Part 12
When a first proof is pulled, the compositor who imposed the sheet ought to collect and arrange the copy, and deliver both to the reader, who, after folding the sheet to prove the accuracy of its imposition, carefully examines the signatures, head-lines, and paging. He then calls his reading-boy, to read the copy aloud to him. This boy should be able to read with ease and distinctness any copy put into his hands. The eye of the reader should not follow, but rather precede, the voice of the boy: accustomed to this mode, he will be able to anticipate every single word in the copy; and, should a word or sentence happen to be missing in the proof, his attention will the more sensibly be arrested by it when he hears it pronounced by his reading-boy. He ought to be careful lest his eyes advance too far before the words of the boy; because, in his attention to the author’s meaning, he will be apt to read words in the proof which do not actually appear there, and the accuracy of the reading-boy will but tend to confirm him in the mistake.
When the reading of the sheet is concluded, the number (if more than one) of the volume, signature, and _prima_, or first word of the ensuing sheet, should be accurately marked on the margin of the copy, and a bracket made before the first word of the next sheet, in order that the compositor, should he not have composed beyond the sheet, may know where to begin, without having the trouble of referring either to the proof or the form, and the reader will be certain that the commencement is right when he gets the succeeding sheet. This prevents unnecessary trouble both to the reader and compositor.
Before the proof is sent to the compositor to be corrected in the metal, an entry should be made in a book, according to the following plan:—
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |DATE OF READING. | | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | |SIGNATURES. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------+ | | |NAMES OF WORKS. | | | | +---------+---------+--------+ | | | |SENT OUT.|RETURNED.|READ FOR| | | | | | | PRESS. | +--------+----+---------------------------+---------+---------+--------+ | 1878. | | | 1878. | 1878. | 1878. | | May 2 | 11 |Decorative Printing | May 2 | May 4 | May 5 | | ” 4 | 23 |American Printer, (Revised | ” 4 | ” 5 | ” 6 | | | | Edition) | | | | | ” 6 | 20 |Specific Heat Tables | ” 8 | ” 9 | ” 9 | | ” 10 | 2 |The Great Exhibition | ” 10 | ” 12 | ” 13 | | ” 27 | 13 |Masterpieces of European | ” 29 | ” 30 | ” 30 | | | | Art | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--------+----+---------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
This account being punctually kept, the reader can furnish the employer or overseer with an exact account of the state of each work without delay or inconvenience.
After the compositors have corrected the errors in the form, a clean proof is pulled, which, with the first proof, is handed to the reader, who then collates the corrected sheet with the one before read, in order to ascertain whether the corrections have been properly made, and whether new errors have not been caused by negligence in the process; and, if the work be a reprint, or if the author is not to examine the proof, he then proceeds to read it very carefully for press.
Some proofs are so foul, that it is almost impossible for the compositor to correct all the marks at one time, and it is therefore necessary to have the neglected errors corrected and another sheet pulled before the proof is read finally. It not unfrequently happens that compositors, in the course of correcting, transpose a letter or word, or alter a letter in a word that is not marked, thus not only leaving one error uncorrected, but also making another; sometimes also, in respacing a line, a space is transposed or a hyphen is left in. Consequently it is absolutely necessary, in revising a proof, that the reader should not only look at the word marked, but he ought also to glance his eye over every line in which an alteration has been made.
In offices where two readers are employed, it is advisable that a proof-sheet should be read over by both; because the eye, in traversing the same ground, is liable to be drawn into mistake and oversight. The interest excited by the first reading having abated, a degree of listlessness imperceptibly steals upon the mind, which greatly endangers the correctness of a proof. Should _outs_ or _doubles_ occur in a proof, it ought to be again read by copy, to detect any improper correction in the overrunning or transposition of lines. Figure work should always be read twice by copy.
The duty of amending the punctuation should be generally confined to one reader. Where a compositor is liable, in this particular, to the whim or caprice of several readers, he certainly suffers injustice, because his time is unnecessarily frittered away; and not only is the work retarded, but the types are needlessly exposed to injury, to say nothing of the liability of creating fresh errors, &c.
Before a manuscript is brought to the printer, it ought to be as perfect as the author can make it. The compositor is bound to “follow the copy,” in word and sentiment, unless, indeed, he meets with instances of wrong punctuation or false grammar, (and such instances are not rare,) which his intelligence enables him to amend. After the matter has been read and corrected in the office, a proof is sent to the author; and, if it corresponds with the copy, the compositor’s responsibility is at an end. He has done all he is paid for; and, should the author desire any changes made in his matter, of course he must pay for them.
