Letterpress/Print Lingo
Hi to everyone, it’s my first post here.
Great collection of knowledge here I can see myself using it a lot of the coming years.
I’m working on a project at the moment for university, it refers to the em and the en as mutton and nut respectively. The goal is to link food/wine with the language of printing and type.
So far I have been able to get my hands on a few books but the library does not excel with traditional type/print, one is John Ryder’s “Printing for pleasure” which has been a great read and some good terminology such as the “shank” & “shoulder”.
I thought it best to ask here to see if I have missed a whole bank of knowledge and printers language
Thanks,
Mat.
(Third year student, studying graphic design at Staffordshire University)
Are pigs and turtles considered food?
A goat’s foot might probably work.
Nothing like a little pi to go with your turtle. After dinner you could listen to the Space Band.
Ah yes, the pi!
As the poet said it:
Although his “frame” be no great “bulk,”
His meat he always takes,
But is not very found of “pie,”
Though lots of it he makes.
Careful with the wine or you will get “Stoned”.
Oh yes, don’t you cook in a “galley”? And if you are a gourmand, do you eat “Slugs”?
Gonna be sick.
Some culinary printing terms – abbreviated from “Printing Hints and Glossary” by G R Hutcheson, 1938.
Basil – Sheepskin for binding cheap account books.
Batter – Any injury to the printing face of type or block.
Biscuit – Thin sulphite paper made originally for packing biscuits.
Cockling – A crinkling of the surface of a sheet of paper.
Cream – A term applied loosely to all white and creamy writing paper.
Crepe – Crinkled tissue.
Eggshell – A paper finish.
Fat – A size of type, wider than Fair.
Feed – To place paper sheet by sheet on the press.
Feet – The base or bottom of type.
Galley – A shallow tray for holding or carrying type.
Grocery cap – A common wood-pulp paper, used for wrapping parcels.
Herring-boning – A crinkling along a fold in paper.
Joint – In high-grade account book binding a joint is a specially-prepared end-paper, having a leather or linen strip glued down.
Mould – The wire-gauze-bottomed, wooden-framed tray used in making paper by hand.
Mutton Quad – A cant name for an Em Quad.
Nut Quad – A cant name for an En Quad.
Onion Skin – Highly-glazed semi-transparent paper.
Pie – A confused mass of type, as would result if the contents of a case of type were spilt on the floor.
Plate – A type of paper. Also a metal or plastic sheet from which printing is done.
Punch – To make holes or slots in paper.
Rice Paper – Made from the pith of certain plants.
Rise – Quads or furniture working up so that they are inked and appear in print.
Shank – The part of type between the face and the foot.
Slug – A piece of type metal larger than a lead, used for spacing out lines and paragraphs.
Squash – The pressure employed in letterpress printing.
Stock – Paper or like material usable by printers.
Sugar – A wrapping paper used for packing sugar.
Tail – The foot of a sheet or page.
Tea – Various kinds of paper, often coated on one surface with tinfoil, used for packing tea.
Turn-over – The portion of a heading of sentence carried from one line to the next.
Wash-up – The process of cleaning ink off a press.
Guys this is fantastic!
Great commentary also, thanks.
# circut5:
That’s beyond the realm of what I wanted and more, thanks for the book heads up too, thank you so much. I initially thought it would be rather easy to get hold of this language but as always it’s the opposite! Just read through “Printing for pleasure” that was also a good help in understanding the basis of the terminology, At the moment on the hunt for “General Printing”.
Thanks so much again, hope to show you some letterpress wine labels later on in the month If all goes well at my university setting up it’s press.
Thanks,
Mat.
When you go to one, make sure you ask around for the best recipe to prepare Wayzgoose!
- Pierre Ranger
Atelier Locomotive