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Undeniable as is the fact that a book marred by typographical errors and
grammatical blemishes is a scandal to the profession, it must be admitted
that a careful, steady, and competent reader is indispensable in every
printing-office.
It is eminently desirable that a reader should have been previously
brought up a compositor. By a practical acquaintance with the mechanical
departments of the business, he will be better able to detect those
manifold errata which, unperceived by the man of mere learning and
science, lie lurking, as it were, in a thousand different forms, in every
sheet; and which, if overlooked, justly offend the taste and discernment
of all appreciators of correct and beautiful typography.
Some of the principal imperfections which are more easily observed by
the man of practical knowledge in the art of printing are the following:
viz. imperfect, wrong-founted, and inverted letters, particularly the
lower-case n, o, s, and u, as well as p, d, b, and q; awkward and
irregular spacing; uneven pages or columns; a false disposition of
the reference marks; crookedness in words and lines; bad making-up
of matter; erroneous indention, &c. These minutiæ, which are rather
imperfections of workmanship than literal errors, are apt to be
overlooked and neglected by mere literary readers.
A person of a thoroughly cultivated typographical taste, a quick eye,
and a ready mind, though not a compositor, may doubtless be competent to
detect those minor deviations from exact workmanship in a proof which the
inexperienced and the careless are apt to overlook. But, without these
qualifications, no person can be safely intrusted to read a sheet for
press, and the labours of the printer are liable to go forth into the
world in a manner that will reflect discredit on the employed and give
offence to the employer. No form, therefore, ought to be put to press
until it has been read and revised by an _experienced_ reader.
A thorough proof-reader, in addition to a general and practical
acquaintance with typography, should understand clearly the grammar
and idiomatic structure of his mother-tongue, and have, as it were,
an encyclopedic knowledge of the names, times, and productions of its
writers, as well as an entire familiarity with the Bible especially,
and with Shakspeare. He should be, in fact, a living orthographical,
biographical, bibliographical, geographical, historical, and scientific
dictionary, with some smattering of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French,
Spanish, Italian, and German. Yet all these accomplishments are valueless
unless he also possess a keen and quick eye, that, like a hound, can
detect an error almost by scent. There are eyes of this sort, that with a
cursory glance will catch a solitary error in a page. The world is little
aware how greatly many authors are indebted to a competent proof-reader
for not only reforming their spelling and punctuation, but for valuable
suggestions in regard to style, language, and grammar,—thus rectifying
faults which would have rendered their works fair game for the critic.
Although no corrector of the press can strictly be required to do
otherwise than to _follow his copy_,—that is, faithfully to adhere to
the original, with all its defects,—yet every one must perceive that
he performs a friendly and perhaps a charitable service, by pointing
out, in proper time, imperfections and mistakes which have escaped
the observation of a quick or voluminous writer. With the spirit, the
opinions, the whims of an author, no corrector of the press has any
business to interfere. In reprints of old and standard works, no license
of alteration ought to be granted to either correctors or editors.
Strict uniformity should always be preserved in the use of capitals,
in orthography, and punctuation. Nothing can be more vexatious to an
author than to see the words _honour_, _favour_, &c. spelt with and
without the _u_. This is a discrepancy which correctors ought sedulously
to prevent. The above observations equally apply to the use of capitals
to noun-substantives, &c. in one place, and the omission of them in
another. However the opinions of authors may differ in these respects,
still the system of spelling, &c. must not be varied in the same work.
When an author gives him the option, a proof-reader ought to spell
ambiguous words and arrange compounds in a methodical and uniform way;
and, to enable the compositors to become acquainted with and to observe
his method, he should furnish for their guidance a list of such ambiguous
words and compounds.[15]
Such being the qualifications of a reader, we exhibit the process which
proof-sheets ought to undergo before the pages are put to press.
