On Oct 31, 2013, at 2:42 AM, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In letterpress, space between words, is adjusted in any line by adjusting
> spacing material between words. This gives opportunity to reset lines on the
> fly as it were. Spacing (leading or slugs) can also be adjusted between
> lines to gain an extra line of text or so when necessary. It also enables
> insertion of extra text below the main text. As Gunnar says, both are
> achieved by knocking loose the quoins to slacken the forms.
For anyone who hasn't lost IQ points from handling lead type but wonders about our arcane quibbling, perhaps a technical explanation would help. Letterpress (the printing technology that dominate Europe then the Americas from mid 15C to mid 20C (and is still, I believe, common in South Asia and other places for newspaper printing) is relief printing. A raised surface is inked and comes in contact with the paper (in the manner of a rubber stamp.)
Traditionally, each glyph is a separate piece of lead with a standardized height (.916 inches in recent ages, any standards queens out there.) Each character is pulled out of a type case and composed then locked into a frame (called a chase) using spacing material (called furniture) to nearly fill out the chase. Wedges (called quoins) with geared surfaces on the edges that face each other (each rather like the rack of a rack and pinion steering system except set to wedge toward or away from each other to tighten or loosen the "lock up") tighten the grip of the chase on the type by means of turning a quoin key (much like a steering pinion with a handle.)
The references to "hot type" were to systems like Linotype. Before the 1880s, type was cast in adjustable molds with a brass matrix at the bottom. Then Ottmar Mergenthaler invented a machine that dropped a row of matrices into a mold and automatically cast a line of type (thus the Linotype name.) Since the slug that formed one line was one piece of lead and was the length of a line, changes would only be made by melting down the slug and replacing it with a new one.
Starting in the mid 19C, large production printing like books and magazines was accomplished by taking the chase full of set type (called a form) and making a casting of it. The copy (called a stereotype) was wrapped around a cylinder of a high speed press.
Most of this was done before W.A. Dwiggins coined the phrase "graphic designer" and was done by people in the printing trade. Bringing this back to the conversation about art and design, I knew someone who defined art as "doing anything using archaic methods." As such, letterpress has become and art form. I wish I had the part of the ECU School of Art & Design website featuring our letterpress shop finished so I could provide a URL to explain things visually (and to brag about our facilities. For those of you who knew all of the above, we have two Vandercooks--a 4 and an SP15--and more foundry type than I've ever bothered to count. One of my colleagues is making wood type--see the bottom middle of http://www.gunnarswanson.com if you want to know more--so I'm hoping some of it will migrate into our shop, too.)
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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+1 252 258-7006
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