Each part of the furniture should be in one piece where it is practicable,—as, for instance, the gutters, the backs, and the heads; but sometimes pieces will be wanted of a width that is not equal to any regular size, and then two must be used.
All the gutters of one sheet should be cut of a precise length; so also with the backs and the heads; but each sort should be of a different length from that of the others: thus they can be easily distinguished from each other, and mistakes be prevented.
The sheet being imposed, the stone should be cleared; the saw and saw-block put in their places, the shears, the mallet, planer, and shooting-stick, the surplus furniture, the leads, the quoins, and every other article. The compositor will tie up his page-cords, and, if he has any companions, will return to them their proportion.
The chase and furniture of one form should always be used for a similar form; that is, the chase and furniture of the outer form should be again used for an outer form, and the chase and furniture of the inner form should be again used for an inner form; they should also be put round the pages in the same order in which they were put about those of the preceding forms. For want of care or thought in these apparently trifling circumstances, trouble, inconvenience, and loss of time frequently occur; for the register will be almost sure to be wrong when this is neglected, and then the forms must be unlocked and the leads changed, to correct the fault.
Before the form is printed, a proof should be taken and the sheet folded, to make sure of the correctness of the imposition.
The preceding rules and directions were intended for type-forms, and were formerly of universal necessity. Now most books are printed from stereotyped or electrotyped plates. The same instructions, however, are generally as applicable to plate as to type pages.
NOMENCLATURE OF SHEETS.
When a sheet of paper of Medium or larger size is folded in two leaves, like most newspapers, it is called a folio; when folded in four leaves, it is named a quarto or 4to; when folded in eight leaves, an octavo or 8vo; in twelve leaves, a duodecimo or 12mo; in sixteen leaves, sextodecimo or 16mo; in eighteen leaves, octodecimo or 18mo; in twenty-four leaves, vigesimo-quarto, or 24mo, and so on. The Latin names beyond duodecimo are seldom used.
