Stencil refers to two typefaces released within months of each other in 1937. The face created by
R. Hunter Middleton

R. Hunter Middleton

Robert Hunter Middleton was an American book designer, painter, and type designer. Born in Glasgow, Scotland he came to Chicago in 1908 where he studied at the School of the Art Institute. He joined the design department of the Ludlow Typograph Company in 1923 and served as director of the...

 for Ludlow

Ludlow Typograph

A Ludlow Typograph is a hot metal typesetting system used in letterpress printing. The device casts bars, or slugs of type, out of type metal primarily consisting of lead. These slugs are used for the actual printing, and then are melted down and recycled on the spot.The Ludlow system uses molds,...

 was advertised in June, while Gerry Powell's version for American Type Founders

American Type Founders

American Type Founders was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States...

 appeared one month later. Both fonts consist of only capital letters with rounded edges and thick main strokes, much like a Clarendon

Clarendon (typeface)

Clarendon is an English slab-serif typeface that was created in England by Robert Besley for Thorowgood and Co. , a type company formerly known as the Fann Street Foundry until approximately 1838. The font was published in 1845 after Besley, an employee of the foundry since 1826, was made a partner...

 typeface, except with breaks in the face to give it the appearance of the stenciled alphabets used on boxes and crates.

Digital Copies

Stencil has been copied by many digital producers, including Linotype GmbH, Adobe

Adobe Systems

Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...

, URW. As the A.T.F. version is heavier, it is often called Stencil Bold when copied.

In 1997, Alexei Chekulaev made a Cyrillic version of Stencil Bold, called Stencil Cyrillic Regular.

In Rookledge's Classic International Typefinder, the entry Stencil Bold shows the existence of a lowercase letters in the font that are unavailable from either actual type foundries or the producers of digital type.

In popular culture

Stencil is a common font for army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

-themed displays, including The A-Team

The A-Team

The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...

 television series. It is also used as the font for the logo for the Disney TV show Recess

Recess (TV series)

Recess is an American animated television series created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers...

.