Editing Matrix (printing) (section)

===Manufacture===
[[File:De Vinne 1876 - Punch and matrix.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A punch (left) and the respective matrix produced from it (right). The small letters at the base of the matrix are founders' inventory marks.]]
The standard method to make a matrix was to drive a [[punchcutter|steel punch]] in the shape of the type to be made into soft copper.<ref name="Letters of Credit">{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|author-link=Walter Tracy|title=Letters of Credit|pages=32–40}}</ref> The matrix could then be cleaned up and cut down to the width of the letter to be cast: this is called "justification" and sets the width of the letter when cast. A matrix that has not yet been justified is called a "strike". Adjustment of the matrix had to be done very carefully to ensure even flow of letters on the page.

Large typefaces, or wide designs such as emblems or medallions, were never very easily produced by punching since it was hard to drive large punches evenly. Early alternative methods used included printing from woodblocks, 'dabbing', where wood-blocks were punched into metal softened by heating, or carefully casting type or matrices in moulds made of softer materials than copper such as sand, clay, or punched lead.<ref name="Big brass matrices 1">{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Big brass matrices: a mystery resolved?|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/brass-matrices-mystery-resolved.html|website=Type Foundry (blog)|access-date=5 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="Big brass matrices 2">{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Big brass matrices again: the Enschedé 'Chalcographia' type|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/big-brass-matrices-again-ensched.html|website=Type Foundry (blog)|access-date=5 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="Mosley Dabbing">{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Dabbing, abklatschen, clichage...|url=http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2006/01/dabbing-abklatschen-clichage.html|website=Type Foundry (blog)|access-date=5 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="Ornamented types: a prospectus">{{cite web|title=Ornamented types: a prospectus|url=http://imimprimit.com/wp-content/uploads/Prospectus-all-cropped-small.pdf|publisher=imimprimit|access-date=12 December 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222083754/http://imimprimit.com/wp-content/uploads/Prospectus-all-cropped-small.pdf|archive-date=22 December 2015}}</ref> One solution to the problem in the early nineteenth century was William Caslon IV's riveted "Sanspareil" matrices formed by cut-out from layered sheets. The problem was ultimately solved in the mid-nineteenth century by new technologies, electrotyping and pantograph engraving, the latter both for [[wood type]] and then for matrices.

From the nineteenth century additional technologies arrived to make matrices. The first was [[electrotyping]] from the 1840s, which forms a copper matrix around a pattern letter by [[Electroplating|electrodeposition]] of copper.{{efn|One problem with electrotyping is that the newly formed letter is slightly smaller than the original letter - a shrinkage of about 0.0038%. While not a great problem for a single electrotyping, the effect could multiply in letters repeatedly copied. According to [[Justin Howes]], sometimes type to be electrotyped was squashed slightly in a press or filed down to compensate before it was duplicated.<ref name="Caslon's punches and matrices Howes">{{cite journal|last1=Howes|first1=Justin|title=Caslon's punches and matrices|journal=[[Matrix (journal)|Matrix]]|date=2000|volume=20|pages=1–7}}</ref>}} The advantage of electrotyping was that the pattern letter did not have to be out of hard steel, so it could be cut in soft lead alloy much faster than a punch could. This allowed an explosion in the number of [[display typeface]]s available.<ref name="CR Patrix Cutting and Matrix Electroforming">{{cite web|last1=MacMillan|first1=David|title=Patrix Cutting and Matrix Electroforming: A Survey of the Data|url=https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/press/typemaking/mats/patrix-and-electroforming/survey-of-data/index.html|website=Circuitous Root|access-date=6 October 2017}}</ref> It also allowed printers to form matrices for types for which they did not have matrices, or duplicate matrices when they had no punches, and accordingly was less honourably used to pirate typefaces from other foundries.<ref name="CR Patrix Cutting and Matrix Electroforming" /> The technology was most commonly used for larger and more esoteric [[display typeface]]s, with punched matrices preferred for body text types.<ref name="CR Patrix Cutting and Matrix Electroforming" /> An additional technology from the 1880s was the direct engraving of punches (or matrices, especially with larger fonts) using a [[pantograph]] cutting machine, controlled by replicating hand movements at a smaller size.<ref name="Letters of Credit" />
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