Selling Matrices became a profitable market. As matrices lasted more or less three years when used regularly, they needed frequent replacement. Or when a printshop wanted to acquire a new Typeface, such as 'Bodoni', a whole new set of matrices needed to be ordered. Not only Linotype and Intertype were selling matrices. Other companies soon joined the market. A list can be found here.
To sell matrices efficiently, each company had Order Forms. The buyer had to indicate exactly which number of which letters was needed. Below are illustrations of two Order Forms. The first is from Établissements Plantin, a local distributor in Brussels. The second is from Intertype Corporation itself.
The selling companies published several books with the available typefaces and their correlating codes. An overview can be found here.
Printshops often replaced their whole set of letters at once. For convenience, the supplying company provided in recommended sets. The form below illustrates how many matrices of each letter that Établissements Plantin recommended. Note that this is for a Belgian keyboard. Depending on the language, variations would occur.
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