Tech Biz Writing

Proofreading is done by the author (and others) on special sheets provided by the printer. “Proofs” are example pages taken from the printing medium, as set or photographed, and fall generally into three kinds:

* Galley proofs
* Page proofs
* Machine proofs

The first two categories of proof are representative of the textual arrangement of the type, but not of the final print finish. The machine proof, on the other hand, approximates the condition of the printed book in areas of quality.

Galleys are taken at an early point in the typesetting procedure, and do not indicate the eventual configuration of the pages in the book. Traditionally, the compositor would set the type in a clamped frame called a galley. The printed sheets derived from this would be sent to the writer for proofreading; the principal aim being to reduce the number of changes needed later on in the process when amendments are much more costly.

The page proofs, indicating actual book pages, are taken when the lengths of run-on text are composed into the correct page size. Pagination and other page references can now be incorporated into the text, and the index put into its final shape. Modern books, printed by lithographic techniques, are often proofread only at this stage. For a more comprehensive consideration of proofreading, plus tables of proofing symbols, see the later discussion.

To gain an impression of the finished print quality, a machine proof must be requested from the printer. The reason for this is that page proofs are usually taken on a small printing press specially set aside for the purpose. By its nature it lacks the sophisticated facilities of the more elaborate production machines, and doesn’t therefore produce anything like the eventual print finish that may be expected. A machine proof is one that is taken from the actual production press and, while it gives a high quality sample, it’s an expensive operation, since the machine is temporarily taken out of its high productivity role.

On the question of the costs involved at the proofing stage, authors should know that there is a limit to the number and extent of changes they can make in this area. Generally, printers acknowledge two types of correction:

* Compositor’s errors
* Author’s corrections

The first are redressed free of charge to the author and his contractor. Author’s correction, however, are usually limited to a figure around 10% of the cost of typesetting. Printers expect, and with some justification, that most problems of grammar, spelling or content will have been filtered out by this stage.

A margin is allowed of course, but it should be borne in mind that 10% of costs does not mean 10% of the text can be amended. The actual figure is disproportionately smaller that this, and any over-run is charged to the writer’s or publisher’s account. Indeed. the margin is so tight that there is, for practical purposes, scarcely any room for rewriting the text at this point. An inexperienced writer would do well to cultivate a measure of self-discipline in these matters.

Next: 35. Printing.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 5:52 pm and is filed under Technical Writing, Publishing, TechBiz Writing, Documentation, Design, Editing, Proofreading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.