When a first proof is pulled, the compositor who imposed the sheet
ought to collect and arrange the copy, and deliver both to the reader,
who, after folding the sheet to prove the accuracy of its imposition,
carefully examines the signatures, head-lines, and paging. He then calls
his reading-boy, to read the copy aloud to him. This boy should be able
to read with ease and distinctness any copy put into his hands. The eye
of the reader should not follow, but rather precede, the voice of the
boy: accustomed to this mode, he will be able to anticipate every single
word in the copy; and, should a word or sentence happen to be missing
in the proof, his attention will the more sensibly be arrested by it
when he hears it pronounced by his reading-boy. He ought to be careful
lest his eyes advance too far before the words of the boy; because, in
his attention to the author’s meaning, he will be apt to read words in
the proof which do not actually appear there, and the accuracy of the
reading-boy will but tend to confirm him in the mistake.
When the reading of the sheet is concluded, the number (if more than
one) of the volume, signature, and _prima_, or first word of the ensuing
sheet, should be accurately marked on the margin of the copy, and a
bracket made before the first word of the next sheet, in order that the
compositor, should he not have composed beyond the sheet, may know where
to begin, without having the trouble of referring either to the proof or
the form, and the reader will be certain that the commencement is right
when he gets the succeeding sheet. This prevents unnecessary trouble both
to the reader and compositor.
Before the proof is sent to the compositor to be corrected in the metal,
an entry should be made in a book, according to the following plan:—
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|DATE OF READING. |
| +-------------------------------------------------------------+
| |SIGNATURES. |
| | +--------------------------------------------------------+
| | |NAMES OF WORKS. |
| | | +---------+---------+--------+
| | | |SENT OUT.|RETURNED.|READ FOR|
| | | | | | PRESS. |
+--------+----+---------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
| 1878. | | | 1878. | 1878. | 1878. |
| May 2 | 11 |Decorative Printing | May 2 | May 4 | May 5 |
| ” 4 | 23 |American Printer, (Revised | ” 4 | ” 5 | ” 6 |
| | | Edition) | | | |
| ” 6 | 20 |Specific Heat Tables | ” 8 | ” 9 | ” 9 |
| ” 10 | 2 |The Great Exhibition | ” 10 | ” 12 | ” 13 |
| ” 27 | 13 |Masterpieces of European | ” 29 | ” 30 | ” 30 |
| | | Art | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
+--------+----+---------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
This account being punctually kept, the reader can furnish the employer
or overseer with an exact account of the state of each work without delay
or inconvenience.
After the compositors have corrected the errors in the form, a clean
proof is pulled, which, with the first proof, is handed to the reader,
who then collates the corrected sheet with the one before read, in order
to ascertain whether the corrections have been properly made, and whether
new errors have not been caused by negligence in the process; and, if the
work be a reprint, or if the author is not to examine the proof, he then
proceeds to read it very carefully for press.
Some proofs are so foul, that it is almost impossible for the compositor
to correct all the marks at one time, and it is therefore necessary to
have the neglected errors corrected and another sheet pulled before the
proof is read finally. It not unfrequently happens that compositors,
in the course of correcting, transpose a letter or word, or alter a
letter in a word that is not marked, thus not only leaving one error
uncorrected, but also making another; sometimes also, in respacing a
line, a space is transposed or a hyphen is left in. Consequently it is
absolutely necessary, in revising a proof, that the reader should not
only look at the word marked, but he ought also to glance his eye over
every line in which an alteration has been made.
In offices where two readers are employed, it is advisable that a
proof-sheet should be read over by both; because the eye, in traversing
the same ground, is liable to be drawn into mistake and oversight.
The interest excited by the first reading having abated, a degree of
listlessness imperceptibly steals upon the mind, which greatly endangers
the correctness of a proof. Should _outs_ or _doubles_ occur in a proof,
it ought to be again read by copy, to detect any improper correction in
the overrunning or transposition of lines. Figure work should always be
read twice by copy.
The duty of amending the punctuation should be generally confined to one
reader. Where a compositor is liable, in this particular, to the whim or
caprice of several readers, he certainly suffers injustice, because his
time is unnecessarily frittered away; and not only is the work retarded,
but the types are needlessly exposed to injury, to say nothing of the
liability of creating fresh errors, &c.
