Matrices made by the Intertype Corporation (and its successor, Harris Intertype) are identified by stamped markings in two separate lines. The first of these gives the body size of the type, in points, with "P" suffixed to it. The second gives the identification of the matrix as a numeric or alphanumeric value. The values used by Intertype here correspond more nearly to typeface series numbers than do Mergenthaler's more arbitrary codes, but still they must be taken to identify a particular series of matrices rather than a particular series of typefaces (as a single series of two-letter matrices can of course be made using two different typefaces).
Here is an example of one which has a fully numeric series identification (1446, which is Gothic No. 13):
Here is an example of one which has an alphanumeric series identification (8F, which is a matrix series which includes two typeface series (Futura Demibold with Futura Book No. 2)):
Jim Gard's Spreadsheets
In 2009, Jim Gard of the San Jose Printers' Guild posted an extensive spreadsheet of Intertype matrix information to the IntertypeWorld Yahoo! group's files section. He also posted two PDF versions of it (sorted typeface number and by typeface name). Here are local copies of these (reprinted here by permission):
Font Numbers and Face Lines (1958)
Font Numbers and Face Lines. (Brooklyn, NY: Intertype Company, A Division of Harris-Intertype Corporation, 1958) Printing code: 42a 16669. 2-58 1M.
Unfortunately, when I scanned this document I failed to scan page 63 and 89 and they are therefore missing from this digital version. I no longer have access to the original.
The icon at left links to a presentation of this digitization at The Internet Archive. Here is a local copy of the PDF (443 Megabytes): intertype-font-numbers-and-face-lines-1958-02-0600dpijpg.pdf
Thanks are due to Dave Seat of Hot Metal Services, http://www.hotmetalservices.com/, for preserving this document and making it available. He is of course not responsible for the fact that I failed to scan two of its pages.
Matrix Identification
Matrix Identification (Brooklyn, NY: Intertype Company, A Division of Harris-Intertype Corporation, n.d.) This undated publication would appear to postdate the 1958 edition reprinted above, but probably predates 1963 (as it still uses city zone codes, not ZIP codes).
This scan was done by me from a copy borrowed from Dave Seat of Hot Metal Services (www.hotmetalservices.com). The icon at left links to a presentation of it at The Internet Archive. Here is a local copy of the PDF (370 Megabytes): intertype-matrix-identification-after-1958-before-1963-0600dpijpg.pdf Thanks are due to Dave Seat for preserving this booklet and making it available.
A different scan of this same booklet is available as a Microsoft Word document online at the downloads page of Dave Seat's Hot Metal Services: http://www.hotmetalservices.com/downloadable_documents.htm
A PDF version of the Hot Metal Services Word version is online at Lance Williams's site: http://downloads.lwwilliams.com/
Jim Gard's spreadsheet of Intertype matrix information, and the PDFs generated from it, are Copyright 2009 by him. They are reprinted here with his generous permission. They are not covered under the same Creative Commons license as the rest of this web page. Please do not redistribute them or use them commercially without first obtaining his permission to do so.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2012 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
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