Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/27

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The Different Methods of Printing.

 

Impression is used in many Arts…Printing implies the use of Ink and Paper…Four Methods of Printing…Steel-plate or Copper-plate, the artistic method…Lithography, the scientific method. Typography, the useful method…Xylography, the primitive method…Illustrations of Copper-plate and Lithographic Printing Surfaces…Process of Copper-plate Printing…Its Merits and its Defects…Process of Lithographic Printing…Its Advantages and Limitations…Theory of Typography, with Illustrations of the Face and Body of Types…Superiority of Movable Types over Engraved Letters…Stereotype…Superiority of the Typographic Method in its Presses and its Process of Inking…Xylography…Period when each Method was Introduced…A Meaning in their almost Simultaneous Introduction.

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Printing, the act, art, or practice of impressing letters, characters, or figures on paper, cloth, or other material; the business of a printer; typography.

Typography the art of printing, or the operation of impressing letters and words on forms of types.

Webster.

Printing, the business of a printer; the art or process of impressing letters or words; typography; the process of staining linen with figures.

Typography, the art of printing.

Worcester.

Print, to press, mark, stamp or infix letters, characters, forms, or figures.

Richardson.

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THESE definitions of printing are based on its derivation from the Latin, premo, to press, and on the supposition that its most characteristic feature is impression. From a technical point of view, the definitions are incomplete; for printing and typography are made synonymous, while many leading, but totally different, methods of impressing letters, characters and figures, are not even noticed. Impression is employed in the manufacture of calico, paper-hangings, oil-cloth, figured crockery, and in many other arts which have no connection with each other. Under right conditions, the