
Having completed the proper number of characters to fill the length of the line with a whole word or at the correct division in a word, he adds as necessary to the nonprinting pieces already in place to mark the spaces between the words until the exact justification is obtained. He can tell by touching which way up they should go, thanks to a nick indicating the top or bottom of the body (the bottom in English-speaking countries and Germany elsewhere, the top), and he places them side by side in the composing stick.

Holding the composing stick in one hand, he uses the other to select the individual type characters from the case. Against the inside edge of the stick he places a lead, a strip of nonprinting lead alloy that later enables him, using a second lead, to grip the finished line in order to remove it from the composing stick. He locks the knee of the composing stick at the justification that is, at the length of the line to be composed. His principal tools are the composing stick, a metal angle iron with one fixed end and a “knee” with a screw or lever for locking the line gauge, a ruler graduated in units of typographic measurement and tweezers. The typographer works standing in front of the case. The font, which constitutes a complete set of characters of a given typeface, with duplicate numbers of each letter in proportion to the frequency with which each is used, is stored in the compartments of a case capital letters, proportionately less frequently called for, are in the upper compartments, whence their name, uppercase, and the small letters in the lower compartments, which are more easily accessible and whence their name, lowercase. In the first decades of the 20th century all type was set and composed into columns and pages by hand or by mechanical means. Modern printing techniques Composition and typesetting Mechanical composition and typesetting

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#Modern letterpress machine how to
