Printing and bookbinding for schools

by Samuel Jesse Vaughn

Fig. 23.

The planer, Fig. 23, is a smooth faced block of hard wood similar to the proof planer, but is usually smaller and not covered with felt. This is laid on the face of the form on the stone and tapped lightly with a mallet, in order to make sure that the faces of all the type are at the same level—no letters projecting so as to be broken or to injure the rollers, or, at best, to ruin the impressions.

After this, the printer tightens the quoins gradually, giving a slight turn to each quoin in succession. There is danger of the beginner’s getting the lockup too tight, causing the form to spring up from the stone and the chase to spring and even to break. If the composition is good and the furniture is properly placed, it does not require a very tight lockup to hold. Before removing the chase from the stone, the lockup should be tested by raising one side of the chase very slightly and tapping the furniture to see if any of the type are loose. If the form holds, it is ready for the press.

Forms for Four and More Pages. When there are a number of pages instead of one to be dealt with, the imposition is considerably more complicated.

Fig. 24.

Any piece of printing of four or more pages has an outside and an inside section. Page one and all the pages that are printed on the same side of the paper with it constitute the outside section. Page two and all the pages that are printed on the same side with it are the inside section. A four page printed sheet is called a sheet folio. The best way to handle such a four page form is by the work-and-turn method, provided the press is large enough to accommodate the four pages at one time. By this method, the pages are arranged as in Fig. 24. Note that in this form as in any other outside form, page one is at the lower left hand corner with the foot of the page toward the printer. Margins are determined by measuring from the front of type pages one and two the width of the page plus twice the desired margin to the backs of pages three and four. Then the length of the page plus twice the margin is measured from the foot of pages one and four to the head of pages two and three.

In this case, the stock is cut double the length of the finished job. When it has been printed on one side, and the ink has dried, it is turned and given the same impression on the other side. Of course, in printing this second side, care must be taken to reverse the paper so that pages two and three back up one and four at one end, and one and four back up two and three at the other end. When the ink of this impression is dry, the sheet is cut at line XX making two complete folios from one sheet.

With school boys working on a small press, the four pages are often handled in two separate forms of two pages each.