Matrix (printing)

Not to be confused with Dot matrix printing.
Matrices created by Jean Jannon around 1640. The Garamond typeface installed with most Microsoft software is based on these designs.[1][2][3]

In the manufacture of metal type used in letterpress printing, a matrix (from the Latin meaning womb or a female breeding animal) is the mould used to cast a letter, known as a sort.[4] Matrices for printing types were made of copper.[5]

However, in printmaking the matrix is whatever is used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print, whether a plate in etching and engraving or a woodblock in woodcut.

  1. ^ "Jannon". French Ministry of Culture.
  2. ^ "Monotype Garamond". Fonts.com. Monotype. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  3. ^ "Garamond". Microsoft. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  4. ^ Man, John (2002). The Gutenberg Revolution: the story of a genius that changed the world. London: Headline. ISBN 0-7472-4504-5. [page needed]
  5. ^ Theodore Low De Vinne (1899). The Practice of Typography: A Treatise on the Processes of Type-making, the Point System, the Names, Sizes, Styles, and Prices of Plain Printing Types. Century Company. pp. 9–36.