Definition of "fac"

If a Fac or Flowered letter be deeper than the Composing-stick we measure the exact width of it by Quotations, or common Quadrats; which we put into our Stick, and the Fac into the Galley, and then compose, and empty each time so many lines as our measure in the Stick will allow, till we have composed so many as reach something beyond the Depth of the Fac, that by justifying it up to the lines, its touching the letters underneath may be prevented.

1771, Philip Luckombe, The History and Art of Printing, page 385

This combination of art and accident may be continued to any given length, as punches for letter-press may be formed of steel broken as above, by cutting, drilling, punching, bending (and all their varieties upon the same principle) parts of the letters and leaving the grain of the steel, &c. to form the lines or strokes, with all its accidental irregularities, and in this way title letters and two-line letters, facs, and complex founts of types, might be cast, every letter of which would vary in its lines from every other, and in larger letters a little art might be combin'd with accident so as to make the distinctions from all others obvious to a common observer.

1859, Robert Barclay, “A.D. 1790, July 26 -- No. 1766”, in Great Britain. Patent Office, editor, Patents for Invention, page 101

The Fac Initial, a cheap substitute for the Pierced Initial, is made by combinations of small borders about an interior letter. As these borders are troublesome to construct and too often plainly show their joints, the Fac Initial is seldom made now.

1907, De Vinne Press, Types of the De Vinne Press, page 45

Here's to Hibben. We call him JackThe whitest man in all the fac.Of Princeton spirit he does not lack

1973, Princeton Alumni Weekly, volume 74, page vii

I had my essay on a memory stick so it just needed to be printed out in the Arts Fac; I'd intended to re-read it for sense but meeting Liv seemed more important.

2012, Jonathan Dennis, The good die and the bad live on, page 209