The printer's dictionary of technical terms; a handbook of definitions and information about processes of printing; with a brief glossary of terms used in book binding

Foreword

pHE following pages have been in course of preparation for several years. Originally some -f the matter was intended solely as "copy" for ractice in type-setting by pupils in the School of 'rinting; later it was arranged, roughly, into the form of a brief glossary, and then, as its value for practice-work, instruction, and general trade information became apparent, it was gradually put into the form in which it now appears.

The book is the product of some seventy-five or eighty young printers, who have left on its pages the impress, of their first struggles to attain a mastery of their chosen vocation. Every page represents hours of patient, earnest work on the part of pupils who were receiving their first lessons in putting hastily prepared copy into typographic form. In its compilation no especial researches have been undertaken, reliance being mainly on the ordinary sources of information, i. e., trade journals, technical works, and general dictionaries and encyclopedias, and on personal experience and observation.

Considering the manner in which it has been produced, no apology need be offered for its obvious defects and shortcomings. The aim has been to compile rudimentary information for the young printer, and no attempt has been made to cover the subjects exhaustively or to make a cyclopedia of complete information.

The Compositor's Stick

Methods of Printing

PRINTING is the art, act, or process of producing impressions for literary, graphic, or decorative purposes. This may include many processes which are not commonly associated with the term, like moulding, coining, stamping, embossing, or the methods used in making calico, wall-paper, decorated pottery, etc., as well as in making photographs. The processes here considered are those wherein ink is applied to the surface from which it is intended to print and transferred by impression to paper, cardboard, or other material.

In this sense there are various methods employed, each a separate art, distinct in theory, process, and application. These are known as :

The Relief Method, the chief part of which is typography, or printing from types. This includes also wood blocks and metal plates engraved in high relief, like wood-cuts, zinc etchings, and halftone engravings.

The Intaglio Method, by which the printing is done from polished plates having the lines cut in the surface and filled with ink.

vi Methods of Printing

This method includes copperplate and steelplate engraving, copperplate etching, dry-point engraving, aquatint engraving, mezzotint engraving, and photo-gravure.

The Chemical Plane- Surf ace Method, chief of which is lithography, or printing from stone. This includes also zincography (metal), the several photo-gelatine processes, and the rubber offset process.

The Relief Method

Is that wherein the parts which carry the ink, and thus make the print, stand in relief above the substance out of which they are made, the parts which show white being cut away so that no impression is made on the sheet.

Typography, or letter-press printing, is the method of printing from movable types having letters and other characters cast in high relief. The types are independent of each other, but so made that they may be arranged in endless combinations, and after being once used for one line or page may be separated and re-assembled to print other lines or other pages. Other methods require the engraving or preparation of the subject by slow processes which, when once made upon the printing surface, cannot readily be used for anything else.

A page of type may be composed, corrected, locked up for a press, and impressions made from it in an hour's time or less. This may be done with the simplest mate-

Methods of Printing vii

rials, which may be found in every printing house, however small. The page may also be as readily moulded and the mould it makes used to produce a duplicate printing form in one piece. For the great bulk of book printing this duplicate, called an electrotype, is employed. By this method, types sufficient to set up a few pages of this book may be composed, corrected, and the pages moulded, then the type distributed and set again for other pages of the same work, continuing the process for any number of pages. The surface of type forms can also be multiplied by the stereotype process, which is the method now employed for nearly all daily newspapers, as it is the quickest and permits of casting plates in a curved form so that they may be fastened to the cylinders of fast rotary printing machines.

Up to about thirty years ago type-setting was done almost entirely by hand work, but since that time type-casting and type-composing machines have been developed so skillfully that the greater part of straightaway composition on newspaper, periodical, and book work is now done with machines. (See Type Setting Machine, p. 324, etc.)

