Before ink jet and laser printers; before copy machines, the main way to make multiples of anything not provided by printing press was by a mimeograph machine or spirit duplicator.

The mimeograph utilized a porous drum which inked the backside of a waxed stencil sheet.  Unlike traditional stencils which have cut out areas that are directly inked or painted, a mimeo stencil has the area to be printed scratched away by removing the wax coating with a stylus. 

The resulting image allows the ink from the drum to seep through the sheet and transfer to the blank paper.

Based on a plastic lettering guide once manufactured by the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago, Mimeograph Template JNL is available in regular and oblique versions.

Albert Blake Dick, the company’s founder, coined the term ‘mimeography’. 

The font’s character shapes follow the routed letters of the template, complete with rounded terminals.  An earlier font release [designed with flat terminals and some alternate characters] is available as Interoffice Memo JNL.