Unwise neglect of signatures
271
has to be printed upon a paper of peculiar quality, Publishers and bookbinders prefer size, or shape. sheets of eight or sixteen pages, for they permit neater folding and sewing. Too many pages in a section of very thick paper create wrinkles in the
central folds, and too few pages in a section of thin paper make the back bunchy with thread. Every book of more than one sheet has a signature-mark in the foot-line of each completed section. If the section has an inset, cut off and separately folded and inserted, this cut-off inset should take the same figure as its outset, with the addition of
a star, thus: outset 2, inset 2*. When the book makes two or more volumes, the number of the volume must be specified in the signature-line, as in Vol. II, 2. The numerals defining the volume
should be in capitals, 1 so that they may not be confounded with the arabic figures of the signature. When page figures and signatures cannot be used, and when the text lines are of uneven length, as in poetry, and blanks are of uneven height, as in forms of prefatory matter, all the customary guides for
exact folding have been removed. i One of the new fashions in binder. It the neglect of a signature-mark in the foot-line, Some authors order it in a separate line about an inch below the regulation foot-line others omit it entirely, but this omission
book-making
is
;
makes added expense and gives all the workcompositor to book-
needless trouble to
men ftom
is admitted that the appearance of the page is not improved by the signature in the foot-line, but its entire omission is dangerous, especially so when paging figures also have been omitted. More than ordinary care will have to be given to the gathering of the signatures to prevent disorderly arrangement.