type more quickly than handcarving.[1][31]
William Leavenworth in 1834 introduced the pantograph, allowing the same form to be reproduced from a pattern, and most wood type produced since has been made using a pantograph.[1]
Mature industry
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704165347im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Sample_page_from_Wm._H._Page_and_Co.%2C_Specimens_of_Wood_Type_Borders%2C_Rules%2C_%26c._%282920682750%29.jpg/220px-Sample_page_from_Wm._H._Page_and_Co.%2C_Specimens_of_Wood_Type_Borders%2C_Rules%2C_%26c._%282920682750%29.jpg)
In the mid-nineteenth century there were numerous wood type manufacturers in the United States. All the significant manufacturers were based in the Northeast and Midwest, many around New York City or in Connecticut.[32] The market for wood type was apparently limited and most businesses had side-lines as dealers in other printers' equipment, or making other wooden goods.[33] One of the larger firms until the 1880s was the company of William H. Page, near Norwich, Connecticut. Wood type competed with lithography in the market for display typography.[34]
During the 1890s, the Hamilton Manufacturing Company in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, owned by J. E. Hamilton, grew rapidly and took over most of its competitors.[1][35] It continued to make wood type until 1985.[32][36] The surviving materials from the company are now preserved at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.[1][37][38]
Wood type had distinctive characteristics compared to metal type. Because wood is much easier to cut than metal, and each type is individually cut from a pattern, it was quite easy to introduce new styles and new sizes of type. Type was sold in a wide range of widths, and Hamilton offered to supply at regular prices any width desired in between its standard widths.[39] "Chromatic" types were also made for printing colour separation.[40]
Wood type manufacture was particularly common in the United States, and its companies made type in other languages for export. By the 1870s, missionaries working in China had commissioned type for printing posters, and wood type was also made for Russian and Burmese for export.[41] Besides this, American manufacturers made German blackletter, Greek and Hebrew types catering to the large immigrant communities.[41] There were also manufacturers of wood type in France, Germany,[5] Britain and other countries.[42]
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704165347im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Evening_News_placard_Versailles_Treaty_signed_June_28_1919.jpg/220px-Evening_News_placard_Versailles_Treaty_signed_June_28_1919.jpg)
According to S. L. Righyni, in the late inter-war period in Britain, the standard letterform on newsbills posted by newsagents was "the sans-serif wooden letter-form", especially bold condensed sans-serifs from Stephenson Blake, although the Daily Express used Winchester Bold and The Times had a custom design similar to Kabel Bold Condensed.[43] (Although wood type was used for news bills and posters, large newspaper headlines were rare in British newspaper printing until well into the twentieth century.[44])
Wood type manufacturers
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Will & Schumacher, later Sachs & Co.[5]
- France
Legacy techology
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220704165347im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/HWT_American_Chromatic.png/220px-HWT_American_Chromatic.png)
With the takeover of the printing industry by offset lithography and phototypesetting, reproductions of wood type with their resonance of Americana were offered by phototypesetting companies such as Photo-Lettering Inc. and Haber Typographers, and used in the 1960s by designers such as Bob Cato and John Berg,[50] and later Paula Scher and Louise Fili.[51][52] Artistic printers like Jack Stauffacher carried on using wood type, finding that it was a cheap way to achieve creative effects.[53]
In the 1950s, Rob Roy Kelly, an American graphic design teacher, became interested in the history of wood type and built up a large collection from sources like old print shops and printers' families.[49][54] He published a history of the industry, American Wood Type, 1828-1900 in 1969.[55][56][57] His collection, now at the University of Texas at Austin,[58] has been studied by other historians of wood type such as David Shields.[32][59][60][61]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Shields, David. "What Is Wood Type?". Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ Shields, David (2008). "A Short History of the Italian". Ultrabold: The Journal of St Bride Library (4): 22–27.
