The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-02-07

IOrce the printers 10 90 1t IN t
Certain parts of printing are Of
such a nature that they should not
be done hurriedly. Planning the
forms and reading proofs and the
preparation of the impression of the
paper upon the type must be done
without hurry If the printed form is
to be perfect and beautiful. Then
when all is ready, it is we'll to have
a swift press and speed it up to
stream production. The press must
be strong enough to handle forms
and yet swing them with a precision
that can be governed to thousandth
part of an inch and maintained at
that precision while it prints a hun
bred copies or a hundred thousand.
1t must be built so that it will handle
anything so large and heavy as
poster or so small as a calling card,
whose type consists of only a dozen
letters the size of a toothpick and
with fine, hair lines at the printing
point, so delicate that giving them
too much pressure by thousandth
part of an inch will break the hair
lines off of the type and spoil the job.
The printer and the pressman must
be artists, and while the press is
ponderous it must also be precise
enough for art. When its heavy
plates dose up to print something,
they must approach each other to a
limit of just nine hundred and
eighteen thousandths of an inch,
minus the thickness of the sheet to
be printed, minus the thickness of
the film of ink, and the ink must be
just thick enough on the face of the
type so that when pressed against
the paper and released. all of the
ink will be on the paper and the face
of the type will be clean. If the
press does not close up close enough
1t will not print perfectly, and IL it
closes up too much 1t will crush the
type or burst the press. In the prac-
tical work of serving the public, the
press may be required to print apple
on tissue paper for one
customer and to print on canvas
sacks or eight-ply cardboard for the
next one, and the same press must
be capable of quick adjustment from
one job to the other.
But adjusting a press with a |
wrench to the thousandth part of an |
inch is not followed in the practical |
work of printing. Presses are made |
30 that they are operated with more |
space between the plates and the
Of paper in to take up the space or SO
much OF 1t as he needs. He keeps at
hand some cardboard, some thick
paper, some thin paper and some It's
,ue paper, and when he is fitting a
mr. m a lott yhnf 10 |
jailed "makeready,' he governs the
pressure upon the typeface in this
manner more than by adjusting the
rms of the press with the big
wrench. If he puts in too much
PAPER and makes too much pressure.
he type dents the sheet while print
ng, and you can detect 1t by passing
he fingers over the back Of the
heet or by looking at 1t closely. Cor
ect printing is done when the pres
ure Is enough to make plain i'm
resston Of every letter in the form
nd not enough pressure to dent any
etter into the paper. If you have
letterhead or other piece of print
ng at hand, pause now to take
Ook at it.. If the right amount of
nix was used on the job, and the
lBnC amount OF pressure, IL Will Dc
8 described. If not enough ink was
sed, the letters will look dim from I
hat cause. If too much ink was
sed, it will look overdone and such 1
stters as o, 9, c, will be filled up in I
he center and will print as dots. I
When you find that condition, II you
,ok down thru the stack you will !
enerally find other parts of the job !
nat were printed with less ink, and l
on may know that it was an old t
lyle press, working without the 9
lodern ink distributors playing =
pom it and the printer had to dab 3
,me ink on with a paddle OCCASION Il
lily. First it runs dim and he OBJ t
srves that, and then he dabs on the q
* and 1t gets into the round letters q
nd fills them and he prints on and
q. II
When movable type was dis o
,vered 1t was considered q great q
ling, and 80 1t was, but here are T.
,me of the troubles arising from its q
80 that have been overcome by the v
go of machines like the linotype, &
le tyopgraph, the intertype and r
le linograph, that cast each line Of