Closely allied to typography in modern practice are wood engraving, zinc etching, and halftone engraving. Engravings of these kinds are in relief, and when made on blocks which bring their surfaces to the height of type they may be put in the same forms with viii Methods of Printing

type, or in separate forms, and printed on an ordinary typographic press.

The wood-cut is the older kind of engraving. Because of its slower manipulation and greater cost it has been almost superseded by the zinc plate and the copper halftone.

Zinc etching is the process of engraving commonly used for newspapers and for the ordinary grades of periodical and commercial work. The copy for reproduction is usually drawn with a pen on white paper or card, with a perfectly black ink, and all the degrees of light and shade must be produced by dots and lines of varying widths and distances apart. Photographs, wash drawings, and fine-grained or tinted pictures must have their essential parts translated into distinct lines and spots in order to be engraved by this method.

Halftone engraving is done practically by the same methods as zinc etching, the difference being that, when photographing the design on the metal, a screen is interposed between a sensitive plate in the camera and the copy. The halftone screen varies in fineness from 80 to 250 lines to an inch, according to the coarseness or fineness of the plate required, this being determined by the finish of the paper to be used and the care with which it may be printed. The coarse screen is best suited for the rapid work and cheaper paper of a daily newspaper, while a screen of 135 to 200 lines, on smooth coated papers

Methods of Printing ix

printed on slow presses, gives finer results in the picture. The finer the screen used, the shallower the plate can be etched, and the smoother the paper and finer the ink must be in order to print clearly.

In a wood engraving the lines may be cut sharp and deep, so that it will print clearly on a medium-rough or antique-finish paper. A zinc etching is not usually as deep as a wood-cut and it prints well on a medium-rough paper; if it contains some detail in fine lines it may require smooth paper to show it properly.

Relief printing is done on presses of two distinct classes : the platen, or flat surface, and the cylindrical. The original hand-press consisted of a flat bed upon which the type-form was placed ; after being inked and the sheet laid on, the form was subjected to impression by another plane surface. The modern platen press embraces the same principle with the operations applied mechanically instead of by hand labor. The cylinder press is of two classes. One style consists of a flat bed holding the printing form, which passes back and forth beneath a revolving cylinder carrying the sheet and giving the impression. The other consists of two facing cylinders, to one of which a curved printing form is attached ; the other, having a smooth surface, imparts the impression to the sheet as it passes between the two cylinders revolving in opposite directions.

Methods of Printing

This latter style of press is the kind employed for daily newspapers, large-edition periodicals, and advertising matter issued in large quantities. The flat-bed-and-cylinder style of machine is the kind in most common use. It is made in many varieties by different manufacturers, and is the kind upon which the largest part and the best grades of typographic printing is done. The mechanical platen press is used for jobbing and miscellaneous small work, while the hand-press is largely employed for taking proofs of type and engravings, and for work of which only few copies are required.

The Intaglio Method

By this process the design is cut in the surface of the plate, the lines or dots thus engraved being filled with ink, the face of the plate then wiped clean, and the paper, slightly damp, pressed on the plate under the cylinder of a rolling press. By this pressure the paper is forced into the sunken lines and takes up the ink, so that the printing has a slightly embossed or raised appearance. This method is in every respect the reverse of printing from type, and gives results in delicacy of line and brilliance and depth of color not obtainable by other methods. The ink fills the lines in a compact body and does not spread out under pressure; whereas, with type, the pressure of printing from a fine inkcovered line in relief tends to weaken the color and leave blurred edges.

Methods of Printing xi

There are several methods of engraving on copper and steel plates, each employed according to the nature of the design. The engraving is done chiefly by hand with sharp tools, or gravers, producing precise lines of varying thickness, as for script lettering. A succession of uniform lines, straight, curved, or waved, are made on a ruling machine, and stippling is done by minute punctures, the dots being larger or smaller, close or open, to give varying tones of color. Another method is to etch the surface with a corroding acid. The plate is covered with a coating through which the design is cut, and the metal afterward eaten away where it is exposed. Because of its greater freedom of manipulation, its quickness, in comparision with the hand-engraving method, and the sketchy nature of etched lines, this latter method is popular with artists, and is employed largely for wall pictures and works of art.

