By George L. Miller.
When part of a book has been set up in type, in what is called "galley
form," an impression is taken, technically known as "first proof," and
this proof is handed to the proof-reader. This long-suffering
individual lives in a chronic state of warfare with the compositors on
the one hand and the author on the other. His first duty is to see
that the proof agrees with the author's manuscript, that nothing has
been omitted, and nothing inserted that is not in the copy. He must
see, further, that the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar,
and so forth, are correct, and the book set according to the "style"
ordered. He first of all, therefore, compares the proof with the
manuscript, or an assistant reads the manuscript aloud, the
proof-reader listening intently for any variation from the proof
before him and marking any errors he may find.
Now this seems easy enough, and if every author prepared his copy
carefully, so that there could be no possible mistake as to his
meaning, nothing would be easier; but in practice a number of
questions arise which would never be thought of by an outsider. On a
new work being put in hand, some half-dozen compositors are given a
few sheets of copy apiece, and if the proof-reader happens to be
readily accessible he is bombarded within the first half-hour or so
with, "How am I to spell centre?" "Has travelling one or two l's?"
"Shall I capitalize the word State?" "Shall I spell out two hundred?"
"Do you want ships' names in Italic?" and so on and so on. As to
punctuation, every compositor thinks he knows better than proof-reader
and author combined and follows his own sweet will. As every error on
the first proof must be corrected by the compositor at his own
expense, here arises the cause of war mentioned in our opening
paragraph.
Much has been written about printers' errors and the mistakes of "the
intelligent compositor." Aside from those caused by illegible
manuscript, mistakes arise from faulty "distribution," that is to say,
the type has been thrown into the wrong boxes. Thus we get _c_ for
_e_, _h_ for _n_, _y_ for _p_, etc., these boxes being contiguous and
the letters of the same thickness; if, for instance, the compositor
picked up _u_ instead of _t_ the difference in thickness would at once
be noticed by him and the mistake rectified. Then letters are
sometimes set upside down and we find letters of a different "face"
which have got into the case by mistake. In type set on machine,
errors arise from striking adjacent keys, or some matrix will stick
in the channel and make its appearance later, sometimes even in the
next line. But the chief source of error is illegible or carelessly
prepared manuscript, and to the author's slips of the pen must be
added in these days the slips of the typewriter.
It is quite possible for a man to be an expert in astronomy, medicine,
or natural history and yet have hazy ideas on spelling and
punctuation. "When in doubt use a dash" is an old standing joke, but
some authors use dashes all the time, making them do duty for commas,
semicolons, and periods. They will write indifferently 4 or four and
frequently their capital _a_'s _c_'s, _m_'s, and _n_'s cannot be
distinguished from the small letters. They will commence a story
telling that the "Captain" did so and so, and lo, on the next page the
"captain" sinks into a common noun; and so with "Father," "mother,"
"Aunt," "uncle," etc. Just see what the story would look like if set
according to copy!
Now the proof-reader is expected to rectify all this, thereby drawing
on his head the wrath of the compositor, who says "he followed the
copy," and occasionally incurring the wrath of the author as well for
departing therefrom. Sometimes instructions are given that the
author's spelling, punctuation, etc., are to be carefully followed,
when of course no question can arise; and the proof-reader will query
on the proof submitted to the author anything which does not seem to
him to be correct.
The great newspapers and magazines have what they call a "style sheet"
for the guidance of their compositors and proof-readers and insist on
its being faithfully followed. Only by this means could uniformity in
the appearance of the paper be secured. In this style sheet careful
and minute directions are given for the use of capital letters, the
use of Italic, spelling out of numbers, compound words, etc. In the
Government printing-office in Washington they have a style book of
some two hundred pages. Some book printing-offices have what they call
"the style of the office," which will be followed if no instructions
are received from the author to the contrary, while some publishing
houses with connections in England insist on English spelling being
followed in all their books, as books with American spelling will not
sell over there.