Printing office

“ A printer may see how these errors could be developed. The unreflecting observer, who, for the first time, surveys the operations of a printing office, finds in the fast presses the true vital principle of printing. ”

“ Nearly eighty tons of paper and twenty-three hundredweight of printing-ink were used in the production of that number. Larger quantities have been printed of some issues, but the production was spread over a longer period of time. 930,000 sheets is the largest quantity ever printed in one week. It will thus be seen what an amount of business this represents to the paper-maker, the ink-maker, the wood-draughtsman, the engravers, the electrotypers, the compositors, printers, machine-men, roller-makers, warehousemen, and the numerous other workers in a newspaper printing-office. ”

“ Certainly one 242who has been educated in a printing office can never forget or outgrow his training. Cases, type and presses have for him an undying fascination, and the cunning of a printer’s nimble fingers, once acquired, is never lost. ”

“ The inferiority of the tools of the early printing office could be plainly exhibited by contrasting them with those of our time—the early hand-press with the modern cylinder printing machine—the entire collection of types made in the fifteenth century with the specimen book of any reputable modern type-founder. But the pride of the young printer in improvements which have been most largely made by the men of this century should be modified by the reflection that there has been no change in the theory, and but few changes in the elementary processes of printing. ”

“ A printer liable to such visitations would prefer, if possible, to procure his type out of doors, rather than maintain the valuable plant requisite to make it himself; and it is probable that the outside demand thus created may have been among the causes which led to the establishment of one or two small foundries, unconnected with any one printing office in particular, whose business it would be to supply any purchaser with type from its matrices. ”

“ In a printing office where small quantities of paper are dealt with, the inconvenience of carrying paper in and out a few reams at a time may not be apparent, but considerable time is wasted and some loss in spoiled sheets results from such a method. Quantities of paper should be dealt with as expeditiously, and with as little handling, as possible. Transporter trucks require, perhaps, more room than is taken by a man or boy lifting reams, but it deals with thirty reams, instead of two at a time, and in up-to-date offices time is counted as valuable as currency. ”

“ System is as necessary in a printing-house as in a bank, and classification and obedience to the law of the office are absolutely essential to the production of correct composition. Since many editors and patrons, authors and others are usually either careless or untrained in the art of preparing copy, the printer must be extremely painstaking and methodic, or his work will be censured, and he will be blamed for every fault that shows itself in ‘cold type.’ The owners of newspapers printed at other men’s offices are especially unreasonable when mistakes occur. ”

“ But all Europe, with its 200,000,000 of inhabitants, does not support as many regular publications as the United States, with its 17,000,000.
25. The workmen employed in a printing-office are of two kinds: compositors, who arrange the types according to the copy delivered to them; and pressmen, who apply ink on the types, and take off impressions. In many cases, and especially where the business is carried on upon a small scale, the workmen often practise both branches. ”

“ Clear and positive rules for composition and proof reading are needed in printing offices to prevent confusion and unnecessary delay and expense. Inflexible rules for style in all works can not be given, but for the general work of the Government Printing Office the rules herein contained will be observed. When important changes are to be made, written or printed instructions will be furnished or there will be a special preparation of copy. ”

“ In the printing-office are several presses, and various styles of type of different sizes; and there works are produced as accurate, well engraved, and neat as in España—and sometimes with errors that are less stupid and more endurable. ”

“ It is not always easy to persuade the consumer to select the very best paper for office stationery, but the choice should be made with a view to create a good impression. Remember always, too, that printing demands good paper to produce the most satisfactory effect.
For lithography the work in hand frequently dictates the quality of paper to be used. Offset printing, certainly, has enabled the lithographer to print on papers unsuitable for direct stone printing, but in all work the right paper produces the best result. ”

“ In the 21st century, the Government Printing Office (GPO) is committed to providing printed information products for Congress, Federal agencies, and the courts as efficiently, creatively, and cost-effectively as the most modern technology will allow. ”

“ It is self-evident that, until there were enough printers at work in Europe to keep them going, letter foundries, as such, did not exist. Besides, we know from early descriptions and drawings of printing offices that they each contained a ‘casting-house,’ probably a small ante-room in which type could be recast, and therefore in which on emergency small ornaments could be cast.
This is what Mr T. B. Reed says on the question [3] : “Respecting the developement of letter-founding as an industry there is little that can be gathered in the history [12] of the fifteenth century. ”

“ Every workman should be bound by oath to keep the secrets of the partners, and was forbid to give any book to any other master printer of the city. If any partner wished to print a book on his own account, and could not agree with his associates, he would be permitted to have it done elsewhere.—Peter and Nicholas de Burgo immediately asked for the use of three presses or more, for works on common and civil law and medicine, they providing and paying for the presses and for working them, and half the current expenses of the office. ”

“ It soon became the habit of the printers to open shops apart from their printing offices for the sale of their productions. These salesrooms developed into 53book-shops through carrying in stock the books of other printers. In the old-world cities trades had a habit of congregating in one place. If a man wanted to open a book-shop, instead of trying to find a good location where there were no other book-shops very near at hand, he tried to get a location as near as he could to all the other book-shops. ”

“ Recollect that one badly justified line may stop a press; a careless correction spoil the whole edition of a book.
Study the rules.—Compositors are expected to carefully study the rules governing composition. A failure to do this will show plainly in the proof. It must be remembered, however, that all work done in the office is not in accordance with the regular or office style. Special instructions will invariably accompany copy of this kind, and a compositor should ascertain when taking out copy whether it is to be set according to office style ”

