Print in the CAM Age: Digital Manufacture of Relief Blocks for Printing

Abstract

Wooden letter forms, or wood type, were developed to enable large scale text to be printed alongside the more widely used, smaller metal type, which has been used to print the written word since the 1300s. Due to advances in digital printing in the twentieth century the use of manual typesetting processes began to decline, and the last trading wood type manufacturer in the UK closed its doors in the 1997. Over the last decade however there has been a resurgence in manual typesetting with craftspeople setting up their own businesses in this area, and as a result it has become apparent that there is very little documentation of the history of the wood type manufacturing industry, and very few working facilities in the UK for the manufacture of new wood type. This paper will discuss the initial outcomes of the feasibility study into whether there is sufficient documentation of wood type, its manufacture and commercial use, to conduct a more in-depth study of the history of wood type manufacture, and whether manufacturing for wood type could be set up using digital fabrication technology at Plymouth College of Art.