Copper and steel plate printing, being almost entirely hand-work and not easily adaptable to rotary or other mechanical methods, is slow and costly. The kinds of work done are chiefly personal cards, wedding and society cards, announcements, and stationery.

The presses used are not at all like those used for printing type-forms or relief plates. Each print requires the ink to be worked into the engraved lines, the surplus ink cleaned from the face of the plate, the sheet laid on, and the impression taken. The outxii Methods of Printing

put of a single press is limited to a few hundred copies a day. This method is the same as when it was first invented in the fifteenth century. The tools are the same ; the Droller press is practically the same, perhaps better made ; the workman wipes off his plate in the same way. In bank-note printing and a few special lines of work a new machine has been introduced, but a great part of this kind of work is to-day done by the original hand methods.

Steel-plate printing employs practically the same methods as copper-plate work, the engraving being done on a plate of polished steel instead of copper. It is used for bank notes, postage stamps, etc., and was formerly employed for portraits and fine book illustrations, though for this latter purpose halftones and photo-gravures have largely superseded steel plates, because of the smaller cost.

Steel dies for stamping note paper, envelopes, and similar work, are also manipulated by the same general methods. The steel is soft, so that it can be cut without much difficulty with hand tools. After the engraving is done, the steel is put through a hardening process, and is ready for use. As the design is sunk in the metal, it is necessary to use a counter die to force the paper into the sunken parts to produce the relief and take up the ink. The counter die is made usually of a substance known as tar-board, a piece of which is laid on the steel die and an impres-

Methods of Printing xiii

sion made. The tar-board is then trimmed away gradually up to the face of the design, so that the impression will be chiefly at the actual point of printing.

The printing is commonly done with a stamping press operated by hand, but there are now several embossing and die-stamping presses in which the operations are automatic and the inking and wiping of the die is done mechanically instead of by hand.

The Plane-Surface Method

Chief under this head is lithographic printing, which is done from flat stones of peculiar quality. The design to be printed is drawn on the stone with a specially-prepared ink, which clings to and dries on the surface. The surface is then subjected to the action of a weak acid that hardens the ink and slightly etches and lowers the unprotected parts. The process of printing first requires moistening the surface with water, which is absorbed by the blank parts and repelled by the hard, greasy lines. Printing ink is then applied and is repelled by the wet parts but adheres to the ink-drawn design. (See p. 140.) Plates of zinc are sometimes employed as substitutes for the lithographic stones. They are much cheaper, but not adapted to the finer grades of work. Zinc is also used for relief plates by photo-engraving or etching. Work of this kind is known as zincography. Several processes of photo-gelatine printing xiv Methods of Printing

are very much like lithography, a coating of gelatine upon a sheet of glass or metal being substituted for the lithographic stone. (See Gelatine Printing , p. 8 7 . Photo-gravure, p. 1 8 7 .) The offset method of printing has recently undergone rapid development, especially in this country. It is one of the many variations of the lithographic principle, employing a plane surface, chemically treated, for holding the design, picture, or other matter to be printed, and a rotary machine with three cylinders for the printing operations. One cylinder carries a zinc plate on which is the design, transferred from an original copy ; this cylinder prints on the rubber covering of a second cylinder, which, after receiving the impression, prints, or offsets, it on to the sheet of paper that is carried around by the third, or impression, cylinder. (See Rubber Offset Press, p. 254.) Two sets of rollers are used, adjusted beside the cylinder holding the zinc plate. One set of rollers supplies ink to the plate, while the other set dampens it, as in ordinary lithography.