- ^ Dennis Ichiyama. "2004 Friends of St Bride conference proceedings: How wood type tamed the west". Stbride.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
- ^ "Old West Reward Posters". Wildwestweb.net. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
- ^ a b c Pané-Farré, Pierre (8 March 2021). "The case of Will & Schumacher". Klim Type Foundry. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
- ^ Heck, Bethany. "Champion Gothic". Font Review Journal. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
- ^ Pires, Candice (2016-04-02). "A-Z living: an inside look at typographer Alan Kitching's home". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
- ^ ""I always try to have some logic to the job, to the work": we interview letterpress legend Alan Kitching". It's Nice That. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
- ^ "Alan Kitching on Press at The Guardian | Newspaper Club". blog.newspaperclub.com. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
- ^ Waters, John L.; Kitching, Alan (2016). A life in letterpress. Lawrence King. ISBN 978-1780674810.
- ^ Sinclair, Mark (22 April 2016). "Alan Kitching a life in Letterpress". Creative Review. Creative Review. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
- ^ Deng, Yinke (2011). Ancient Chinese inventions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 24–26. ISBN 9780521186926.
- ^ Cowley, Des; Williamson, Claire. The World of the Book. pp. 19–22. ISBN 9780522853780.
- ^ Carter, Harry (2008). A View of Early Typography Up to About 1600. Hyphen Press. pp. 6–12. ISBN 9780907259213.
- ^ Mosley, James. "Fallen and threaded types". Type Foundry. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ Lane, John A. (27 June 2013). "The Printing Office of Gerrit Harmansz van Riemsdijck, Israël Abrahamsz de Paull, Abraham Olofsz, Andries Pietersz, Jan Claesz Groenewoudt & Elizabeth Abrahams Wiaer c.1660-1709". Quaerendo. 43 (4): 311–439. doi:10.1163/15700690-12341283.
- ^ Mosley 2003, p. 113.
- ^ a b Mosley, James. "The Nymph and the Grot: an Update". Typefoundry blog. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
- ^ a b Mosley 1993, p. 10.
- ^ Mosley 2003, p. 103.
- ^ Mosley 2003, p. 112.
- ^ Mosley, James. "Big brass matrices: a mystery resolved?". Type Foundry (blog). Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ Mosley, James. "Big brass matrices again: the Enschedé 'Chalcographia' type". Type Foundry (blog). Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ Mosley, James. "Dabbing, abklatschen, clichage..." Type Foundry (blog). Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ Bergel, Giles. "Printing cliches". Printing Machine. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ Moore, Scott. "Cutting New Wood Type With a Historic Pantograph". YouTube. Ann Arbor District Library. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ a b Kelly 1969, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Trumbell, Levi R. (1882). A History of Industrial Paterson: Being a Compendium of the Establishment, Growth and Present Status in Paterson, N.J., of the Silk, Cotton, Flax, Locomotive, Iron and Miscellaneous Industries : Together with Outlines of State, County and Local History, Corporate Records, Biographical Sketches, Incidents of Manufacture, Interesting Facts and Valuable Statistics. Higginson Book Company. ISBN 978-0-8328-6070-6. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
- ^ The Great Industries of the United States: Being an Historical Summary of the Origin, Growth and Perfection of the Chief Industrial Arts of this Country: by Horace Greeley ... and Other Eminent Writers, Etc. Hartford: J. B. Burr & Hyde. 1872. pp. 1265–1271. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
- ^ Kelly 1969, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Clayton, W. Woodford; Nelson, William, eds. (1882). History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Everts & Peck. p. 489.
- ^ a b c Shields 2022.
- ^ Kelly 1969, pp. 61–62.
- ^ MacMillan, David. "Why No "Type Designers" Here?". Circuitous Root. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
- ^ Shields, David. ""The Wood Type business should go West…" An 1887 letter from William H. Page to W.B. Baker". Wood Type Research. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Sherman, Nick (2012). "The Design of Type Specimens". The Shelf.
- ^ "Creative Destinations: Two Rivers, Where Wood Type Still Makes a Big Impression". Fastcodesign.com. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
- ^ Cheng, Jacqui. "Wood Stock". The Magazine. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Shields, David. "Unit Gothic & Uniform Set Gothic: wood type as precursor". Wood Type Research. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Shields, David. "Chromatic Gothic Paneled". Wood Type Research. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ a b Kelly 1969, p. 76.
