In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. First used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was lighter and cheaper than large sizes of metal type.
Wood type in close-up
Exhibition poster by Alan Kitching, who often uses wood type in his work
Wooden movable types in the China Printing Museum, Beijing
Large display type, cut by Hendrik van den Keere in wood and reproduced by sandcasting
Hendrik van den Keere was a punchcutter, or cutter of punches to make metal type, who lived in Ghent in modern Belgium.
Van den Keere's Spanish-style "rotunda" Gothic
Most of van den Keere's work was for prominent printer Christophe Plantin in Antwerp. His printing office survives as the Plantin-Moretus Museum.