In matter to be stereotyped, a hair space should be placed after the letter f and other kerned letters when they stand at the end of the line.
JUSTIFYING.
Accurate justification is absolutely essential, as the letters will be warped sidewise in a loose line, making it impossible to get a fair impression from the type. Besides, the letters are liable to be drawn out by the suction of the rollers, to the detriment of the form and the press. The instructor of an apprentice should occasionally pass his finger along the side of matter set by him; and if the lines should not prove evenly justified, they should be put into the composing-stick again and properly corrected.
HEAD-LINES.
Head-lines are generally set in small capitals of the same fount, or in Italic, and sometimes in capitals. Italic capitals of letter somewhat smaller than the body of the work, with folios of a proportionate size, have a neat appearance.
NOTES.
The usual rule for note-type is two sizes less than the text of the work: thus, to Pica work, Long Primer; Small Pica, Bourgeois; Long Primer, Brevier. Side-notes are usually smaller in proportion. When side-notes or references drive down below the lines of the text to which they refer, the expedient of cut-in notes must be resorted to. This is a difficult part of a compositor’s business, and requires skill and patience to adjust all parts, so that every line of note and text may have proper and equal bearing. The reglet or lead between the lines of matter and the side-note must be cut with as much nicety as possible to the length of the text, as far as where the note is to run under; and, having accurately adjusted, by means of the quotations and justifiers, the situation of the first line of the note, such lead or reglet is added to the text as will make it precisely correspond in depth with the lines of note that stand on the side before turning: the remainder of the note is then set in a long measure, to correspond in width with the text, reglet, and side-note; and the page is made up with note, or the text begun again after the note is finished. In Bibles with notes and annotations, in law-books, and other works, it frequently happens that a page exhibits several of these alternate frameworks of note and text, which, if done well, display a workman’s skill to great advantage.
BLANKING.
If the work is very open, consisting of heads, whites, &c., the compositor must be particularly attentive to their depth; so that though the white may be composed of different-sized quadrates, yet their ultimate depth must be equal to the regular body of the type the work is done in; otherwise the register of the work will be incomplete. The pressman cannot make the lines back if the compositor is not careful in making up his matter.