The Printers Dictionary of Technical Terms

s4 CCENTS — Marks over, under, or through particular letters to show difference in pronunciation, etc. For most roman and italic body letter, and for many jobbing and display fonts, accents are cast on the letter. Separate accents, floating accents, or piece accents, are made for use with any large or heavy-face types.

Acme Paper- Cutter — A machine manufactured in Boston, which has been in use for a number of years and improved from time to time. It is made in several sizes, has selfclamping and other useful devices, and is operated by mechanical power.

Acme Press — A small cylinder press formerly made in Boston and intended mainly to meet the requirements of country newspaper offices. It had a high frame, with the bed about breast-high, ink fountain and rollers close to the printing cylinder, a delivery-fly under the feed-board, and could be operated by a man at the driving wheel. Another press very similar is called the Fairhaven.

Acute Accent — A mark over a letter, thus: e.

Account Mark — A sign used in commercial books and price-current lists : %

Ad — A colloquial abbreviation for advertisement. Plural, ads,

Adams Press — A printing machine invented by Isaac Adams in 1830, and subsequentlyimproved by him and others. It was in common use for book printing during the latter part of the last century, until superceded by the cylinder machine, and is now used only in a few old-established book-printing houses. It has a stationary platen, and a bed whose only movement is up and down — up to the platen to give the impression, and down to allow the inking rollers to pass over the form. A frisket carries the sheet in to its place and after the impression is made the sheet is then carried out by tapes and deposited on the receivingboard by means of a fly.

Ad-man — The compositor on a newspaper who sets advertisements.

Admiration Mark — Sometimes applied to the exclamation-point, when it indicates surprise, joy, or admiration.

Advertising Rule — A thin brass rule, type high and varying in thickness, for dividing one advertisement from another in newspapers, magazines, *etc.

Agate — A small size of type-body, between pearl and nonpareil, corresponding to 5 y 2 points. Chiefly used now in advertising and market reports. Measuring fourteen lines to an inch.

Albatype — A system of making poster type by analyzing the letters, cutting them into squares and circles and then composing them so that they shall come together properly. For instance, an I may be made with four pieces, two for the body and one for each of the serifs ; an H would require nine pieces, etc. {American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking.)

Albertype — A process of reproducing photographs on gelatine, the printing being much like lithography.

Albion Press — An iron hand-press, with frame similar to that of the Washington handpress, giving its impression by means of levers which straighten out when the bar is pulled. Common in England.

Aldine Editions — Books published from 1494 to 1597 by Aldus Manutius and his family at Venice and Rome, celebrated for their accuracy and the high prices which they commanded. The works of Petrarch, Boccacio and Dante were published by them, and they were the first to use italic letters. The emblem of the Aldi was a dolphin twined around an anchor.

Aldine Type — A heavy-faced roman letter of condensed form : Aldine. Now commonly called bold-faced condensed.

Aldus — The popular contraction of the name of Theobaldus Manutius, the head of the celebrated family of Italian printers, who are often styled the Aldi.

Alignment — The exact correspondence attop or bottom of the letters and characters of a font of type.

Alley — The floor space between two stands or cabinets, in which compositors are at work.

All in — When all the type available is distributed in cases.

All in hand — When all the copy has been given out to the compositors.

Alteration of Margins — When a book or pamphlet of small pages has been worked off with small margins for regular edition, and then the furniture between the pages increased to print another edition with wider margins on larger paper, and vice versa.

Ampersand — The name sometimes applied to the character &.

Anastatic Process — A method of reproducing, from anything once printed, another series of impressions. The print is treated with an acid and submitted to pressure against a zinc plate, thus fixing the design on it similar to that of a lithographic plate.

Aniline Colors — A class of newer colors of printing inks, whose basis is coal tar, having great brilliancy but little permanency. They work well and have good covering qualities for little weight, but fade quickly when exposed to strong light.

Annex Box — A brass box or cup which can be attached to boxes of the type case for holding extra or special characters.

