Taiwan’s last Chinese character letterpress preserves the dying art of Chinese character mold making. 

Atlas Obscura
July 8, 2018

Ever thought about how newspapers printed in Chinese were produced in the pre-digital era? Every word, every character needed to be on stock for printing. And here, in the middle of Taipei, these characters are still produced with molten lead.

Rixing Type Foundry is the last Chinese character letterpress in Taiwan. This rare typographic gem houses what some believe is the only surviving collection of traditional Chinese movable type character molds in the world.

The foundry boasts about 120,000 different molds. The molds come in different sizes and three different typefaces. Rows of wooden shelves fill the space, each stacked with different moveable types. In the back, you’ll see a room full of different molding and casting machines, including ones that that create 3-D lead type pieces.    [FULL  STORY]