The American Printer: A Manual of Typography / Containing practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office, as well as complete instructions for apprentices; with several useful tables, numerous schemes for imposing forms in every variety, hints to authors, etc.

by Thomas MacKellar

Comprehends a knowledge of placing the pages so that they may regularly follow each other when printed and the sheet is folded up; and also the mode of dressing chases and the manner of making the proper margin. As many pages as are required for a whole or half sheet being made up, the compositor lays them upon the imposing-stone, placing the first page with the signature to the left hand facing him, and then proceeds according to one of the schemes on [pp. 150-199]. These will be found to contain every necessary imposition,—viz. folios, quartos, octavos, twelves, sixteens, eighteens, twenties, twenty-fours, thirty-twos, thirty-sixes, forties, forty-eights, sixty-fours, seventy-twos, ninety-sixes, and one hundred and twenty-eights. We also introduce schemes for imposing from the centre, by which means the blank or open pages may be thrown in the centre of the form, leaving the solid pages on the outside to act as bearers for the rollers, as well as for the better regulation of the impression.

All odd matter, for any form, should be divided into fours, eights, twelves, and sixteens, which is the groundwork of all the impositions except the eighteens, which differ from all the others; for instance, sixteens, twenty-fours, and thirty-twos are only octavos and twelves doubled, or twice doubled, and imposed in half sheets: for example, the sixteens are two octavos imposed on one side of the short cross; the twenty-fours are two twelves imposed on each side of the long cross; and a thirty-two is four octavos imposed in each quarter of the chase. Thus, a sheet may be repeatedly doubled. By this division, any form or sheet may be imposed, always bearing in mind that the first page of each class must stand to the left hand, with the foot of the page toward you. Having set down the first page, then trace the remainder according to the scheme which applies to its number; in proof of which, the standard rule for all other impositions may be adopted,—namely, the folios of two pages, if placed properly beside each other, will when added together make one more than the number of pages in the sheet; that is, in a sheet of sixteens, pages 1 and 16 coming together will add up 17, and so 9 and 8 will make 17, &c.

In half sheets, all the pages belonging to the white paper, and reiteration, are imposed in one chase. So that when a sheet of paper is printed on both sides with the same form, that sheet is cut in two in the short cross if quarto or octavo, and in the short and long cross of twelves, and folded as octavo or twelves.

TYING UP PAGES.

In tying up a page, use fine twine, winding it four or five times round it, and fastening at the right-hand corner, by thrusting a noose of it between the several turnings and the matter with the rule, and drawing it perfectly tight, taking care always to keep the end of the cord on the face of the page. While tying it, keep the forefinger of the left hand tight on the corner, to prevent the page from being drawn aside.

The twine being fastened, the compositor removes the page from the ledges of the galley, to see if the turns of cord lie about the middle of the shank of the letter; if they lie too high,—as most commonly they do,—he thrusts them lower; and if the page be not too broad, he places the fore and middle finger of his right hand on the off side of the head of the page, and his thumb on the near; then, bending his other fingers under, he presses them firmly against the head of the page; he next places the fingers of his left hand in the same position at the foot of the page, and, raising it upright, lays it on a page-paper; then, with his right hand he grasps the sides of the page and the paper, which turns up against the sides of the page, and sets it in a convenient spot under his frame, placing it on the left hand, with the foot toward him, that the other pages that are in like manner set down afterward may stand by it in an orderly succession until he comes to impose them.

If the page be a quarto, folio, or broadside, it is, of course, too wide for his grasp; and he therefore carries the galley and page to the imposing-stone, and turns the handle of the galley toward him, and, taking hold of the handle with his right hand, he places the ball of the thumb of his left hand against the inside of the head ledge of the galley, to hold it and keep it steady, and by the handle draws the slice with the page upon it out of the galley, letting the slice rest upon the imposing-stone; he then thrusts the head end of the slice so far upon it, that the foot of the page may stand an inch or two within the outer edge of the stone, and, placing his left hand against the foot of the page, he quickly draws the slice from under the bottom of the page.

LAYING PAGES.

In taking up his pages for imposition, the compositor tightly grasps the paper on both sides of the page, in order that it may be kept firm to the bottom of the page; for if it be left slack, the letters will be liable to slip out, unless it be particularly well tied up. Having conveyed it to the stone, he next places the last two fingers of his right hand under the head of the page, but not under the page-paper at the head of it, still grasping the sides with his forefingers and thumb; he then slips his left hand so that the palm of it may turn toward the bottom, and, lifting the page upright on his right hand, with the left he removes the paper; he next grasps again the foot-end of the page with his left hand, in the same manner as the right holds the head of it, and, turning the face of the type toward him, lays it squarely and quickly down, so that the whole page may come in contact with the face of the stone at the same time.

As this method, in inexperienced or careless hands, would frequently endanger a page containing intricate matter, it will be safer to place the pages at first on good, strong, but not coarse and rough papers, and, when they are brought to the stone, instead of lifting them up as just noticed, slide them off the papers in the same manner as before directed respecting a folio page on the slice galley, being careful that no particles of dirt remain under the page.