Anonymous (or Anon.) — Without name. Applied to books or writings which do not bear the author's name. When an assumed name is used it is termed a pseudonym.

Antimony — A metal used in type-founding, in combination with lead, tin, copper, etc.

Antique — A style of type in which all parts of the letter are of a uniform thickness of line, made in many varieties : Antique. The term is also applied to blind-tooling in book finishing.

Appendix — An addition at the end of a book, containing further information; extensive notes, put at the end so that they shall not occupy too much of text pages.

Aquatint — A method of etching on copper or steel, in imitation of drawings in sepia or india ink.

Arabic Numerals— The ten figures in common use, so called because they are supposed to come from Arabia; in distinction from Roman numerals, which are letters.

Arching — When a form, by being locked up too tight, or for some other reason, springs up from the stone.

Army Press — A small press made in Cincinnati, much used in the Civil War, being adapted to the use of movable army printing outfits. It has a cylinder by the rotation of which the bed is moved and the impression given simultaneously.

Artisfs Proof — An original proof made before an etching or engraving is given to the public. Incorrectly applied to large paper copies made later.

Artotype — Method of making gelatine plates from photographs, which are printed from in a manner similar to lithography; does not differ much from the albertype.

Ascending Letters — Those that ascend into the upper shoulder of the type, as 1, h, d, etc., and capitals; g, y, p, j, q, are descending letters.

Asterisk (or Star*) — One of the old-style reference marks. Also used formerly to indicate omitted letters or words. One or more asterisks used in connection with a letter for a name is an aster ism : B * * * *.

Author's Proof — A clean proof sent to the author after the compositor's errors have been corrected.

Autography — A method of transferring drawings from paper to stone.

Autograph — Written by the hand of the author. An autograph letter or document may have only the signature in the author's handwriting. When written entirely in the author's handwriting it is a holograph.

Auxiliary Print — A method whereby part of a newspaper is printed in one place (where the same matter is used for other papers) and then sent to another place to be completed. Used by newspapers with limited facilities. Also called Ready Print.

Backing — At press, printing the second side of the sheet; in electrotyping, the process of filling in the copper shell with metal.

Balls — Circular pieces of leather or canvas stuffed with wool or hair and fastened to handles; used before the invention of inking rollers, to distribute ink on the type.

Bank — A high table, with part of the top inclined, upon which the hand-pressman placed his paper. Sometimes applied to any bench with sloping top against a wall.

Bar — In a hand-press, the long handle which is pulled over to give the impression.

Bastard Title — The brief title preceding the main or formal title of a book; the half-title.

Bastard Types — Those with faces larger or smaller than is commonly made on the body, as a 7-point face on a 6-point body, giving the effect of compactness, or 8-point face on 9-point body, giving an open effect.

Batter — Type injured in a form.

Beard (of a type) — That part between the face and the square, solid body ; the beveled space below the face of a type.

Bearers — Strips of metal, type high, placed around jobs and pages that are to be electrotyped, and elsewhere, to bear off the impression on light parts of forms. Also used inside the chase in job forms, to insure even rolling of ink over open or irregular matter.

Beating — The ancient custom of putting ink on type by means of inking balls. In bookbinding, to cause folded sheets to lie flat and solid by striking the folded edges with a beating hammer.

Bed — The flat part of a press upon which the form is placed.

Bed-and- Platen Press — That style of press which gives the impression from a flat surface — the hand press, Adams press, and nearly all small job presses; distinctive from the cylinder machine.

Begin Even — When one compositor has part of the copy and must end in the middle of a paragraph but at the end of a line, the compositor having the next part must "begin even."

Bellows — In the composing room, used for blowing out dusty cases, etc.

Benzine — Used very generally in printing offices to clean ink from type. It evaporates quickly and leaves wooden furniture, cuts, etc., uninjured by wetting. Because of the fire risk, only a small quantity is allowed on the premises at one time, and this is kept in patent self-closing cans.

