Sort (typesetting)

Diagram of a cast metal sort. a face, b body or shank, c point size, 1 shoulder, 2 nick, 3 groove, 4 foot.
Metal type sorts arranged on a composing stick
For broader coverage of this topic, see Letterpress printing.

In typesetting, a sort or type is a block with a typographic character etched on it, used—when lined up with others—to print text.[1] 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.

  1. ^ 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.