The face created by R. Hunter Middleton for Ludlow was advertised in June, while Gerry Powell's version for American Type Founders appeared one month later.

Both fonts consist of only capital letters with rounded edges and thick main strokes, much like a Clarendon typeface, except with breaks in the face to give it the appearance of the stenciled alphabets used on boxes and crates.

Stencil is a common font for (typically American) army-themed displays, including The A-Team, Private Benjamin and M*A*S*H television series.

It is also used for the credits on card labels on the crates of the Woodland Animations for the BBC Children's TV programme Bertha.

The typeface was used to render the names of the characters in the Incredible Crash Dummies action figure line.