Sentiments in print look marvellously different from the same ideas in manuscript; and we are not surprised that writers should wish to polish a little; nor do we object to their natural desire of amending or beautifying their mental products. But let them not forget that pay-time will come,—when the item for alterations will loom out with a startling distinctness in the bill. They found it easy in the proof to erase a word or two here and insert a word or two there; without dreaming, perhaps, that in consequence of these little erasures and insertions the compositor would be compelled to alter and reconstruct much of his work. We know of a volume on which the alterations alone have consumed time equal to one man’s work for nearly two and a half years. How unreasonable—nay, how transparently unjust—the expectation that the printer should give gratuitously the time and trouble requisite for the radical changes in the type which an author’s whim or taste may demand!
Stower says, “It may not be improper, in this place, just to take notice of the great danger to the correctness of a work which arises from the practice, too common with some authors, of keeping their proof-sheets too long in their hands before they are returned to the printer. As the pages in the metal get dry, the adhesion of the types to each other is weakened, and the swell or extension of the quoins and furniture, which the moisture had occasioned, is removed; so that there is great danger of letters falling out when a form is long kept from the press. Nor is the danger which is hereby occasioned to correctness the only inconvenience: the impatience of authors to see their works in a fit state for publication is almost proverbial. The pleasure arising from beholding, as it were, the ‘form and texture’ of one’s thoughts, is a sensation much easier felt than described. That authors, therefore, may partake of this pleasure in a speedy and regular succession, they should make a point of forwarding their proof-sheets to the printer as quick as possible, not only that they may the sooner be got ready for the press, but that the work may proceed in a regular manner, without being interrupted by the forwarding of other works in lieu of that the proof-sheets of which are detained beyond the proper time in the hands of the author.
“Authors are very apt to make alterations, and to correct and amend the style or arguments of their works, when they first see them in print. This is certainly the worst time for this labour, as it is necessarily attended with an expense which, in large works, will imperceptibly swell to a serious sum; when, however, this method of alteration is adopted by an author, the reader must always be careful to read the whole sheet over once more with very great attention before it is finally put to press.
“A proof-sheet, having duly undergone this routine of purgation, may be supposed to be as free from errata as the nature of the thing will admit, and the word ‘Press’ may be written at the top of the first page of it. This is an important word to every reader: if he have suffered his attention to be drawn aside from the nature of his proper business, and errors should be discovered when it is too late to have them corrected, this word ‘Press’ is as the signature of the death-warrant of his reputation. A reader, therefore, should be a man of one business,—always upon the alert,—all eye,—all attention. Possessing a becoming reliance on his own powers, he should never be too confident of success. Imperfection clings to him on every side. Errors and mistakes assail him from every quarter. His business is of a nature that may render him obnoxious to blame, but can hardly be said to bring him in any very large stock of praise. If errors escape him, he is justly to be censured; for perfection is his duty. If his labours are wholly free from mistake,—which is, alas! a very rare case,—he has done no more than he ought, and, consequently, can merit only a comparative degree of commendation, in that he had the good fortune to be more successful in his labours after perfection than some of his brethren in the same employment.”
The form being finally laid on the press, and a revise pulled by the pressman, he sends it to the overseer, who carefully examines whether all the marks have been attended to, and looks along the sides and heads of the respective pages, to observe whether any letter has fallen out, or there is any crookedness in the locking up of the form, any battered letters, or any _bite_ from the frisket. Should the revise prove faultless, he returns it to the pressman, with the word “Revise” written on the margin; if otherwise, to the compositor to whom the form belongs, for immediate correction.
CORRECTING IN THE METAL.
Correcting is the most disagreeable part of a compositor’s business, diminishing as it does his earnings, and causing great fatigue, and, by leaning over the stone, endangering his health. A foul proof, however, is a fault without extenuation, and seems to deserve some punishment. The noise and confusion which prevail in badly governed printing-offices, from light and frivolous conversation, not only retard business, but distract the attention of the compositor from the subject he has in hand, and cause him to make many mistakes. Some men, no doubt, can support a conversation and at the same time compose correctly; but their noise confuses those who are unable to preserve accuracy except by close attention to their copy in silence.
