Cangnan woodblock movable-type printing developed from traditional Chinese movable-type printing and is widely used for printing pedigree. The process is complex and standardized and consists of lettering, typesetting, printing and binding, and involves collecting materials, making font matrix, writing in reverse, lettering, manuscript processing, typesetting, proofreading, cutting paper, brushing, drying, sorting, punching, paper binding and making cover.

Pear wood is generally used for engraving. First, use a brush to write characters in reverse. The typeface is generally the lao Songti, or old Song font, which can be divided into two types: dajian and xiaojian, equivalent to lead type size one and lead type size three in modern times. Wood characters are stored in the word-drawer in the order of pianpang (component of a Chinese character), emperor or empress, birth and death, tiangan dizhi (10 celestial stems and the 12 animals of the zodiac in traditional Chinese culture) and the Chinese time concept of shichen, which is equal to two hours. Each drawer contains 46 x 46 wood characters. There are generally 16 drawers containing more than 20,000 words or over 30,000 words in carved movable type.

The format is divided into two types: xuban and jiaban. Each whole page is divided into two parts. After being printed and bound, it becomes the front and back pages. The printing format is called the tujia xianglian style, or a style consisting of both large and small typefaces. When printing, the characters to be used are first selected from the drawer according to ancestral mnemonic rhyme, and then installed in the printing plate in order. Generally, the big typefaces are first selected, and then the small ones, that is, the so-called xiantu houjia. When printing, the famed Fuzhou oil is brushed on the wooden characters, and then they are covered with xuanzhi, a rice paper typically used for calligraphy and Chinese paintings. The paper is brushed lightly with a clean brown brush and then attached to the typeface and the characters will show up. Then the paper is removed, and the printing of one large page or two smaller pages is completed. Binding is done by twisting rice paper rather than thread, then adding the cover to the book. The whole process requires fine skills and features strong traditional printing elements. This technique is considered “the living fossil” of ancient Chinese printing technology.