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Letterpress composition requires the use of strip materials for spacing between lines (generally called leads or leading) and for printing straight lines as separators or borders (generally called rules). Lead, leading in this context, is pronounced led, ledding.

A strip caster like this Elrod produces leads and rules by extrusion. The thickness of the extruded section, measured in printers' points, ranges from one point up to 36 pts. Leads are strips lower than type height and so, hopefully, will not receive ink nor make an impression. Rules, on the other hand, are made type high and so will print.

There are many kinds of rule: the width of the printed line may be less than the body size: for example a 2pt rule may be cast on a 6pt body. In that case, the face of the rule is 2 points wide and it may be located in the centre of the body, or to the side. A rule may indeed carry more than one line: a common variety is a total rule (used as a separator above a total figure) which has a thick line and a thin line on the one body.

Many of the busier letterpress printers have their own strip caster, but others buy leads and rules from a typesetter or typefoundry.