nick

A nick is a shallow notch cut transversely across the shank, or body, of a piece of metal type. Its sole purpose was mechanical: to help a compositor quickly orient each character in the correct position within the composing stick, and later to sort type back into its case with the face pointing the right way. Without it, a printer working at speed could easily place type upside down or backwards, ruining the entire line.

Metal type, cast in pieces, has a shank that runs the depth of the character face. The nick is typically a small rectangular or V-shaped cut, between 1 and 2 millimetres deep, positioned on one side of the shank near the base. A compositor would feel for this notch by touch, particularly in low light or when working quickly. The location and shape of the nick became standardized within a foundry or printing house so that all characters in a font carried the same mark in the same place.

Why it mattered in production

Speed in hand composition depended on instinct and touch. A compositor sorting type by the dozen into a wooden case, or drawing sorts from a composing stick into a galley, could not afford to examine every character visually. The nick became a tactile reference point, as reliable as the weight and feel of the metal itself. Different foundries sometimes used different nick positions or profiles, which meant a compositor had to adjust when switching fonts or working with type from an unfamiliar supplier.

The term is dated because machine composition, whether Linotype or Monotype, eliminated the manual handling that made the nick necessary. Digital composition has rendered it obsolete. Yet the groove persists in surviving fonts and remains visible in type specimens and in collections held by letterpress workshops and museums.