ART OF PRINTING

Hokitika Guardian, 17 May 1930, Page 8

ART OF PRINTING

PROGRESS REVIEWED

A GREAT NEWSPAPER.

In the complex state of society whfioh wje casually; refer to as modern civilisation, the printed word plays an all-important part. Without it wo would eventually revert to another dark age. So interwoven is the art of printing with the development of the human race that we take it more or less for granted, only realising' the magic of type when we are brought face to face with its technicalities. Just how important a part printing in general and newspapers in particular play in the world to-day is graphically revealed in “The Times Printing Number,” a reprint in book form of the special issue London “Times” published in October last. This book, technical as it must be in parts, cannot fail to interest anyone whose daily, life brings him into contact with the printed world. Except, therefore, for a handful of savages, every member of the Englishspeaking race will find in this book something that will interest him. It deals with great clearness with the intimate details of an art which not one of us can afford to* forget.

Its 320 pages of text, i.ts 32 pages in photogravure, and its 13 places in colour tell their own story and are none too many for the ground that has been covered, for printing is dealt with in''all its aspects. The book opens with a brief but very readable history of the art of priming since the early days of Gutenberg, and brings us up to modern times with machines capable of spitting out 50,000 copies an hour of elaborate newspapers, per unit, v.ith several units combined in a single machine. Typography, book-making, illustrations in colour, newspaper details, and the mechanical *side of printing all receive their fair share of space. Each article is written by an expert. One little detail concerning which most of us know little is the mystery of the size of books; crown tolio, quarto, and 16ino>. This receives a brief article of its own, and the mystery is shown to be no mystery at all. In the section dealing with illustrations in colour some exquisite reproductions are given of striking travel posters, which in their class are obvious works of art. Perhaps the best of these is a colour photograph of the new Lord Mayor of London and his Aldermen, taken by a staff photographer of the “Times.” A short description, all too short, is given of the organisation of the I “Times” newspaper. The magnitude i of the task is only half'revealed when j it is realised that altogether the staff , numbers over 1500 persons. The lit- j entry department employs 300, of j these, and the mechanical staff number something like 800 people. Moreover, night and day no fewer than fifty readers are busy correcting proofs. The article on general printing will interest a Large number of people, while the description of how paper pulp is made and subsequently turned into paper is full of information easily digested by even non-techinoul* readers who have never been within a hundred miles of a paper mill. Even parents contemplating sending their sons ( into the printing trade might study with advantage the addenda regarding technical training for would-be printers. This book, which might indeed be taken as a standard for excellence in printing, has an excellent index at the end. As a book of referece it' is unique; as a book of information in which to dip casually from time to time it is full of facts that cannot fail to »n----lighten and entertain.