The first proof should contain merely the errors of the compositor; but it frequently happens that the corrector heightens them by his peculiarities. When this is unnecessarily done, it is an act of injustice to the compositor: it is sufficient for him to rectify such mistakes as arise either from inattention to his copy or want of judgment. The compositor ought not to suffer from the humour of a reader in capriciously altering commas and semicolons in the first proof, which he not unfrequently re-alters in the second, from a doubt as to the propriety of the points to be adopted.
When a proof is handed to the compositor, he should immediately correct it; and the reader, correlatively, should be equally prompt in his department. Can it reasonably be expected that the compositor will feel inclined to forward his proof, when he knows that the reader will delay it for hours?
Should a compositor have transposed two or more pages, either from an error in the folios or any other cause, he must unlock the quarter containing them, and, loosening the cross or crosses from the furniture, lift the chase and the remaining quarters off the stone. Should he have furniture sufficient round each page, he may move them into their proper stations by pressing the balls of his thumbs and fingers against the furniture at the head, foot, and sides of each page. If the letter be small, it will be advisable to wet the pages, because few imposing-stones are horizontal, or so steady that they will not shake when touched, or by the motion of the floor occasioned by persons walking or dragging forms along.
Should a compositor find that his pages _hang_, he must unlock the quarter, and pat the face of the type with the balls of his fingers until he gets it into a square position.
When a compositor unlocks a form, he should be careful not to leave the unlocked quoins too slack, as the force necessary to loosen the others may _squabble_ the matter, or occasion it to _hang_.
It has been aptly said, “What is required of a compositor when he goes about correcting a foul proof, is a sharp bodkin and patience; because, without them, the letter cannot escape suffering by the steel, and hurrying will not permit him to justify the lines true. No wonder, therefore, to see pigeon-holes in one place, and pi in another.”[16]
When the compositor has as many corrections between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand as he can conveniently hold, or, what is better, in his composing-stick, (beginning at the bottom of the page, in order that they may follow regularly,) and an assortment of spaces on a piece of paper, or, what is more convenient, in a small square box with partitions in it,—let him take the bodkin in his right hand, and, instead of raising each letter he may have to alter, place the point of the bodkin at one end of the line, and, with the forefinger of his left hand against the other, raise the whole line sufficiently high to afford him a clear view of the spacing; he may then change the faulty letter and alter his spacing before he drops the line. By this method he will not injure the type, which he must do if he force the bodkin into their sides or heads; a greater degree of regularity is insured where there may be occasion to alter the spacing, and no more time is taken up than by the other method.
In tables, and other matter, where rules prevent the lines from being raised, the letters must be drawn up by the bodkin. This is done by the compositor holding the instrument fast in his right hand, with the blade between his forefinger and thumb, within about three-quarters of an inch from the point: thus guiding it steadily to the faulty letter, he sticks the point of the bodkin into the neck of the letter between the beard and the face, and draws it up above the other types, so that he can take it out with the forefinger and thumb of his left hand. In performing this operation, the blade of the bodkin should be kept as flat as possible on the face of the type, but it should not touch any of the surrounding types, as the slightest graze imaginable will injure their face, and they will consequently appear imperfect in the next proof, when he will have the trouble of altering them, his employer suffering the loss of the type.
The bodkin blade being held almost flat to the form, a small horizontal entrance of its point into the neck of the letter will raise it above the face of the form; but, if the bodkin be held nearly upright, it will not have sufficient purchase to draw the letter up, because the weight of the letter and the pressure of the surrounding types will have greater power than the sharp point of the steel. By pressing sidewise, the bodkin blade acts as a lever, even though it has no other purchase than the slight motion of the hand.
In the olden times the printer made his own bodkin by inserting the blunt end of a large steel needle in a piece of wood or cork. At the present day, when every thing is prepared to the workman’s hand, bodkins are manufactured by printers’ furnishers, and he may take his choice of styles. The above cut shows a common form; but in some cases (as in table work) tweezers or a spring bodkin may be preferred. Knives may also be had with bodkin attached, which serve a double purpose. The objection to the knife-bodkin is that the handle is too heavy and cumbersome, and it is sure to injure type should it happen to slip from the fingers and fall on the page.
The most careful compositor cannot at all times avoid leaving a word out, or composing the same word twice. When this happens, he should consider the best mode of rectifying the accident, by driving out or getting in, either above the error or below it. This ascertained, let the matter be taken upon a galley, and overrun in the composing-stick. Overrunning on the stone is an unsafe, unworkmanlike, and dilatory method, destroying the justification and rendering the spacing uneven.
