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
Wood and metal furniture, cut or cast to specific lengths and widths,
may now be had from the type-founders, the use of which will save time,
waste, and labour.
MAKING THE MARGIN.
The next business is to arrange the margin, so that each page may occupy
one side of a leaf, and have the proper proportion of white paper left at
the sides as well as at the head and foot. The page when printed should
be a little higher than the middle of the leaf, and _have a little more
margin on the outside than in the back_. This rule is often neglected by
careless or ignorant printers, and the appearance of the book when bound
is repulsive to the eye of taste.
One mode of making margin is the following:—For octavos, measure and
mark the width of four pages by compasses, on a sheet of paper designed
for the work, beginning to measure at one extremity of the breadth of
the sheet. The rest of the paper divide into four equal parts, allowing
two-fourths for the width of two separate gutter-sticks; the remaining
two-fourths divide again into four equal parts, and allow one-fourth for
the margin along each side of the short cross, and one-fourth for the
margin to each outside page. But as the thickness of the short cross adds
considerably to the margin, reduce the furniture in the back accordingly,
and thereby enlarge the outside margin, which requires the greatest share
to allow for the unevenness of the paper itself, as well as for pressmen
laying sheets unevenly when the fault is not in the paper. Having thus
made the margin between the pages to the breadth of the paper, in
the same manner proportion the margin at the head to the length, and
accordingly measure and mark the length of two pages, dividing the rest
into four parts, one-fourth of which is allowed for each side of the long
cross, and one-fourth for the margin that runs along the foot of the
two ranges of pages. The furniture on both sides of the long one must
be lessened to enlarge the bottom margin, for the reason assigned for
extending the side margin.
Go the same way to work in twelves, where, for the outer margin along
the foot of the pages, allow the amount of two-thirds of the breadth of
the head-sticks, and the same for the inner margin, that reaches from
the foot of the fifth page to the centre of the groove for the points;
and from the centre of that groove to the pages of the quire, or the cut
off, allow half of the breadth of the head-stick. The margin along the
long cross is governed by the gutter-sticks; and it is common to put as
much on each side of the long cross as amounts to half the breadth of
the gutter-stick, without deducting almost any thing for the long cross,
since that makes allowance for the inequality of the outer margin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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