Usefulness rather than originality has been aimed at in the preparation
of the AMERICAN PRINTER, which is offered as an improvement on the
typographical work formerly published by us. In addition to the results
of actual personal experience embodied in the volume, information
has been gathered and extracts have been freely made from various
publications, such as _Ames and Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities_,
_Thomas’s History of Printing_, _Timperley’s Dictionary of Printers and
Printing_, _Savage’s Dictionary of Printing_, _Johnson’s Typographia_,
_Chambers’s Encyclopædia_, _Beadnell’s Guide to Typography_, as well as
other books referred to in the notes. The work has been prepared amid the
manifold interruptions incident to business life; yet we think nothing
has been overlooked that is essential for the instruction of the learner
or for the assistance of the workman.
Besides the matter relating to practical typography, the volume contains
a sketch of the discovery of printing, and notices of type-founding,
stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithography. The implements employed in
typography are described and their uses explained; and complete schemes
for imposition are laid down. The valuable tables and the plans of cases
for various languages, and for music and labour-saving rule, will be
found extremely useful; as well as the extensive lists of abbreviations
and of foreign words and phrases, and orthographical hints.
Special attention has been given in setting forth the functions and
duties of the foreman and proof-reader, so that the operations of an
office may be prosecuted with efficiency, comfort, and economy.
Authors and publishers, as well as young printers, may consult the volume
with profit; and, indeed, any intelligent person will find it serviceable.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]