Tour Stop 3: The Type Room
Exemplary of CHP’s extraordinary blend of old and new, the Type Room contains over a hundred years of printing technology. Drawers contain lead type that we still, on special occasions, use for letterpressing. So, if you ever need a twelve-point italic Bembo M, you’ll know where to look. Below the window, you’ll find an old hand-cranked VanderCook press used for proof copies and letterpressing. (bpNichol printed several of his own books on this press, including the indelible Birth of O and the evanescent little pome for yur fingertips.)
These days, however, we tend to use more modern bookmaking methods. In brief: a book is laid out in Quark Xpress or InDesign and then ‘impositioned’ (the pages are properly laid out to fit on the large sheets of paper the book will be printed on). These files are then sent to a computer (a Raster Image Processor) which translates this data into a laser beam that ‘draws’ text and images, as a series of dots, on to a film negative. The laser draws these dots at a resolution of 2540 lines/inch (the naked eye can see approximately 600 lines). This exposed film is then processed in a normal photographic manner (developed, fixed, etc.) and used to make plates for printing.
Diligently overseeing this station is the doyen of the entire printing operation: our indispensable Production Manager and printer extraordinaire John DeJesus, the backbone of production at CHP since 1983.