Beveled Sticks — Side-sticks and foot-sticks, of wood or metal, wider at one end than the other, by the side of which wood wedges or quoins are placed to lock up forms. The introduction of mechanical quoins which lock up on parallel side-bearings has made the use of beveled sticks almost unnecessary.

Bibliomania — A passion for acquiring books.

Bibliophile — A lover of books.

Bibliograph — A description of manuscripts and books, with accounts of different editions, date of printing, prices, and other information pertaining to them; the science of books.

Bible Text — Formerly applied to a size of type now called great primer, because it was formerly used for printing the Bible.

Bill-head — A ruled and printed blank on which an account is presented to a debtor. The sizes commonly used are 8^ or 7 inches wide and of varying lengths, the top part having the creditor's name, business, etc., with a blank for the debtor's name, and the date ; below these are ruled lines io The Printer's Dictionary

for the items of the account and prices. A bill-head differs from a statement, which is narrower (usually 5^ inches) and is used for monthly statements. Bill Posting — To put up bills, posters, etc., on fences, walls, and other prominent places.

Bill of Type — An old-time phrase used to indicate a complete assortment of type cast at one time.

Bind — When a letter, lead, or piece of furniture is slightly out of place, or too large, and does not allow the matter to lock up square and solid. To fasten together and cover the sheets of a pamphlet or book.

Bite — An irregular white spot on the edge of a printed page, caused by a frisket not being sufficiently cut out.

Black-leading — In electrotyping, covering the face of the form which is to be moulded with black lead.

Blacksmith — An opprobrious epithet applied to a poor workman.

Black Letter — Applied to many variations of a style of letter used in the early days of printing: mWh ZLttttV* Bibliographers call it gothic, because it has always been preferred by people of Gothic descent; but the style called gothic among American printers is an entirely different letter.

Blanks — A general term for white spaces left by quads, leads, slugs, furniture, etc.

Blanket — A woolen cloth or sheet of rubber used on cylinder presses for some kinds of work, to save labor in making ready.

Blank Li7ie — A line of quads in which no letter appears ; a white line.

Blank Page — A page on which there is no printing. It is often necessary to make up a page of blank furniture to fill out a form which has other pages of type.

Blank Tables — Tabular work in which the headings and rules have been set, leaving the columns blank, to be filled in later ; a method employed to expedite work when the form and size is known and it is desired to finish work in the shortest possible time after arrival of copy.

Blind Date — Letters, figures, or contractions sometimes put at the bottom of advertisements in newspapers to indicate how long the advertisement is to run, or on what days or editions, as a guide to the maker-up : tf , till forbidden, eod, every other day, etc.

Blocks — Hard-wood or metal bases for electrotypes or stereotype plates, usually with catches or mechanical devices for holding the plate in place during printing. A stamp or die used on an embossing press to print book covers.

Block Book — A term applied to the books which were printed from engraved wood blocks about the time of the invention of movable types.

Boards — A term applied generally to any thick, heavy card or pasteboard.

Board Rack — An arrangement of strong boards with ledges on the back and sides, for holding pages and forms of type.

Bodkin — A slender awl, often combined with tweezers, used for correcting in type, etc.

Body — The size of a type considered in the direction from top to bottom of the letter; the thickness, or width sideways, is its set

Body of a Book — The text or subject matter of a book, as distinguished from the preliminary matter, index, appendix, etc.

Bogus — Copy given to compositors on daily papers to fill in waiting time ; type set, though not intended for use, is paid for at regular rates, thus keeping piece-hands at work until arrival of genuine copy.

Bold-face — Type of roman style with heavy lines thickened. Bold-face. Also called full-face. Fat-face is a broad full-face.

Bond Paper — A strong, flexible paper for bonds, certificates, and commercial forms.

Book Font — A large quantity of type sufficient to set a number of pages of a book, as distinguished from a job font, or small assortment for occasional use.