THE best and most useful printing is that which has been done by typography; and the best typography has been, and still is, that done by type, hand-set and prepared for the press by well-trained compositors. Good typesetting must be the product of an educated, intelligent mind as well as a skillful hand. It calls for close attention to practical details. It demands the exercise of literary and artistic sense which perceives the requirements of legibility and coherence in thought and the orderly arrangement of words and lines necessary to make the printed page of the greatest usefulness.

A composition of movable types has many advantages over other methods of preparing forms for printing. It offers the readiest means for securing a page of correct reading matter. The mechanical operations are relatively simple. No other process will produce so good a printing surface as quickly or as inexpensively as the typographic method. Serious faults of the original copy, in spelling, use of points, words, phrases, in paragraphing, in spacing of lines, in arrangement of headings, and other errors can be readily corrected in type. The page can be made longer by leading, or shorter by taking out leads.

Any of these changes can be made with the utmost freedom, in a manner that is not practicable in any other branch of the graphic arts. The engraved plate, whether produced by mechanical or by chemical means, when once made, can be changed only in minor details. What is cut must stay; any considerable variation from the first impression can be made only by great skill and by slow processes.

Typography is peculiarly the vehicle for printing literature quickly and effectively. Considering the great influence it can wield, nothing could be simpler than the tools it employs. An intelligent boy of fifteen years, after a little practice, can set type and print it with a press, and the product will be as acceptable as that done by a workman of long experience.

Yet typesetting is not an occupation easily mastered. To find profit and satisfaction in the work an apprentice must acquire a broad knowledge of language and literature and develop an interest in subjects relating to art and design. Although the mechanics of his work are given the chief consideration in the following pages, he should remember that his principal working material is Language and his real tools are alphabets and words.