Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/370

356 letters or syllables in a proper name. Looking too intently on one object does not always make that object more distinct; it may produce a temporary obscurity. Proof read and corrected too often by one reader only may have errors in the last proof that did not exist in the first.

A page of the ordinary book consists of at least one thousand and sometimes of five thousand distinct pieces of metal. The omission or the transposition of any one makes a fault which may be serious. Printing-house rules for meddling with type are not sufficiently stringent. No one should be allowed to touch type but the workman in whose charge it is placed. Picking up a type out of a case or the lifting of a line on galley or in a form by a curiosity-seeker should be regarded as a real offence. Gross errors can be easily made in the transposition of letters and lines by unthinking persons who mean to do no mischief.

Errors are frequently made by the compositor who corrects a proof: in trying to correct one error he may make another, or he may damage adjacent letters. Whenever he makes any change in type that has not been marked on the proof, he should take another proof and draw a large ring with lead-pencil around the place of change, and the proof-reader should re-read the entire paragraph by copy as if it were new composition. A similar marking should be made by the electrotyper or the pressman who has bruised letters in a plate, so that