PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
Usefulness rather than originality has been aimed at in the preparation of the American Printer, which is offered as an improvement on the typographical work formerly published by us. In addition to the results of actual personal experience embodied in the volume, information has been gathered and extracts have been freely made from various publications, such as Ames and Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, Thomas’s History of Printing, Timperley’s Dictionary of Printers and Printing, Savage’s Dictionary of Printing, Johnson’s Typographia, Chambers’s Encyclopædia, Beadnell’s Guide to Typography, as well as other books referred to in the notes. The work has been prepared amid the manifold interruptions incident to business life; yet we think nothing has been overlooked that is essential for the instruction of the learner or for the assistance of the workman.
Besides the matter relating to practical typography, the volume contains a sketch of the discovery of printing, and notices of type-founding, stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithography. The implements employed in typography are described and their uses explained; and complete schemes for imposition are laid down. The valuable tables and the plans of cases for various languages, and for music and labour-saving rule, will be found extremely useful; as well as the extensive lists of abbreviations and of foreign words and phrases, and orthographical hints.
Special attention has been given in setting forth the functions and duties of the foreman and proof-reader, so that the operations of an office may be prosecuted with efficiency, comfort, and economy.
Authors and publishers, as well as young printers, may consult the volume with profit; and, indeed, any intelligent person will find it serviceable.
