GLOSSARIUM
“When found, make
a note of”
GLOSSARIUM
Balls
.—The old custom of distributing ink was by “balls,” rollers being a modern institution.
Bank
.—A wooden table or bench for placing the sheets on as printed at handpress.
Batter
.—A broken or damaged letter or letters through accident, wear and tear, or carelessness.
Benvenue
.—A kind of entrance fee paid to the chapel by a workman on entering a fresh office—an old custom. Derived from the French bienvenue, welcome.
Brevier
.—A size of type one size larger than Minion and one size smaller than Bourgeois.
Capitals
.—Letters other than lower case or small capitals.
Carriage
.—The bed or coffin on which the forme is laid and which runs under the platen or cylinder in a printing press or machine.
Case
.—The receptacle in which type is laid to compose from. When in pairs, defined as upper and lower respectively.
Catchword
.—A word placed at the bottom right-hand corner of pages in old books, indicating, the first word on the following page.
Chapels
.—The meetings held by the workmen to consider trade affairs, appeals, and other matters are thus termed. Derived, it is said, from Caxton's connection with Westminster Abbey.
Chase
.—A chase is an iron frame for holding the type pages in the form in which a sheet is printed.
Cicero
.—The German sad French equivalent in size of type lor Pica.
Colour
.—This refers generally to depth or shade of ink in printing. Full colour would be to print an intense black.
Compsing
.—Setting type.
Copy
.—The manuscript or reprint copy from which the compositor composes.
Corpus
.—A German expression for Long Primer type.
Corrector
.—An ancient term for a reader, now called “corrector of the press,” the term used by the Readers’ Association.
Cursiv
.—The German term for italic type.
Devil, printers’
.—An odd lad lor errands end other jobs—sometimes the junior apprentice is thus called.
Diamond
.—The type one size larger than Gem, and one size smaller then Pearl—equal to half a Bourgeois in body.
Distributing
.—Replacing the type in cases after printing.
Drive out
.—o widely space matter.
EMs
.—A technical term applied to the exact depth of any type body.
Errata
.—A number of mistakes usually printed on a small slip and pasted in by the book-binder.
Facs
.—Abbreviation of the word “facsimile.”
Fat take
.—A compositor is said to have a “fat take” hen he takes a good paying portion of copy. “Lean” would be the reverse.
Flyers (or) Fliers
.—Taking-off apparatus attached to a printing machine.
Folio
.—A sheet of paper folded in two leaves only.
Foolscap
.—A size of printing paper, 17 × 13½ inches; writing paper, 16¼ × 13½ inches.
Form(e)
.—Pages of type when imposed in a chase constitute a “forme.”
Frame
.—The wooden stand on which cases are placed to compose from, and usually made with racks in which to place cases.
Furniture
.—The wood used in making margin for a printed sheet, the thinner kind being usually called “Reglet.” Sometimes metal furniture is used.
Galley
.—These are wooden or zinc receptacles for holding type before making-up into pages.
Garamond
.—Another German term for Long Primer type. See Corpus.
Gothic
.—An antique character of type similar to black letter.
Imposing
.—Laying pages down so that when printed they fall correctly in folding.
Italic
.—The sloping characters—distinct from roman types—invented by Aldus Manutius, a Venetian printer.
Job printing
.—Applied to small miscellaneous printing in contradistinction to book-printing.
Jung fer
.—A German equivalent for Brevier type.
Justify
.—To space out to any given measure.
Leads
.—Strips of lead cast to different thicknesses and cut to various sizes.
Locked up
.—To have fastened up tightly the qoins of a forme by means of a mallet and shooting-stick.
Long Primer
.—A size of type one size larger than Bourgeois and one size smaller than Small Pica, equal to two Pearls.
Lye
.—The preparation used for cleansing type after printing.
Make-up
.—To measure off matter into pages.
Matter
.—A term for composed type.
Mike
.—A printer's slang term for skulking or playing about.
Minerva
.—A small platen jobbing machine— the original “Cropper” machine.
Monks
.—Black patches on a printed sheet caused through insufficient distribution or bad ink.
Movable types
.—Applied to ordinary metal types to distinguish from stereotype or Linotype bars.
New dress
.—A newspaper is said to have a “new dress” when it appear a for the first time printed in a fresh fount of type.
Nonpareil
.—The size of type one size larger than Pearl and one size smaller than Emerald —half of a Pica in depth of body.
Numerals
.—Numbering by means of Roman numerals, i, ii, iii, iv., etc., instead of Arabic figures, 1, 2,3, etc.
O. P.
.—A publisher's term signifying that a book is “out of print.”
Opisthographic
.—In olden times applied to books written or printed on both sides of the paper.
Out of sorts
.—When there is a run on any particular letter or letters, and these become scarce.
Pearl
.—A size of type one size larger than Diamond and one size smaller than Ruby, equalling half a Long Primer in depth—the smallest type enumerated by Moxon.
Pica
.—A size of type one size larger than Small Pica and one size smaller than English —the body usually taken as a standard for leads, width of measures, etc. It is equal to two Nonpareils in body.
Picking-up
.—A compositor is said to be “picking-up” when he is setting up types.
Pie (or) Pye
.—Type broken or indiscriminately mixed.
Platen
.—That part of the press or machine which comes down on the forme and gives the impression.
Printers’ devil
.—See Devil, printers’.
Quaternions
.—Paper folded in sections of four sheets, quire fashion.
Quire
.—Sections of a ream of paper, consisting of twenty-four sheets.
Quoins
.—Small wedges of various sizes, usually of wood, used for tightening or locking-up formes.
Ream
.—Paper in parcels or bundles of a certain size—a printer's ream being 516 sheets. Hand-made and drawing papers slightly differ in the number of sheets, sometimes 472, 480, or 500.
Register
.—The exact adjustment of pages back to back in printing the second side of a sheet.
Romain, gros
.—The French term for Great Primer type.
Romain, petit
.—The French term for Long Primer type.
Roman
.—The particular kind of type in which book and other work is composed (such as this fount), as distinguished from italic or fancy types. Called “antiqua” by the Germans.
Rule
.—A technical term applied to straight lines in printing—as a dash, or a plain line used as a border, or line to cut off text from footnotes.
Set
.—A recognized term for “composed”—to “set” type is to “compose” it.
Sheepsfoot
.—An iron hammer with a claw at the foot.
Shooting stick
.—The implement—generally made of boxwood, but sometimes of metal— used with the mallet in locking-up formes.
Signature
.—The letter or figure in the white line of the first page of a sheet, to guide the binder in folding—also used by printers to identify any particular sheet.
Small capitals
.—The smaller capitals laid in
the upper case, distinct from the full capitals,
thus—
Stanhope press
.—The first iron platen hand- press, invented by Earl Stanhope in the early part of this century.
Stereotyping
.—The art of taking casts of pages of type, etc., in metal, either by the “plaster” or “paper” processes.
Stick
.—A familiar expression for “composing stick.”
Termions
.—A bibliographical expression for three sheets folded together in folio.
Token
.—Two hundred and fifty impressions are reckoned as a “token.”
Wayzgoose
.—The printer’s annual dinner.
Wool-hole
.—An old slang term for the work-house.
Wrong fount
.—Letters of a different character or series mixed with another fount, although perhaps of the same body.