Before sending any line drawings to press they should be carefully examined; pencil marks may be rubbed out, lines touched up, unnecessary lines removed by painting them out with white or black ink according to the background, and, finally, a frame ruled around, if necessary. The amount of reduction, which should be marked clearly on the margin, requires very careful consideration since under reduction may cause the reproduction to appear too coarse whilst over-reduction may result in the loss of the finer detail and the drawing may, moreover, appear spiritless. It must also be remembered that a reduction of, say, 1/2 linear means that the reproduction will be a quarter the area of the original. The best way to indicate the reduction required is to draw a vertical or horizontal line, parallel to a side or the base of the picture, of the exact length; or, the line may be roughly drawn and its length indicated by figures thus ------------2-1/2"--------- . The question arises as to when line drawings for reproduction by the zinc block should be employed. The answer is, Whenever possible. The advantages to a reader of having the illustrations in the text has already been commented upon. It is about the only method commonly employed in which practically everything depends on the draughtsman; the author thus exercises the greatest control. Finally the fact that it is very inexpensive will appeal to editors and publishers. As a matter of curiosity, the present writer picked out at random a recent volume of a scientific journal to examine the illustrations; although there were a number of text figures, an examination of the plates--chiefly lithographs and collotypes--showed that there were a large number of figures which ought to have been in the text. A more detailed inspection of the plates was therefore made, with the result that nearly 200 figures were found which with the minimum amount of alteration--merely drawing in ink instead of pencil in the majority of cases, and leaving out unnecessary shading in the others--could have been reproduced by line blocks. If this had been done, a saving of over 20 per cent. could have been effected on the plates. Some of this would, of course, have been absorbed in the making of zincos, but not much, since line blocks of excellent quality can be obtained for 2-1/2d. and 3d. per square inch. The above relates only to the most obvious examples; the saving in plates would have been enormous if the authors had drawn for the line process.