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
History
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
When the work to be taken in hand is a reprint which is to be followed
page for page, a fixed number of pages should be given to each compositor
as he comes in turn for copy; or, if the work be in manuscript, an equal
average amount should be allowed as a take for each compositor. None of
the hands should have access to the copy, but the foreman should deal it
out as wanted with perfect impartiality, fat or lean as it may happen to
run. Otherwise, a compositor who has an acquaintance with the copy may
be tempted to loiter if the next take to be given out be lean, or, if it
be fat, to apply for copy before his work in hand is finished. By this
course, the foreman will prevent all such sorts of sharp practice, and
secure harmony in the companionship. When the foreman gives out copy,
he should plainly mark the name of the compositor at the head of the
first page of the take if the work be a page-for-page reprint; if it be
manuscript, or a reprint in a different measure from that of the copy,
he should write the name at the beginning of the first paragraph of the
take. Most compositors desire to have a large portion of copy, under the
erroneous idea that it will be to their advantage to make up many pages
at once. Small takes insure a more rapid execution of the work and bring
a quicker return of letter, and so tend to the profit of the hands.
If one of the companionship absent himself, the man next in order should
close his copy, whether it be good or bad, unless the larger portion of
it be not set, in which case the person who has the last take must go on
with it.
MAKING UP.
The compositor who has the first take on the work proceeds without delay
to make it up as soon as he has completed it. Having completed as many
pages as his matter will make, he passes the overplus, if less than
half a page, with the correct head and folio, to the compositor whose
matter follows his, at the same time taking an account of the number of
lines loaned; if, on the contrary, the overplus makes more than half a
page, he borrows a sufficient number of lines to complete his page; each
compositor keeping an account of the number of lines borrowed and loaned.
The second compositor, following the same course, passes the make-up
to the next in succession; each man passing the make-up in like manner
without unnecessary delay.
[Illustration: STEEL MAKE-UP RULE.]
MAKING UP OF LETTER.
The number of the companionship, if possible, should be determined on
at the commencement of the work, to enable all to proceed upon an equal
footing. The letter appropriated for the work should be adequate to keep
the persons on it fully employed.
If any part of the matter for distribution, whether in chase or in paper,
be desirable on account of the sorts it may contain, it should be divided
equally, or the choice of it thrown for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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