This was particularly prevalent in book and newspaper work where rotary presses required type forms to wrap an impression cylinder rather than set in the bed of a press. In order to extend the working life of type, and to account for the finite sorts in a case of type, copies of forms were cast when anticipating subsequent printings of a text, freeing the costly type for other work. Set width, like body size, is measured in points. Not shown, and more the concern of the casterman, is the “set”, or width of each sort. Wooden printing sorts were used for centuries in combination with metal type. The diagram at right illustrates a cast metal sort: a face, b body or shank, c point size, 1 shoulder, 2 nick, 3 groove, 4 foot. Errors in sorting would produce later misprints. Ī forgotten but important part of the process took place after the printing: the expensive sorts had to be sorted, so they would be ready for reuse.

It might just as easily have been 'mind your b's and d's'. This is reputed to be the origin of the expression 'mind your p's and q's'. As seen in the photo of the composing stick, a lower case 'q' looks like a 'd', a lower case 'b' looks like a 'p', a lower case 'p' looks like a 'b' and a lower case 'd' looks like a 'q'. Metal type read backwards, from right to left, and a key skill of the compositor was their ability to read this backwards text.ĭuring typesetting, individual sorts are picked from a type case with the right hand, and set into a composing stick held in the left hand from left to right, and as viewed by the setter upside down. The form was placed in a press and inked, and then printed (an impression made) on paper. If done correctly, all letters were of the same height, and a flat surface of type was created. The compositor assembled these sorts into words, then lines, then pages of text, which were then bound tightly together by a frame, making up a form or page. A tray with many dividers, called a case, contained cast metal sorts, each with a single letter or symbol, but backwards (so they would print correctly).

During much of the letterpress era, movable type was composed by hand for each page by workers called compositors.

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