The Preparation of Illustrations for Reports of the United States Geological Survey: With Brief Descriptions of Processes of ReproductionRidgway, John L.
Science
The Preparation of Illustrations for Reports of the United States Geological Survey: With Brief Descriptions of Processes of Reproduction
Ridgway, John L.
Illustration of books
As each color must be printed from a separate stone and properly
fitted with respect to the others a tracing from the original is made
of the precise outlines of each color; or, if the design is to be
reduced, a tracing is made over a properly reduced photographic print.
This tracing can be made on specially prepared tracing paper or on a
sheet of transparent gelatin or celluloid, which is laid over the copy
and on which all the outlines and overlaps of the various colors are
scratched with a steel point. The scratches thus made on the celluloid
are filled with red chalk or like substance, and rubbed in with
cotton, and by reversing the sheet and rubbing it the chalk lines are
deposited on as many stones as are needed to produce the colors of the
original design, each stone bearing all the outlines of the design.
Sometimes all the outlines are engraved on what is called a key stone
and an impression from it is laid down on each of the color stones.
The parts on each stone that are to have one color are then inked in
or engraved, and at the same time guide marks are indicated, so that
in the composite print from the stones each color will fit its proper
place. This fitting is called "register" and is an important part of
printing, for each stone must be adjusted to a nicety while on the
press in order to make each impression fit the others exactly. The
process was originally manipulated entirely by hand, but photography
has now replaced much of the handwork and has given rise to several
methods by which the same kinds of subjects are reproduced in
radically different ways. Tints are sometimes produced by the
half-tone and other screens and by machine ruling, and printer's type
is used almost exclusively for titles and other matter that was
formerly engraved or drawn on the stone.
In reproducing a geologic map the base may be engraved on stone or on
copper or it may be photo-lithographed. By either process the map may
be transferred to the printing stone. The color stones for geologic
maps are prepared by hand, but the geologic patterns, which are
printed in colors, are engraved separately on plates, from which
impressions are pulled when needed and transferred to their proper
places on the printing stones in the shapes required according to the
"key" design. The lighter, more transparent colors are generally
printed first, and often twelve or more colors and many distinctive
patterns are used to produce a geologic map. When proofs of such a map
are pulled each stone must be taken up and carefully adjusted on the
press, so that the work of proving maps that are printed from a
considerable number of color stones is laborious and expensive.
It is therefore customary to approve first combined proofs
conditionally--that is, subject to the corrections and changes
indicated on the proofs--and to hold the lithographer responsible for
any failure to make the corrections.
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