- ^ Kelly 1969, p. 34.
- ^ Righyni, S. L. (1946). "News Bills: A Retrospectus". Alphabet & Image (2): 34–49.
- ^ Reilly, Lucas. "Quartz Weekly Obsession: Victorian Newspapers". Quartz. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ Kelly 1969, p. 37.
- ^ Kelly 1969, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Kelly 1969, pp. 47–49.
- ^ Bolton, Claire (1988). DeLittle, 1888-1988 : the first years in a century of wood letter manufacture, 1888-1895. Alembic Press. ISBN 9780907482291.
Wood type was first made in the United States in 1828 and by the mid-1840s was being used in Britain...the first British firms began cutting wood type during the 1860s. DeLittle entered the field comparatively late but his idea was to specialise [in] 'white-letter' wood type.
- ^ a b Kelly 1969, p. 7.
- ^ Coles, Stephen (21 December 2015). "Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-changin' album art". Fonts In Use. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
Haber...provided phototype versions of Morgan wood type, including Nesbitt’s Gothic, for much of the New York design scene
- ^ Hoefler, Jonathan. "Jonathan Hoefler 2017 Wayzgoose Presentation at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum". YouTube. Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Scher, Paula (2020). Twenty-Five Years at the Public. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 39–42. ISBN 9781616899349.
When I left CBS records, I had asked Haber Typographers for large-scale prints of the complete alphabets, numbers and punctuation for all of the wood fonts from the foundry. All through the '80s, I repeatedly xeroxed the fonts and used them on book covers and in magazines.
- ^ Kelly 1969, pp. 7–8.
- ^ "Rob Roy Kelly Obsessions: Wood Type Research". www.rit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
- ^ Kelly 1969.
- ^ Hoefler, Jonathan. "A Treasury of Wood Type Online". Hoefler & Co. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Hoefler, Jonathan. ""Curved, Pointy, and Nervous-Looking Types"". Hoefler & Co. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ "The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection". School of Design and Creative Technologies, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
- ^ Shields, David (4 December 2018). "Rob Roy Kelly: A bottle of Scotch for two cases of wood type with David Shields". Vimeo. Cooper Union. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Shields, David. "Muster Hundreds! Towards a people's history of American wood type". YouTube. ATypI. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
- ^ Shields, David (18 October 2017). "The proliferation of 19th (and 20th) century wood type and its impact on typographic norms, with David Shields". Vimeo. Cooper Union. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
Cited literature
- Gray, Nicolete (1977). Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces.
- Kelly, Rob Roy (1963). "American Wood Type". Design Quarterly (56): 1–40. doi:10.2307/4047285. JSTOR 4047285.
- Kelly, Rob Roy (1969). American Wood Type, 1828–1900.
- Lewis, John (1962). Printed Ephemera: the changing uses of type and letterforms in English and American printing. Ipswich: W. S. Cowell.
- Mosley, James, ed. (1990). A Specimen of Printing Types & Various Ornaments 1796: Reproduced Together with the Sale Catalogue of the British Letter-Foundry 1797. Printing Historical Society. pp. 5–12. ISBN 9780900003103.
Big types had been cast in sand, using wooden patterns, for some centuries [by 1750] but there is evidence that English typefounders only began to make big letters for posters and other commercial printing towards 1770, when Thomas Cottrell made his 'Proscription or Posting letter of great bulk and dimension' and William Caslon II cast his 'Patagonian' or 'Proscription letters'.
- Mosley, James (1993). Ornamented types: twenty-three alphabets from the foundry of Louis John Poucheé. I.M. Imprimit in association with the St. Bride Printing Library.
- Mosley, James (2001). "Memories of an Apprentice Typefounder". Matrix. 21: 1–13.
- Mosley, James (2003). "Sanspareil Matrices". Matrix. 23: 104–114.
- Shaw, Paul (April 2017). Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past. Yale University Press. pp. 132–155. ISBN 978-0-300-21929-6.
- Shields, David (2022). The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection: A History and Catalog. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-2368-7.