The RRK
The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection (the RRK) is a working archive of over 150 letterpress typefaces from the 1800s. The collection is a living body of artifacts and resources that continue to be utilized daily by students, faculty, and scholars of the greater design community. Under the care of the School of Design & Creative Technologies in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, the collection thrives as a core component of our curriculum, research, and ongoing studies.
The collection consists of 166 typesets, almost 150 fonts, as well as a variety of borders, ornaments, and images. Connecting students with wood type is a core component of our departmental thesis. We seek to bridge the old and the the new—the analog and the digital—studying the tethering fibers of design history, and fostering new connections with our continued research.
The Collection Consists of
Four Style Categories, Over 150 Unique Faces, an Estimated 18,829 Pieces of Wood Type
plus hundreds of decorative ornaments, borders, & image blocks
Roman
Roman has two sub styles: Old Style and Fat Face. Revivals of Old Style roman typefaces were popular in both metal and wood type from the 1850s onward. Fat Faces are display types with exaggerated stroke contrast that pair very “fat” thick strokes with hairline serifs and thin strokes.
Explore Roman
Antique
Antique has three sub styles: Egyptian, Clarendon and Tuscan. Egyptian faces feature low stroke contrast and blocky, unbracketed slab serifs. Clarendons are characterized by higher contrast between thick and thin strokes and heavy, bracketed serifs.
Explore Antique
Gothic
Gothic has three sub styles: Lineal, Modulated, and Tuscan. Lineal typefaces are low or no contrast sans serif faces. Gothic Modulated typefaces are sans serif faces with stroke contrast. Gothic Tuscans are display faces characterized by low or no stroke contrast.
Explore Gothic
Script
Script has two sub styles: Blackletter and Brush. Blackletter faces are based on medieval and early Renaissance script styles. Brush Script wood type is modeled on nineteenth century sign painters’ informal script lettering styles. Relatively few of these faces were produced.
Explore Script
Decorative
Decorative cuts include Chromatics, Borders and Rule, and Ornaments. Chromatic types are made to be printed in two or more colors. The first wood type ornaments were the ‘pointing hands’ known as Indexes or Fists.
Explore Decorative
The Archive
High-resolution scans of the collection’s specimens are available to download. They are not working digital fonts, only images. They are ideal for hand-setting in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
This archive is the result of many years of meticulous work. We appreciate your support of the collection!
The Books
There are two monographs published on the RRK Collection. The first was authored by Kelly and printed in 1969. It reissued in 2010 with a forward by David Shields. Shields is the foremost scholar of wood type and previous head of the University of Texas Design program.
David Shields wrote and designed the second monograph, The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection: A History and Catalog, published in 2022 by the University of Texas Press. The collection’s condition and impact is entirely owed to David’s conservation efforts and ongoing research.
Type In Use
Images of projects that use type from the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection.
