Wood Type

Manufacturers produced "Chromatic type", or two color type, through the end-cut method where they would shave away the negative space around the letter form out of a high block of wood.

The manufacturer would apply the same print on two separate colors to give the look of three, one color which was created by overlapping the original colors. Although the two color process took longer, this design was common in foundry books form the 1840's and 50's.

These wood types were first manufactured by Edwin Allen and can be found in George Nesbitt's 1841 Fourth Specimen of Machinery Cut Wood Type.

This type pictured above was printed on the front cover of American Wood Type: 1829–1900 using the colors blue and red.

However the peak of Chromatic wood type production came when the William H. Page Wood Type Co. issued its 100-page Specimens of Chromatic Type & Borders in 1874.