The American Printer: A Manual of Typography: Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.MacKellar, Thomas
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The American Printer: A Manual of Typography: Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.
MacKellar, Thomas
Graphic design (Typography); Printing -- United States -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.; Printing industry -- United States
Vigilant and conscientious oversight is the price of profit and success.
An overseer or foreman of a printing-office should be of more than
ordinary capacity, and able to keep his temper in firm control. His
conduct should be guided by justice and equity in regard to the interests
of the employer and the employed. A strict impartiality should be
observed in his treatment of the workmen, and no favouritism should be
displayed. He should make himself acquainted with the capacity of the
men, and apportion work among them accordingly. Some men are valueless
except for plain, straightforward composition; others, distinguished for
taste and skill, delight in intricate work or matter requiring ingenuity
and delicacy, such as tables, music, and algebra. Put one of the first
kind on this sort of composition, and he will botch it, and earn small
wages; while a workman of the latter class will become restive and
dissatisfied with plain, solid matter. While dealing justly with the men
under his charge, the foreman should see to it that the employer suffers
no detriment from negligent or dishonest practices of unconscientious
workmen, whether from careless correcting, allowing dropped types to
lie upon the floor, or overcharging, or other methods well known in a
printing-office. He should be the first and the last in attendance, in
order to satisfy himself that every person does his duty in coming and
leaving at the proper time.
[Illustration: LARGE SORT-CASE CABINET, FOR SORTS, QUADS, ETC.]
The office having been thoroughly swept at an early hour, and the type
found in any alley having been placed in the stick of the compositor
occupying it, the foreman should pass around the room and see that it is
immediately distributed, instead of being thrown on the window-frame or
table. The type found in the body of the rooms should be sorted out and
distributed at once, and not be allowed to accumulate. No pi should be
permitted to remain over till the next day. This is an essential point to
secure a tidy and well-regulated office.
He should see to it that the proof-roller and press are in good
condition, and that a sufficient supply of wetted proof-paper is on hand.
A badly-printed proof should never be allowed to go to the proof-reader
or to the author, as neither can properly read a blurred or imperfect
proof. An author will feel kindly toward an office that furnishes him
with handsome impressions of his matter.
[Illustration: SORT-CASE CABINET.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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