Letraset

British company that made dry-transfer lettering that could be rubbed onto paper; it changed headline setting in the 1960s and 70s.

Dai Davies and Fred McKenzie founded Letraset in London and developed dry-transfer lettering, which was transferred to paper by rubbing the sheet. Designers and students could suddenly set headlines themselves.

Letraset published typefaces of its own, such as Compacta, and licensed others. When computers arrived in the late 1980s the need declined, but dry-transfer letters shaped graphic design for two decades.

Letraset sheet typeface names and numbers; letters that crack with age.

• Posters and graphic design