Sort (typesetting)
In
movable-type printing, the sort or type is cast from a matrix mold
and assembled by hand with other sorts bearing additional characters into lines of type to make up a form, from which a page is printed.
Background
From the invention of movable type up to the invention of hot metal typesetting essentially all printed text was created by selecting sorts from a type case and assembling them line by line into a form used to print a page. When the form was no longer needed all of the type had to be sorted back into the correct slots in the type case in a very time-consuming process called "distributing". This sorting process led to the individual pieces being called sorts. It is often claimed to be the root of expressions such as "out of sorts" and "wrong sort", although this connection is disputed.[citation needed]
During the
Monotype still cast the sorts individually. Later, when phototypesetting
replaced hot metal typesetting, sorts disappeared entirely from the mainstream printing process.
See also
- History of western typography
- Letterform
- Matrix (printing)
- Typeface
- Typography
- Typeface anatomy
References
- ^ A.A. Stewart (1919). TYPESETTING: a primer of information about working at the case, justifying, spacing, correcting, making-up, and other operations employed in setting type by hand. Typographic technical series for apprentices—Part II. No. 16. United Typothetae of America. p. 92 – via Project Gutenberg.
Further reading
- Nesbitt, Alexander (1957). The History and Technique of Lettering. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20427-8. The Dover edition is an abridged and corrected republication of the work originally published in 1950 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. under the title Lettering: The History and Technique of Lettering as Design.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Printing letters.
- Typowiki Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback Machine, a type wiki at typophile.com Archived 2006-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Metal Type - For Those who Remember Hot Metal Typesetting