Horgan's half-tone and photomechanical processes ..

Preface

It was the writer's fortune to witness the culmination of what may be termed the Golden Age of Wood Engraving in the United States; to be present at the birth of photoengraving; to have taken an active part in the struggle for supremacy between wood engraving and photoengraving; to regretfully witness the decline of wood engraving, and to contribute somewhat to the success and popularizing of what is now included in the generic term, " Processwork." Now that manual engraving has surrendered and photomechanical engraving occupies the field, it has been suggested that the writer put on record some of the knowledge gained through his unique experience.

The contest began with the appearance of the first illustrated daily newspaper in the world. This was on March 4, 1873, when the New York Daily Graphic issued its first copy. Artists, engravers, publishers, printers everywhere were startled by the boldness of what they thought was but an experiment. Still the Graphic lived for eighteen years. It raised up a school of illustrators that became pioneers in the newer methods, and taught that the camera was the future medium for introducing illustrations to the printing-press.

In 1874 the writer was initiated into the mysterious chambers where the Graphic processes were worked behind locked and barred doors. From that day his life has been given to the study of all the methods by which photography could be applied to producing pictures in printing-ink. Many of these methods he has put into practice.

During the past eighteen years it has been the writer's pleasure to contribute from his storehouse of experience to those who ask for information regarding the photomechanical printing processes, through the columns of The Inland Printer. Reciprocity has resulted. There has been an interchange of knowledge, and he has learned, among other ii iiorgan's half-tone things, what are the subjects, relating to processwork, on which there is most frequently a demand for light.

These queries came from the journeyman engraver as well as the apprentice; from artists, employing engravers, publishers, printers, advertisers, investors of capital and the varied classes who read The Inland Printer. So one object of this book has been to combine in one volume, in a brief way, the information most desired.

Nothing theoretical is recorded. All the processes and formulas as given have been evolved by practical use. Many of them have cost a fortune, together with years of experiment, to develop. They follow in the book in something like the order in which they came into use. Preference has been given to the methods that have survived, those that have proved entirely practical and are either in use to-day or are merely awaiting application. An account of the photomechanical printing processes that have been tried and found wanting would fill many volumes, yet some space has been given to them here for the reason that many of them are being rediscovered by beginners at processwork. These tyros, thinking they have an important discovery, interest capital only to find later, after much waste of energy and money, that they are trying to resurrect a corpse.

If the student of processwork will begin with photolithography and master that process he will possess a knowledge of the underlying principles in all of the photomechanical printing methods and particularly as regards negative-making, which, after all, is the basis for good processwork of any description. The index will guide the reader to the information he is seeking, and the perplexed process worker to a way out of his troubles ; while a study of the illustrations, with a magnifying glass, will enable any one to learn to distinguish the varied processes that contribute the pictures which illuminate printed matter to-day.

Gratitude is herewith expressed to those who so willingly contributed the splendid educational exhibits of their work. These illustrations were not selected for their attractiveness (the pictures of the gentle sex, of course, excepted), but for

PREFACE their technical value, which will be appreciated by the student. Wood, steel and wax engraving ; needle-point etching, mezzotint, aquatint and the manual methods of engraving are of course omitted because photography does not necessarily enter into their production.

As to the future of processwork — there is no one sufficiently prophetic to predict it. It is conceded that it has been one of the principal factors in popularizing the product of the printing-press, thus spreading knowledge and hastening progress. It has also created enormous lines of new business, introduced special kinds of paper, ink, and much improved presses. The exhibits of the offset press and rotary photogravure in this volume point in the direction of future conquests. That it is destined to wider, better, higher achievement is inevitable, as Tennyson's lines come to mind :

Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward,

Forward let us range ; Let the great world spin forever down the

Ringing grooves of change.

Yet I doubt not through the ages one

Increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are broadened by

THE PROCESS OF THE SUNS.