New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-03-31
HALF-TONE PICTURES.

There can be no improperly In inviting the
special attention OF readers to the great num-
her a. beautiful half-tone portraits and other
pIctures which have appeared in The Tribune
during the last two months. In these there
have been presented to the public. quietly. the
fruits Of the enterprise. mechanical ingenuity
and laborious experiments OF The Tribune estaD-
lishment and the actual solution of question
which has hitherto bafiled the metropolitan press.
A few years ago The New-YorlI Herald made
a great number of experiments In this dirccton'
and Il Is no reflection upon the enterprise OF that
paper 70 say that it was obliged to give up the
effort in more or less despair. Tho processes were
imperfect the results unsatisfactory. HAIR
tones were and are. easily printed on slow nat
bed press. but it seemed impossible to use them
in the main sheet Of a large daily newspaper.
when surrounded and embedded In mass of
stereotype metal 81 entirely different consistency
and hardness.
The Tribune was the first OF all the metropoli-
tan newspapers to make and print satisfactory
half-tone picture in its main sheet with its rapid,
web perfecting presses, running at full speed and
using simply the regular everyday ality or
printing paper The Tribune was known
throughout the United States, for more than
generation as a pioneer in the adoption and tx
Of newspapers During the Civil War, when its
Daily and Weekly editions had become so enor-
nous. and the old method Of printing from the
actual type, on the huge noisy rotary press, had
become too slow, The Tribune introduced the use
OF curved stereotype plates, cast from paper
matrix: and it used the process successfully for
eighteen months before it adopted by any
other newspaper in America. This process is
now absolutely essential to every large daily jour
nal and is used by them all. from Maine to Cali
fornia. Not to mention a score OF other improve
ments in which The Tribune was the undoubted
pioneer ard leader. reference may be made TO the
Mergenthaler linotype machine. which was per-
fected from a crude beginning by actual daily use
in The Tribune office for several wears before the
machine was employed by any other journal
Every line OF reading matter in The Tribune
with the exception Of displayed advertisements,
Is now set upon linotype machines. which make
AID cast each line in a solid block; and the mod
ern composing room Is no longer dingy work
room. filed with men standing before cases Of
type. ndustriously picking up the words by
hand, letter by letter, but it is handsome ma
chine shop bright and airy. with lines OF shlftng
and rows OF linotype machines.
The employment of the half-tone picture upon
a rapid web perfecting press. running at full
speed and upon ordinary paper. Is The Tribune's
latest triumph; and We take due satisfaction In
thus aiding to make the legitimate illustration
Of newspapers a source Of greater pleasure and
more genuine instruction TO readers The half
tone is a perfect reproduction Of a photograph
and thus avoids the possible distortion OF features
or inaccurate conception Of given scene through
the necessary haste Of the daily newspaper art
fist We do not say that The Trlbune's half-tones
cannot be improved. They can be. and will be
But the mechanical difficulty. hitherto deemed
nsuperable, has been at last overcome in an
origin Al manner and the readers OF The Tribune
are now in enjoyment Of the result which Is
merely an extension of the fixed purpose that this
paper shall he complete and perfect in all
respects as II = within human power to make It.