I have had a few questions lately about the process I used a few semesters ago to create new movable type from plywood and plexiglass, so I thought I’d recap that process today and show a test print I made several months ago using both my wood type and the plexi type.

I have access to a great laser printer though the industrial design department at Auburn University, and it seemed natural to try to use it to create a new variation on movable type. The main issues to solve would be:
Which combination of materials would make the blocks type high?
How to we attach the two materials together?
How do we align the laser cut portion to the shoulder in a consistent manner with a level baseline?

Here is a shot of the to part of each block, the acrylic face and the plywood shoulder with the letterform outline etched in for placement purposes.

Here is the laser cut type alongside the wood type!

At first we tried to etch into a thick piece of plexi, burning away the counter space. This method worked, but we were concerned about the amount of debris created and wanted to avoid anything that would be toxic or unhealthy. My professor had a sheet of 3/16ths thick acrylic lying around, so we decided to try and trim the faces of the letter out of that first. To test the height of the blocks, we would work to complete a set of Futura condensed wood type the university had. It was difficult to find a material for the should that would have the right thickness to bring the type up to type height, but we finally found it in a baltic birch 14 ply 3/4″ plywood. We used the phenolic plywood for a harder surface to facilitate cleaning any not have to try to seal plain plywood. The wood we used for the first sets of type had a green coating, but the wood comes in different colors. We lightly planed the back of the wood to level out a few inconsistencies.

To solve the baseline issue, we created a separate file for the laser cutter which had the outlines of the type and lines for where to cut into the plywood to make the separate blocks and we etched it into the surface of the plywood, then trimmed them down to size for each piece.

Easy, right? With the inflation of wood type prices, I would like to see more people exploring options like this to create type. I would estimate material costs to be around $100, because we went with a very expensive plywood. My professors are currently testing cheaper types of plywood to see if they will be just as successful. This is a great way to bring in the advantages of photo-polymer plates as well as movable type, and has proven for us to be an excellent way to replace missing characters.

As you can see in the theater poster, the plexi type prints just as well as the wood type (the “The” and “CHEAP!” are both plexi and plywood made.) The typeface is Matinee Gothic by Jim Parkinson, a simply exquisite typeface.

Related posts:

1. Futura Condensed
2. Untitled 504
3. Matinee Gothic

This set is the final we created this semester, and was a direct reproduction of Matinee Gothic, a wonderful typeface designed by Jim Parkinson. I found the typeface when I was trying to find a font with the mysterious M in it, and while this typeface has a much different M, the rest of the letterforms match the one’s from the lot I purchased fairly closely.

This is the Mystery font we tried to match

Here are some of the proofs we pulled of the alphabet.

We went back to white plexi for this set, and got it in the same thickness of the clear set we’d used for Mansard. We also switched glue for this set, using a gorilla glue instead of superglue, which dried much faster, leading to a few small imperfections.

I am thrilled with how well this face printed. I think it looks even better than it does on screen. It was a treat to print a font that wasn’t a direct derivative from any wood typeface I’d seen, but rather an evolution. So, we took a derived typeface back to it’s source and it performed beautifully.

Here are a few blocks after printing. The ink stayed on the plexi better than I expected.

The typeface included these great catch words, which printed quite well

Related posts:

1. Untitled 504
2. Gothic B
3. Jolly G

After we had success creating and printing a partial set of movable type to complete the Futura Condensed typeface, we moved on to creating one set derived from a specimen from Rob Roy Kelly’s book, Untitled 504 (Rob Roy Kelly mis-identified this face as Untitled 154 in American Wood Type, many thanks to the invaluable Rob Roy Kelly Collection website). I’ve always wanted a set in this typeface so it was very exciting for me personally.

The clear plexi worked fine technically, but I think I like the white plexi more froma strictly visual standpoint.

It was great to do a typeface that was clearly identifiable with wood type.

Professor Morgan had some clear plexi lying around that was a bit thicker than the first sheet, which required us to mount thin strips of foam to the back to raise it up to type height. The result is that these blocks aren’t as aesthetically pleasing on their own, we quickly ordered more white plexi after this. I was very interested to see if the thicker weight typeface would print just as well as the condensed face, and it did. Our press is very rudimentary and it’s hard to pull a perfect specimen print that’s filled in with no shifting.

Related posts:

1. Matinee Gothic
2. Old Style A
3. A Bold Clarendon

I‘ve always wondered why more research hasn’t been done on alternative methods for creating movable type. Photopolymer plates have done a lot in the way of breathing new life into letterpress and giving printers more options. But at some point, the already limited amounts of wood type that remain are going to wear down or become so fragile that they have to be retired.

This fall I started research on possible methods of creating new movable type. The advantages of creating new blocks, as opposed to plates, would be the modularity of individual letters and the ability to set type without the need for a special base. The type would need to be durable and print at least as well as wood type. The solution I and my professor settled upon would be to use a thin material for the face of the letters, something that could be lasercut, and to mount it to a base that would bring the face to type height. We ended up using an acrylic for the faces, and a thick plywood for the slugs.

Here’s a shot of the two parts of the process before they are combined.

These are the blocks after the faces were glued on with super glue.

We started off trying to complete a set of Futura condensed that was missing several characters. We set up vector files with the reversed outlines of the characters we needed, then set up a separate file to etch into the plywood. To ensure that the letter would have an even baseline on the slugs, that there wouldn’t be an extraneous space on the sides, and the letters would be glued straight, we laser cut the outlines of each letter and cut the guidelines for the slugs into the plywood. The plywood was then sliced to create the slugs, then the acrylic was glued into the appropriate piece of wood.

Here are a few blocks and the hand pressed prints I got out of them

Here are the wood types and the plexi type in one case, an interesting sight.

Related posts:

1. Condensed Gothic C
2. Future Condensed J
3. UT Austin