In correcting, care should be taken to avoid hair-spacing a line, by overrunning either back or forward. In overrunning the matter, the division should be used as little as possible; for, though the compositor may carefully follow the instructions laid down in this work on the subject of spacing and dividing, yet the effect of his attention will be completely destroyed if not followed up at the stone.
We here emphatically remark that, if authors were careful to spell properly the names of persons and places, technical and scientific terms, &c., and to write legibly, marking the end of sentences clearly, the work of the compositor would be facilitated, many errors would be prevented, and time, temper, and expense greatly economized.
Further. Let us remind authors that every correction made on their proof that is a variation from the copy as furnished to the printer is charged for according to the time required to make it. The justice of the charge is obvious; yet, strange to say, there is probably no item so frequently disputed by publishers. A man employs a mechanic to build a house according to fixed specifications; but, in the course of its erection, he improves or changes the plan, and orders certain portions to be torn down and rebuilt: is the mechanic to bear the loss? Certainly not. So, when a compositor builds up his page of type according to the copy furnished, he is right in requiring compensation for alterations made in it. He is not to suffer for the author’s desire to improve his intellectual edifice.
TYPOGRAPHICAL MARKS EXEMPLIFIED.
The following table will be appreciated by authors and by all who desire to become acquainted with the technical marks used by practical readers. Due attention to the explanations will insure an apt proficiency in the manual department of proof-reading.
THOUGH several differing opinions exist as to the individual by whom the art of printing was first discovered; yet all authorities concur in admitting PETER SCHOEFFER to be the person who invented _cast metal types_, having learned the art of _cutting_ the letters from the Gutenbergs: he is also supposed to have been the first who engraved on copper-plates. The following testimony is preserved in the family, by Jo. Fred. Faustus, of Ascheffenburg:
‘PETER SCHOEFFER, of Gernsheim, perceiving his master Faust’s design, and being himself ardently desirous to improve the art, found out (by the good providence of God) the method of cutting (_incidendi_) the characters in a _matrix_, that the letters might easily be singly _cast_, instead of being _cut_. He privately _cut matrices_ for the whole alphabet: and when he showed his master the letters cast from these matrices, Faust was so pleased with the contrivance, that he promised Peter to give him his only daughter _Christina_ in marriage, a promise which he soon after performed. But there were as many difficulties at first with these letters, as there had been before with _wooden ones_, the metal being too soft to support the force of the impression: but this defect was soon remedied, by mixing the metal with a substance which sufficiently hardened it.’]
EXPLANATION OF THE CORRECTIONS.
A wrong letter in a word is noted by drawing a short perpendicular line through it, and making another short line in the margin, behind which the right letter is placed. (See No. 1.) So with whole words also, a line being drawn across the wrong word and the right one written in the margin opposite.
A turned letter is noted by drawing a line through it, and writing the mark No. 2 in the margin.
If letters or words require to be altered to make them more conspicuous, a parallel line or lines must be made underneath the word or letter,—viz. for capitals, three lines; small capitals, two lines; and Italic, one line; and, in the margin opposite the line where the alteration occurs, _Caps_, _Small Caps_, or _Ital._ must be written. (See No. 3.)
When letters or words are set double, or are required to be taken out, a line is drawn through the superfluous word or letter, and the mark No. 4 placed opposite in the margin.
Where the punctuation requires alteration, the correct point should be written in the margin. (See No. 5.)
When a space has been omitted between two words, a caret must be made where the separation ought to be, and the sign No. 6 placed opposite in the margin.
When a word should form a compound with another, it is denoted as in No. 7.
When a letter has been omitted, a caret is put at the place of omission, and the letter marked as No. 8.
Where a line is too widely spaced, the mark No. 9 must be placed between the words and also in the margin.
Where a new paragraph is required, a quadrangle is drawn in the margin, and a caret placed at the beginning of the sentence. (See No. 10.)
No. 11 shows the way in which the apostrophe, inverted commas, the star and other references, and superior letters and figures, are marked.
Where two words are transposed, a line is drawn over one word and below the other, and the mark No. 12 placed in the margin; but where several words require to be transposed, their right order is signified by a figure placed over each word, and the mark No. 12 in the margin.
Where words have been struck out that have afterward been approved of, dots should be marked under them, and _stet_ written in the margin. (See No. 13.)
Where a space sticks up between two words, a horizontal line is drawn under it, and the mark No. 14 placed opposite, in the margin.