We have often come across operators who have no really definite plan on which they cut up their paper for a day's work, and they have little idea of the most economical place of dividing the sheets. The following remarks by Mr. Hearn, which appeared in the Photographic News, 1874, will be useful to the printer, and, being so extremely well described, we take the liberty of reproducing them.

"In cutting up the paper for printing, due regard should be given to the materials employed. In the first place, the fingers should be free from anything that will stain or soil the paper, and they should never touch the silvered side, but always the back. The hands should be perfectly dry, free even from any perspiration, for if this is not strictly regarded in the handling of the paper, 'finger stains' will appear on those parts of the paper with which the fingers come in contact. To guard against this, a rough towel should be suspended in a convenient place, and the hands wiped upon it as often as may be found necessary—say once in every five or ten minutes. An ivory newspaper cutter, about eight inches long and an inch wide, together with a suitable sized pair of shears, will be all of the instruments necessary. "In cutting the paper for very large prints, such as 13 by 16, 14 by 18, 16 by 20, &c., the beginner had best (to obtain the right size) lay over the sensitive paper the proper sized mat that is to be placed over the print when finished, and then cut accordingly. Considerable paper can be saved in this way, and printed in card size.

"There should always be an assortment of different sized mats in the printing room; one of each size will do, which should be kept expressly for this purpose.

"In cutting the paper for an 11 by 14 print, the length of the sheet is generally placed before the printer, and the paper bent over to the further edge of the sheet, and then creased, and thus cut into two equal pieces, one of which can be used for the contemplated print. I would recommend that instead of taking exactly one half of the sheet of paper, as described above, to take about an inch more than the half, so as to allow for any slight tear that may happen along the edges of the paper during the washing, toning, &c., and also so as to be sure of having the paper wide enough for the different sized mats.

"I have seen some nice prints printed upon the exact half of a sheet of paper, which, when taken from the final washing (and the edges trimmed, being slightly torn), were then too narrow to be covered with the proper sized mats, and had to be rejected; whereas, if in cutting this paper allowance had been made for this final trimming, the prints would have been saved. The rest of the sheet can be cut very well into sixteen or eighteen carte pieces.

"In cutting cabinets out of a sheet, fifteen is all that can very well be obtained, and to get that number lay the sheet on a wide table, or printing bench (with the length of it running from right to left), and divide it into three equal parts. By laying the cabinet glass on these strips of paper, and cutting the paper a little wider than the glass, five cabinets can be obtained from each strip, and fifteen out of the whole. These pieces will be plenty large enough, both in length and width; besides, this is a very convenient and economical way to cut the paper without waste.

"By a glance at the cut (fig. 12) it will be seen that the size of the pieces will be 4²/₅ by 6 inches, and consequently there will be more room for the width than there will be for the length. The edges of the width side of the paper can be trimmed a little, as there is usually some little tear, or some other defect, that can thus advantageously be got rid of. Often, when there are only a few cabinets to be printed, I take a quarter-sheet, and bend over the length of it to about three-quarters of an inch of the opposite side, crease it, and then cut with the paper-knife. You thus obtain a large and small piece; the smaller one of these can be cut into four cards, and the larger one can be cut in two, and thus obtain two generous size cabinets; or the printer can use the larger of the two pieces for printing the 4 by 4 size. This is the way I obtain my 4 by 4 pieces when I wish them.

"The beginner must remember that in bending over the length of a sheet of paper 18 by 22 inches in size, the divided paper will be 11 by 18 inches in size, which is termed, in the language of the printing room, half-sheet.

"To obtain the quarter-sheet, the length of the half-sheet is cut equally in two pieces, and then the size will be 9 by 11 inches.

"A glance at fig. 13 will show that either a generous size 4 by 4, or a couple of nice cabinet pieces, together with four cartes, can be easily obtained from a quarter-sheet. "To obtain thirty-two cartes, quarter the sheet, and divide each quarter into eight equal pieces.

"To obtain thirty-six pieces out of a sheet, it is necessary, for convenience, to first quarter it, and then divide it into three equal strips (fig. 14) taken from the length of the paper. The pieces, as thus cut, will measure 3²/₃ by 9 inches, which will answer admirably for the stereoscopic size. Each one of these strips of paper can be cut into three good sized cartes, making nine out of a quarter, and thirty-six out of a whole sheet.

"Forty-two cartes can be obtained very neatly by laying the sheet before you (fig. 4), and dividing the length into seven equal parts; when done, each strip should measure 3¹/₇ by 18 inches in size. The whole number of pieces will be forty-two. It will be seen that the size of the carte pieces (3 by 3¹/₇ inches) only allows very little room for waste paper in trimming after printing, and thus it will be found necessary to exercise some care in placing these pieces on the negative for printing.

"To obtain the forty-two carte pieces from the sheet without waste, great care is required in sensitizing the paper to prevent tearing, and also to prevent silver from getting on the back of it; in cutting it either the shears or the paper-knife should be used with care. Do not tear the paper with the hands, as is very often done, especially when the printer is in a hurry.

"In making out the above, I have considered the sheet of paper to be 18 by 22 inches in size, but it is seldom that the sheet measures exactly this, for the length often measures from one quarter to one inch more, but never less, while the width is invariably the same. When this is the case, a little better margin is allowed in cutting the sheet up, which is a good thing, especially when a large number of small pieces are to be obtained from the sheet. Forty-two pieces is all that should be obtained from a sheet of paper which measures 18 by 22 (or 18 by 22¹/₂, &c.) inches, because the pieces of paper are now as small as they should be with safe results to the prints, on account of bad edges, &c., which it is often necessary to trim after printing. There is a way to obtain forty-eight, and even fifty-two pieces of paper from the sheet, but I would not advise any of my readers to try to obtain that quantity, as there are many disadvantages connected with it that more than neutralize the benefits. The paper is sometimes cut up to the exact carte size, and then printed up as it is, thus saving the trimming of the prints after printing. This is, perhaps (?), a good way, but for the beginner it is very risky, because the paper will have to be placed exactly on the negative, or else the print will be worthless. Even to the experienced printer this is very difficult, because the greatest care and skill are required to do it as it should be done; then the inexperienced printer could not hope to do it successfully."