The Language Of Printing

To celebrate Lightboxes and Lettering at Nunnery Gallery, The Gentle Author has selected favourite entries from John Southward’s Dictionary of Typography 1875. Some are quite amusing:

• BASTARD TITLE – The short or condensed title preceding full title of the work.
• BOTTLE-ARSED – Type that is wider at the bottom than the top.
• FLOOR PIE – Type that has been dropped upon the floor during the operations of composition or distribution.
• JERRY – A peculiar noise rendered by Compositors and Pressmen when one of their companions renders themselves ridiculous in any way.RAT-HOUSE – A printing office where the rules of the printers’ trade unions are not conformed to.
• STIGMATYPY – Printing with points, the arrangement of points of various thicknesses to create a picture.

More here: Spitalfields Life