281: 👉🏽 Manicule 👈🏽

Allow me to draw your attention over there please. (I know you can’t see me but I’m pointing in that direction, towards the letterpress print of a manicule I  made recently, which is hanging out in my closet of a recording studio.)

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I’m so thrilled to be part of the Canadian Letterpress Alliance; a newly formed, 3x a year fun mail club for letterpress printers across Canada. 

And while I don’t consider myself a letterpress printer in the same way that so many in this group are undeniable and talented professionals, I was assured that my LEGO letterpress adventures count and I can hang with the cool kids.

For this January’s mailing (arriving on doorsteps across the country any time now!) I wanted to challenge myself and expand my skillset into real letterpress printing, using tried and true technology. So I went back… wayyyyyyy back to the 1850s. With the partnership and guidance of my pals at Mackenzie House Toronto, I printed 52 postcards on their antique letterpress using wood type that’s easily more than 50 years old, maybe even more than 100 years old. The team allowed me free rein to comb gleefully through their collection of curiosities; a type cabinet filled to the brim with a variety of signs, symbols, dingbats, and illustrations. What a time to be alive!

And as for my subject matter, I couldn’t help but be drawn to the manicule. Disembodied hands calling attention to important ideas? You’ve got my attention! From the E.T.-like outstretched index fingers found in Medieval manuscripts, through to the “bigger and better!” symbols of 19th Century advertising scene, through to modern day emojis, the manicule has a story as long as books themselves. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to feature such an iconic symbol on my printed postcards.

I encourage you to check out www.talkpaperscissors.info/letterpress to see the final print and some of my process on the 170 year old printing press!

Let’s dive into some facts about the manicule to fill your brain with delightful typographic knowledge. Here we go! 

• The word “manicule” comes from the Latin “maniculum”, or “little hand”.

• In the late Medieval period, the manicule represented the reader; their literal hands depicted on the page. (1) The reader paired their hand-drawn mark with their thoughts tied to notable passages. The equivalent today is highlighting and annotating in a variety of ways in a diverse range of media formats, from books, to eBooks, to audiobooks. 

• To the knowledge of the typographic community, the manicule has a sole historian, Professor William H. Sherman at the University of York. (1) In his seminal work, Sherman poignantly connects “…the long-standing links between pointing, reading, and learning.” (6)

• It was the creation of the book itself in around the 4th Century—in its portability and design with generous margins in comparison to its predecessor, the delicate scroll—that encouraged note taking. The rarity of owning books meant that their owners were invested in the book, regularly “branding” them as their own, which included filling the margins with notes and underlining phrases. (Wait, doesn’t everyone still do that?! Oh, just me…). (1)

• While manicules were historically created by the reader, with the advent of printed books via moveable type in the mid 1450s, it took less than 25 years for the symbol to be adopted by the printer, making its way into moveable type itself and shifting from the wings of the page to centre stage. This was part of a larger trend that saw empty margin space—ideal for readers to note and reflect—to be commandeered by writers wishing to provide their own further explanations. (2)

• The manicule has had more than 10 distinct names: “hand”, “hand director”, “pointing hand”, “pointing finger”, “pointer”, “digit”, “index”, and “indicator”. Once adopted by the printing industry, it took on new identities still, including the much more stern-sounding “fist” or “mutton fist” that was devoid of the same bespoke personality bestowed upon their hand-drawn predecessors. (1)

• Some mainicules cut off at the wrist, while others include cuffs, specific to the fashion of the various eras, from flowing sleeves, to lace-trimmed cuffs, to suit-wearing business men. (1)

• Manicules found themselves shifting gears from reference marks to a staple in advertising, pointing to important events, venues, shops, and any featured information. As with common persuasive design sales tactics today, advertisers pushed the limits of the symbol, creating ever larger and more elaborate versions in the 19th Century. As eyes grew tired of seeing manicules everywhere in advertising, they fell out of popularity in the second half of the 19th Century and as with all stale trends, manicules eventually became used almost entirely in an ironic capacity. (1)

• Manicules are one of the many featured glyphs in notable dingbats fonts, including Zapf Dingabats (created by iconic typographer, Hermann Zapf and released in 1978 featuring 360 symbols and ornamental characters). The equally iconic Wingdings font (released in 1992, its name a combination of ‘Windows’ and ‘dingbats’) also featured manicules and it was designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, both proteges of Mr. Zapf. (3)

• Jonathan Hoefler’s typeface “Parliament” features manicules unique to the style of the letters, and his process was featured in the documentary series “Abstract: Season 2”. (4)

• Without even realizing it, the manicule lay right under my nose—maybe yours too!— my entire computing career (from the time that I was about 8 until now). Take a look at your cursor as you hover over a hyperlink; it performs an act of transformation, switching from a triangle to a manicure-like pointing hand, indicating an area of interest and mimicking its original use in the digital age. (6)

• The tradition of the manicule moved forward into 21st Century become emoji-fied. The manicule isn’t called a manicule however; its official emoji names are “Backhand Index Pointing Right” and “Backhand Index Pointing Left”. There are other multi-directional manicules pointing up, down, and at the viewer. Not to mention the fact that the “Nail Polish   Emoji” (often used to convey a confident or sassy tone) feels like a delightfully feminine cousin of the manicule. 💅🏽 (5)

• Finally, photo sharing platform, Flickr, has a dedicated manicule group with more than 500 members and 2000+ photos (check it out at www.flickr.com/groups/manicule/. (1)

So while the manicule’s purpose and meaning have shifted with time and with technology, in many ways, it remains relevant as ever. From my outstretched finger to you… boop!

Until next time…

Note in the margins:

The above facts come from six distinct sources:

1. Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston, 2013

2. Point, don’t point ☛ A brief history of the manicule, I Love Typography: Blog, 2020

3. Back to Font: Behind the Typefaces You Thought You Knew by Anitra Nottingham and Jason Phillips, 2025

4. Abstract, S02 E06 - Jonathan Hoefler: Typeface Design 

5. Emojipedia.org 

6. ArchBook: Manicules by Voytek Bialkowski, Christine DeLuca, and Kalina Lafreniere, University of Saskatchewan, 2012

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Music:

Michael Hawley - Sonata No. 21 in C Major 'Waldstein', Op. 53 - I. Allegro con brio is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License.

Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle

Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Manicule 1: This is a manicule found in the margin of Archbishop William Scheves's book. Courtesy of University of St Andrews Library, classmark Typ NL.A85JT (photograph by Daryl Green); Public Domain.

Manicule 2: Detail of leaf [a]6v of an incunable edition of the Bible in Latin (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 16 Nov. 1475; ISTC ib00543000) with rubrication and ms. manicule in brown ink; Public Domain.

Manicule 3: Because you can never have too many manicules. From vintage type-specimen catalogues. In the public domain--free to use.