“ In the event that a title page is not used, the imprint is printed on the last page and positioned flush left below the text.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
• Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free 866-512-1800
• DC area 202-512-1800 -Fax: 202-512-2250
• Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001
• www.gpoaccess.gov
2.125.
Outside-purchase publications are identified by an open star at the beginning of the imprint line. These lines are positioned 4 ems from the right margin.
☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 2008—456–89⁠
2.126. ”

“ Again, in some small books, two, three or four blank leaves are found at the end, showing a miscalculation of the printer at the commencement. Moreover, numerous itinerant printers of the 15th century established a press for a short time wherever they went, which proves that the furniture of the earliest printing-offices cannot have been of any great extent. ”

“ It occupies much more time than could be supposed, and consequently occasions an Expense which the mere alteration of a few Words in a Page would perhaps scarcely be thought sufficient to justify. But when it is considered that every alteration disturbs the whole adjoining mass of Type, and may do so to the end of the Page, or several Pages, it will be less difficult to perceive the reason of the well ascertained fact, that Printers always greatly prefer being employed in the Setting, rather than in the Correcting department of their office. ”

“ The use of computers has dramatically altered every phase of the printing industry beginning with the basic planning of each new job. New publications are evaluated by application specialists who review their requirements and design the necessary formats. Each format is made to conform exactly to the copy's specifications for page dimensions, line length, indentions, typefaces, etc. ”

“ In 1538 he favored the printers by granting them an edict of exemption from service in the City Guard, a service to which residents generally were liable.
During King Francis’s reign labor troubles arose in the industry. Enough references have already been made to show that the strike is by no means a modern institution and that strikes in printing offices are pretty nearly as old as the industry. There were strikes, some of them of a rather serious nature, among the Parisian printers in the reign of King Francis. ”

“ The Master and the Wardens of the Stationers’ Company might have three presses each and three apprentices. No other printer could have more than two presses. A master printer on the livery (a member of the Company) might have two apprentices, others only one. The master printers were to give work to journeymen when requested to do so. This enactment was not made out of any tenderness for unemployed journeymen but for the reason that the unemployed journeyman was always tempted to pick up an occasional shilling by printing unlicensed or objectionable books. ”

“ The name of the printer, the author, and the publisher was to be placed in every book, and, with a view to encouraging English printing, it was decreed further that no merchant or bookseller should import any English book printed abroad. No person was to erect a printing-press, or to let any [Pg 179] premises for the purpose of carrying on printing, without first giving notice to the Company, and no joiner or carpenter was to make a press without similar notice. ”

“ They alleged that the Company 45of Stationers was controlled by the booksellers and that they cheapened printing and impoverished the printers, that the Company of Stationers was so large that only old men could attain to the dignity of masters or wardens, and that only once in ten or twelve years was it possible for a journeyman printer to become a master printer. They claimed that a new Company would free the printing industry from these shackles, that it would improve the quality of printing, and that it would secure for the government better supervision of the output of the press. ”

“ Directories, telephone books, circulars, and [145] advertising matter in general demand tons and tons of paper every year, and the printing of them provides employment for hundreds of printers. As time goes on, more and more business is annually transacted by mail. The country is so tremendous and the expense of sending out salesmen to cover it so great that merchants now do much of their selling from mail-order catalogues. ”

“ Petersburgh, this mode of Printing has been adopted in the Government Offices. All Resolutions, Edicts, Orders, &c., agreed to at the Cabinet meetings, are written down on paper, by the Secretary, with Chemical Ink, and in the space of an hour, an ample supply of copies is obtained. For Circulars, and in general, all such orders of Government as must be rapidly distributed, an invention like this is of the utmost consequence, and it is probable that eventually it will be universally employed. ”

“ About seventy-six of these companies still continue to exist. They survive mainly for charitable and philanthropic purposes, conserving and administering the large funds which were accumulated in early centuries.
The Stationers’ Company was organized in 1557 partly because the printers saw the necessity for organization and regulation of the industry, and partly because the crown desired a better means for controlling printing than had theretofore existed. ”

“ In these it was provided that every shop should have a minimum equipment of two presses well provided with type. This was probably intended to put a stop to the small shops which did poor work and were very difficult to regulate under the police regulations which will be later discussed. The number of shops in Paris was fixed by this edict at 36. Private printing—that is to say, the exercise of the industry by persons not members of the Community of Printers—was absolutely forbidden. ”

“ As this would throw a large number of men out of work, he further proposed a scheme for the relief of necessitous and supernumerary printers. He calculated that the twelve impressions of the Farewell Sermons, allowing a thousand copies to each impression, had yielded a profit, 'beside the charge of paper and printing,' of £3300, and he advised that this sum should be levied as a fine upon those booksellers who had sold the book, and be placed to a fund for the benefit of the suppressed printers, the balance of the sum required to be levied on other seditious publications! ”

“ Many of the smaller paper box-making concerns are also operating private printing plants, and when managed efficiently, the printing department is a profitable investment for any paper box factory, large or small.
The writer knows of several large printing concerns, of New York City and Philadelphia, who are specializing in the production of wrappers and other printed matter for paper box manufacturers. All of these printing establishments are continually busy, and from all indications, are earning substantial profits on their work. ”