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
But paper and pasteboard require a different process,-viz.: Take a piece
of Nonpareil cherry reglet of the full length of the cylinder. Trim down
the paper or pasteboard to the width of the bed between the bearers, but
leave it a little longer than the impression segment of the cylinder.
Then crease the pasteboard at a uniform distance of half an inch from
the narrower end, and lay this creased part on the flat edge of the
impression segment of the cylinder, under the grippers. Put the reglet
over this, and bring down the clamps hard on the reglet, so as to bind
all securely. When this is done, a thin web of muslin may be stretched
over the whole, in the same way in which a blanket is laid on, and rolled
up tightly, which will prevent any slipping of the board or of the
overlays pasted on it.
A large poster, or newspaper form, or any large form with old type, will
require a soft roller with much suction. Book-work, wood-cuts, or fine
job-work, will require a harder roller, with very smooth, elastic, and
clinging surface. Coloured inks are best printed with a still harder
roller and with much less suction. All rollers should be perfectly clean,
and free from cracks or holes. The suitableness of these rollers cannot
well be explained by words: such a knowledge will be best acquired by
observation and experience. It may, however, be necessary to state that
one roller will not answer for all styles of presswork: the quality of
the work, the size and wear of the type, and the speed of the press, must
control the pressman in his choice.
Posters, with large wood type, require a semi-fluid ink, but not
surcharged with oil. Ordinary news-work requires a better grade, more
tachy, and finely ground. Good book-work should have a stiffer-bodied
ink, soft, smooth, and with little oil. Job ink, which is made expressly
for presswork on dry paper, should be used only for such work. Book and
job inks are not convertible: an ink for wet paper will not work well on
dry paper, and _vice versâ_. Very fine presswork—such as wood-cuts, or
letter-press upon enamelled paper—calls for an ink impalpably fine, very
stiff, of brilliant colour, and nearly or absolutely free from oil.
Every job-office should keep four grades of ink,—news, book, job, and
wood-cut. They can be compounded (if no ink-manufacturer is near) with
each other, or reduced with varnish to suit any form. Good presswork is
impossible without good inks.
Charge the ink-fountain with the ink selected, and keep it well covered,
to protect it from paper dust. Turn down the screws, and cut off all
the ink evenly. When the form is ready, turn on the ink cautiously, and
wait for ten or twelve impressions before again altering the screws. For
small forms and short numbers of any piece of presswork in coloured ink
or extra ink, a fountain is not necessary. The ink may be applied with a
brayer or palette-knife.
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