minikin
The size of type smaller than brilliant, standardized as 3-point.
minikin: the smallest practical typeface size in hot metal
A minikin is a 3-point typeface used in letterpress and linotype composition, representing the smallest type size that could be cast and set with reasonable reliability on mechanical typesetting machines. In the era of hot metal printing, before digital type, minikins were used for footnotes, marginal notes, legal disclaimers, and other text requiring extreme compaction on the page. The type itself measures 3 points high, where one point equals 1/72 inch, making individual characters roughly 1/24 inch in height.
The minikin occupied the bottom rung of the type size hierarchy, below brilliant (4-point), pearl (5-point), and nonpareil (6-point). These names, inherited from centuries of foundry practice, were standardized in points only after the American Point System was adopted in the 1870s. Before standardization, minikin sizes varied slightly between different type founders. The term itself derives from Dutch minneken, meaning diminutive or small, and entered English printing vocabulary through the Low Countries' dominance in early type founding.
Setting minikin type required steady hands and good eyesight. Machine composition on a linotype cast single lines of type, but the characters were so small that corrections by hand required magnification and extreme precision. If a 3-point slugline broke or became damaged during printing, the cost of replacement was negligible; the real loss was in production time. Because the type was fragile and the wear rapid under the heat and pressure of the printing press, minikin sluglines were often cast fresh for each job rather than stored and reused.
Minikin fell from use during the shift to offset lithography and phototypesetting in the mid-twentieth century. Modern digital typography no longer requires physical size categories, and screen resolution made text below 6 or 8 points difficult to read without magnification. The term survives today primarily in the vocabulary of letterpress revival practitioners and archivists dealing with nineteenth and early twentieth century printed materials.