THE PREPARATION OF ILLUSTRATED PAGES. Of the processes dealt with, photogravure lithography and collotype are those most generally used at the present day for the printing of plates or insets. Half-tone also is employed, a process which will be considered later since it is essentially relief printing. This, therefore, is a convenient opportunity to make a few general observations on plates.
Plates should only be employed for the reproduction of subjects of such complexity that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by figures in the text.
A plate or page made up of several illustrations should look well as a whole; in other words, it should not outrage all the canons of composition, it should have some pictorial effect. At the same time, for facility of reference, the individual figures should run in a convenient sequence. This latter point is so important that a plate composed really well is distinctly rare, for a compromise nearly always has to be made. At the same time there are, apparently, comparatively few authors who pay much attention to plate design.
Although it is not desired to write of the laws of pictorial composition, attention may be drawn to a few points which are amongst those generally neglected.
The figures should not be crowded together; a reasonable amount of margin should be left around each. They should be arranged, as far as possible, in such a way that a sense of balance is maintained. As to how this is to be accomplished will depend upon the nature of the illustrations; if they are all about equal in tone, the largest ones should preponderate towards the base of the plate, and not vice versâ. The difference which this makes will be obvious if the two accompanying illustrations (Figs. 1 and 2, Plate 3) be compared. The first is a reduced copy of the plate as it was published: it will be noticed that it has a top-heavy appearance, which is corrected in the second figure by the simple device of turning it upside down.
Plate 3. - 1
