It may surprise you to know that any one can print from 500 to 600 cards an hour and if you are expert you can run off from 1,000 to 2,000 cards per hour.
Sizes and Prices of Presses.
—The Excelsior press comes in three sizes and the price depends on the size of the chase. (1) A press having a chase 3 × 5 inches costs $5.00 and this is large enough to print cards, labels, envelopes, etc.; (2) a 5 × 8 press costs $18.00 and this one will do nice jobs up to postal card size; and (3) a 6 × 10 press costs $25.00 and is large enough to print bill-heads, letter-heads and circulars, or you can print a little newspaper on it.
The Outfit You Need.
—Your outfit will, of course, depend largely on the size of press you have.
Outfit for a 3 × 5 Press.
—A couple of dollars will buy all the fixtures you need and these consist of (a) a font of type, (b) some leads, (c) a type case, (d) an assortment of furniture, and (e) a can of black ink.
A font of type means enough of a kind having the same face and body and the right amount of each letter to set up an ordinary job. You will find more about type under the next heading called [Type and Typesetting]. Leads are thin strips of type metal less than type-high which are used to separate the lines of type; and a type case is a shallow wooden tray divided into little compartments called boxes in which the letters of a font of type are kept apart.
Outfit for a 5 × 8 Press.
—The fixtures of a press of this size include all of those named above and (a) three fonts of type, (b) type cases for them; (c) a set of gage pins, and (d) a pair of tweezers, or a bodkin. The gage-pins are pinned into the paper backing on the platen to keep the card or sheet from slipping and to hold it in its proper place. The tweezers, or bodkin, which is a large needle, is used for picking out type from a form when you are correcting it.