Chase: The metal frame into which the type form was locked.
Flatbed press: A cylinder press in which the form was locked flat onto a “bed” that passes beneath the ink rollers and pressure cylinder. Imagine what that would do to a full-grown cat.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Halftone: A photographic image engraved into a zinc plate. Mounted upon wooden blocks, these became part of the type forms and a large headache for anyone who tried to run them on the smaller presses, which did not provide the steady even flow of ink necessary to print large surfaces properly. No boss, it should be pointed out, ever clearly understood this, not even after he took matters into his own hands and tried to run the job himself.
Hellbox: A sturdy little cart into which dead type forms were dumped for remelting. A printer’s devil and the hellbox belonged together.
Mat: Molds into which metal was cast. There were Linotype mats, Ludlow mats, and stereotype mats.
Points: Type is measured in points. You are reading 9.5-point Plantin type. Printers use measurements such as points, picas (12 points make a pica), and ems. A printer’s ruler, called a line gauge, reflects this by showing inches on one side, picas and points on the other.
Register: In all but the crudest work, each copy was supposed to print in exactly the same place on the sheet as the one before it. A pressman would take a sheet from the top of the pile, pull another further along, and compare them by placing one upon the other and holding them up to the light. Any variation is bad presswork and, in process color work, fatal.