Before a manuscript is brought to the printer, it ought to be as perfect
as the author can make it. The compositor is bound to “follow the copy,”
in word and sentiment, unless, indeed, he meets with instances of wrong
punctuation or false grammar, (and such instances are not rare,) which
his intelligence enables him to amend. After the matter has been read
and corrected in the office, a proof is sent to the author; and, if it
corresponds with the copy, the compositor’s responsibility is at an end.
He has done all he is paid for; and, should the author desire any changes
made in his matter, of course he must pay for them.
Sentiments in print look marvellously different from the same ideas
in manuscript; and we are not surprised that writers should wish to
polish a little; nor do we object to their natural desire of amending
or beautifying their mental products. But let them not forget that
pay-time will come,—when the item for alterations will loom out with
a startling distinctness in the bill. They found it easy in the proof
to erase a word or two here and insert a word or two there; without
dreaming, perhaps, that in consequence of these little erasures and
insertions the compositor would be compelled to alter and reconstruct
much of his work. We know of a volume on which the alterations alone have
consumed time equal to one man’s work for nearly two and a half years.
How unreasonable—nay, how transparently unjust—the expectation that the
printer should give gratuitously the time and trouble requisite for the
radical changes in the type which an author’s whim or taste may demand!
Stower says, “It may not be improper, in this place, just to take notice
of the great danger to the correctness of a work which arises from the
practice, too common with some authors, of keeping their proof-sheets
too long in their hands before they are returned to the printer. As the
pages in the metal get dry, the adhesion of the types to each other is
weakened, and the swell or extension of the quoins and furniture, which
the moisture had occasioned, is removed; so that there is great danger of
letters falling out when a form is long kept from the press. Nor is the
danger which is hereby occasioned to correctness the only inconvenience:
the impatience of authors to see their works in a fit state for
publication is almost proverbial. The pleasure arising from beholding, as
it were, the ‘form and texture’ of one’s thoughts, is a sensation much
easier felt than described. That authors, therefore, may partake of this
pleasure in a speedy and regular succession, they should make a point of
forwarding their proof-sheets to the printer as quick as possible, not
only that they may the sooner be got ready for the press, but that the
work may proceed in a regular manner, without being interrupted by the
forwarding of other works in lieu of that the proof-sheets of which are
detained beyond the proper time in the hands of the author.
“Authors are very apt to make alterations, and to correct and amend the
style or arguments of their works, when they first see them in print.
This is certainly the worst time for this labour, as it is necessarily
attended with an expense which, in large works, will imperceptibly swell
to a serious sum; when, however, this method of alteration is adopted by
an author, the reader must always be careful to read the whole sheet over
once more with very great attention before it is finally put to press.
“A proof-sheet, having duly undergone this routine of purgation, may
be supposed to be as free from errata as the nature of the thing will
admit, and the word ‘Press’ may be written at the top of the first page
of it. This is an important word to every reader: if he have suffered his
attention to be drawn aside from the nature of his proper business, and
errors should be discovered when it is too late to have them corrected,
this word ‘Press’ is as the signature of the death-warrant of his
reputation. A reader, therefore, should be a man of one business,—always
upon the alert,—all eye,—all attention. Possessing a becoming reliance on
his own powers, he should never be too confident of success. Imperfection
clings to him on every side. Errors and mistakes assail him from every
quarter. His business is of a nature that may render him obnoxious to
blame, but can hardly be said to bring him in any very large stock of
praise. If errors escape him, he is justly to be censured; for perfection
is his duty. If his labours are wholly free from mistake,—which is, alas!
a very rare case,—he has done no more than he ought, and, consequently,
can merit only a comparative degree of commendation, in that he had the
good fortune to be more successful in his labours after perfection than
some of his brethren in the same employment.”
The form being finally laid on the press, and a revise pulled by the
pressman, he sends it to the overseer, who carefully examines whether
all the marks have been attended to, and looks along the sides and
heads of the respective pages, to observe whether any letter has fallen
out, or there is any crookedness in the locking up of the form, any
battered letters, or any _bite_ from the frisket. Should the revise prove
faultless, he returns it to the pressman, with the word “Revise” written
on the margin; if otherwise, to the compositor to whom the form belongs,
for immediate correction.