Typesetting

Part of Printing

How to arrange movable type into words, lines, and pages ready for printing.

Why This Matters

Typesetting is the skill that bridges the gap between manuscript and printed page. A compositor who sets type accurately and efficiently is the essential human link in the printing chain. Every book produced by the press passes through the compositor’s hands — their skill or lack of it directly determines the quality, speed, and legibility of everything the community publishes.

Typesetting by hand is slower than writing but produces a result that can be reproduced hundreds or thousands of times. In a rebuilding context, typesetting is the multiplier that turns one person’s knowledge into hundreds of copies available to the whole community. Learning to typeset — even slowly at first — unlocks the community’s ability to preserve and distribute technical knowledge at scale.

The skill is entirely learnable. Historical compositors apprenticed for several years, but a competent beginner can produce usable work within a few weeks of practice, and adequate professional-quality work within a few months.

The Type Case

Type is stored in a shallow wooden tray divided into compartments, called a type case. Each compartment holds a particular character — lowercase letters, uppercase letters, figures, punctuation, and spacing material.

Case Layout

The traditional “California job case” layout (used in English-language printing from the 19th century onward) places the most frequently used characters closest to the compositor and most conveniently positioned. Earlier European presses used separate upper and lower cases — uppercase letters stored in the higher (upper) case, lowercase in the lower.

The terminology “uppercase” and “lowercase” comes directly from this physical arrangement.

Key case positions to memorize:

• Lowercase ‘e’ is in the largest compartment (most needed)
• Lowercase letters occupy the lower-left section
• Uppercase letters occupy the upper-right section
• Figures, punctuation, and spaces fill remaining positions

Learning the case layout is a prerequisite to typesetting. A compositor who has to search for each character is too slow to be productive. The case layout must become automatic — the hand moves to the correct compartment without the eye leaving the manuscript. This memorization takes several weeks of consistent practice.

The Composing Stick

The composing stick is a small hand tool — a flat-bottomed metal (or wooden) channel with a movable end-stop — that holds type as it is assembled into lines. The compositor holds the stick in the left hand and picks up type with the right, dropping characters into the stick one by one.

Setting the measure: The stick is adjusted to the line length (the “measure”) before setting begins. The line length determines the width of the printed column. Adjust the end-stop to the correct measure and secure it firmly.

Standard measures: Text type is typically set to a line length of 25–30 pica (approximately 105–125mm) for comfortable single-column reading. Shorter measures for multiple columns, longer for wide-format single-column layouts.

The Composing Motion

The compositor sets type with a consistent rhythmic motion:

1. Read a word or phrase from the manuscript.
2. Reach into the correct case compartment with the right hand.
3. Pick up the type by feel — with the nick (the groove on the type body) facing consistently toward the thumb.
4. Drop the type into the composing stick with the nick upward (confirming the type is right-side-up and not inverted or upside-down).
5. Read the next character.
6. Repeat.

Type in the stick is always placed in reading order, left to right, but because each piece of type is a reverse image of its letter, the type appears mirror-reversed when viewed from above. This seems confusing at first but becomes automatic: the compositor reads the manuscript, not the type in the stick.

After each word, a word space (a blank spacing sort) is dropped in. After a sentence-ending period, a larger space is traditional.

Justification

Justification is the adjustment of word spaces in each line so the line fills the measure exactly from left to right — producing the squared-off right edge characteristic of professional typesetting.

When a line is nearly full, the compositor estimates how much space remains and whether the next word will fit. If it fits, set it. If not, the line must be justified as-is.

Adding space: If the line is short, increase the word spaces. Replace each word space with a thicker space: em quad, en quad, or thick space instead of a normal word space. Distribute additional spacing evenly across all word spaces in the line — if one word space is obviously larger than the others, the line looks poorly set.

Removing space: If the line is too long (the final word does not fit), remove space by thinning word spaces. Replace thicker spaces with thinner ones, or break the word with a hyphen at a syllable boundary and move the remainder to the next line.

The goal: Each line in the justified column should have approximately equal word spacing. Lines with very wide or very narrow word spacing indicate poor justification. Good justification produces lines where word spacing is imperceptible to the reader — they see words, not gaps.

Ragged-right setting: An alternative to justification is to set all word spaces to a fixed size and allow the right margin to be uneven. This is faster (no justification calculation required) and produces results that are perfectly acceptable for most text. Many compositors prefer it for speed.

Spacing Material

Beyond word spaces, compositors use a range of blank spacing material to control the layout:

Material	Size	Use
Thin space	1/5 em	Between quotation marks and first word; after punctuation
Mid space	1/4 em	Normal word space in some traditions
Thick space	1/3 em	After punctuation, for wider word spacing
En space	1/2 em	Paragraphing indents, wider spacing
Em quad	1 em	Paragraph indents, centered lines
2-em quad	2 em	Large blanks
Leading (strips)	1–6 points	Space between lines (interlinear spacing)
Furniture	Many sizes	Space between columns, margins

All spacing material is cast to the same body height as type but with a face that is below printing level (non-printing). It supports the type and fills gaps but leaves no impression.

Proofing and Correction

After setting several lines or a complete galley, pull a rough proof:

1. Carefully slide the set type from the composing stick to a galley tray using a piece of card.
2. Ink the type with a small roller or dabber.
3. Press a piece of paper over the type by hand or with a piece of flat board.
4. Peel off the paper: a rough but readable proof.
5. Read the proof against the manuscript character by character.
6. Mark any errors.

Making Corrections

Corrections are made by removing individual type pieces and replacing them. Use a pointed brass bodkin or a needle to lift out the incorrect piece, replace it with the correct one, and adjust spacing if needed.

Corrections after type is made up into pages are more disruptive — pulling out one line may redistribute space across the entire page. Thorough galley proofing before make-up is essential.

Page Make-Up

After proofing and correcting a full galley of type, the compositor makes up individual pages:

1. Measure the page depth in lines.
2. Transfer the correct number of lines from the galley onto a flat stone or imposing surface.
3. Add the page number (folio) at the head or foot.
4. Add a running header if the design calls for one.
5. Verify the page depth (in lines of type plus leading).
6. Build up each page into the imposition pattern.

Pages for a complete form are then surrounded by furniture (spacing blocks of wood or metal), locked into a chase, and tested (see Print Process).

Efficiency Benchmarks

A skilled 19th-century compositor set approximately 1,000–1,200 ems per hour (one em equals the type body size squared; for 12pt type, one em = 144 sq pt of text). In practical terms, this is approximately 1,000–1,500 characters per hour including justification and the handling overhead.

A new compositor should expect 300–500 characters per hour at first. With consistent practice, 700–900 is achievable within a few months, and 1,000+ within a year. Speed is not the primary goal — accuracy is. Every typesetting error must be caught and corrected before printing, or it will be reproduced in every copy.