Every printing establishment of any note has its methods and customs as regards orthography, the use of capitals and of punctuation. As a rule it is best to leave doubtful points to the printer. Any little deviation desired may be easily remedied in the proofs.
Paragraphs should be boldly indicated by setting the line well back in the "copy." Extract matter included in the text should be clearly shown, either by marking it down the side with a vertical line from beginning to end or by setting the whole well back within the compass of the text. Such matter is commonly set in slightly smaller type.
With regard to the corrections in the proofs it must be remembered that the more carefully an article is written the smaller the expense for author's corrections. This charge is often a great source of contention between the author and the printer, and, altogether, is an unsatisfactory item. A printer is bound, with certain reservations, to follow the "copy" supplied. If he does that and the author does not make any alterations there is no extra charge and nothing to wrangle about. A small correction, trivial as it may seem to the inexperienced, may involve much trouble to the printer. A word inserted or deleted may cause a page to be altered throughout, line by line, and a few words may possibly affect several pages. The charges made for corrections are based on the time consumed in making the necessary alterations.
II. ON THE NAMES AND SIZES OF TYPE
The beauty of printed matter depends very largely upon the selection of a suitable style of type. For books and newspaper work there are in use two general classes known as (a) old style, (b) modern. These names refer to the shape of the letter and not to its size. The several sizes of type commonly used in all plain work are as follows:
- pearl.
- agate.
- nonpareil.
- minion.
- brevier.
- bourgeois.
- long primer.
- small pica.
- pica.
- english.
- great primer.
Pica is universally considered as the standard type, just as the foot is the standard of measurement. The twelfth part of a pica is the unit, called a point, by which type bodies are measured. In many printing offices the type is known as 6-point, 8-point, 10-point, etc., instead of as nonpareil, brevier, long primer, etc. The following specimens show the sizes of the type in common use:
The student must bear in mind the fact that these names refer to the size of the type. For instance, there may be a dozen different styles of brevier or of pica; a particular specimen of printing may be entirely in long primer, yet some words may be capitals, others italic, others boldface, and so on.
Agate is the size of type used in measuring advertisements. There are fourteen agate lines in an inch.