The Type
We offer typecasting services to fellow letterpress printers, bookbinders, artists of all sorts, and to the trade. Ludlow type can be cast from 6 to 96pt, with special 244pt Bodoni Campanile numbers, and is traditionally used for “display type” in headlines, chapter heading, larger type in posters, etc. Linotype type is cast from 6 to 18pt, is much faster than Ludlow typecasting, and for these reasons was used primarily for “body type”, the larger mass of type in book pages, newspaper columns, etc. Linotype slugs are cast at 30 picas, ludlow slugs at 22 1/2 picas, but multiple Ludlow slugs can be cast together for lines up to 90 picas long.
Hot metal type linecasting machines were developed in the later part of the 19th and early 20th Centuries to automate the individual typecasting and hand typesetting that had been the standard in commercial printing since Gutenberg cast handset metal type in 1455, and in Korea centuries before that. Brass type matrices are set (automatically from a keyboard on a Linotype, set by hand on a Ludlow) and then cast instantly from a crucible of molten lead onto a single line, or slug, of type. Unlike handset type, this will be brand new, never used before type, which can then be melted and reused in future projects
A current list of our typefaces available for casting can be found below, along with specimen sheets of select Linotype, Ludlow, and Wood type samples. Individual slugs can be ordered in our store, but please fill out the form below for a more detailed quote for a specific project.
Available Ludlow Faces
Available Linotype Matrices
