Do not do all the spacing at either the right or left of the line, but distribute it in conformity with the foregoing suggestions. The appearance of a page as a whole depends very much upon the care shown in spacing.
Compositors should take every precaution to prevent the soiling of proof sheets, as it is necessary for the reviser to see clearly every mark on the margin of a proof after it has been corrected.
Do not try to cover up or hide an accident. After a proof is read the first time, if a word or line is pied, or if a “dropout” occurs, or any accident happens to the type, it is the duty of the workman to call attention to it in writing on the latest proof sheet, whether it be a galley revise, page revise, stone revise, press revise, or foundry revise. If a proof sheet be not available or immediately at hand, put the types involved FEET UPPERMOST when returning them to the galley, page, or form. This direction is intended for all who handle type—laborers, compositors, makers-up, imposers, and electrotypers—and will be insisted upon. Accidents will happen, and correctness can be assured only by faithfully following the instruction here given.
READING.
Readers are expected to be alert, clear-headed, diligent, and thoughtful.
Proofs that are overinked, pale, smeared, or that have margins too narrow for proper marking, or for any reason are not good proofs, must be refused.
When a proof is taken out, the reader should inform himself fully as to the character of the work, whether there are any special instructions or peculiarities concerning it, whether proof will be sent out or the work go directly to press, and get such other information as he may think will assist him; and before beginning to read he should make sure that copy agrees with proof and that the entire proof is legible. It is well to do preparatory work and take a general survey of a proof before beginning to read it.
The style in which correction marks are made on a proof is an element of considerable importance. Straggling, unsymmetrical characters, disconnected marks placed in the margins above or below the lines to which they relate, irregular lines leading from an incorrect letter or word to a correction, large marks, marks made with a blunt pencil, indistinct marks, a frequent use of the eraser to obliterate marks hastily or incorrectly made, are all faults to be avoided. Corrections so made are not respected by the compositor, and he is frequently annoyed and delayed in deciphering what they mean and to what they refer. In reading proof of wide tables the reader should take advantage of white space as near as possible to the error and place the correction therein, thus aiding all who have occasion to handle the proof afterwards.
The time to be spent in reading a proof should be governed, in a great measure, by its importance. While in certain classes of ordinary work the reader is not expected to detect more than the plainer errors and make his proof correct to copy, in work of value he should read critically and try to discover more serious blunders than spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. But speed should never be greater than is consistent with practical correctness.
A single reading of figures, either in columns or lines, should be sufficient. The failure of first reader and copyholder to detect wrong figures is a serious fault; confidence in them is immediately strained, the second readers become suspicious of all proofs read by them and feel compelled to reread entire proof by copy, and many far-reaching annoyances are liable to follow. When a reader does not feel positive that figures are correct to copy, or if his sight becomes confused by a multiplicity of figures or from other cause, he should request that the proof be reread by copy by someone else. Physical weakness is not a fault; carelessness and indifference are always culpable.