When it comes to printing history, Paul Quyle is a living history.  Today, with the help of Unisource World Wide, Paul shows us the in and outs of make ready, 1800 style.

Paul Quyle:  The frame itself has under it, the make ready.  This is how the pressure is applied because type, even though we think it is uniform is never perfectly uniform.  Now, underneath this, we have a sheet of make ready in the same position that we have to print on so that we have here several different layers.  First of all, we’ve had to remove in this circle, the type which is here and cut through this sheet of paper. 

We have added paper here of tissue because this part was too white and this part was too dark.  The 1983 here, is too dark, so it had to be relieved by cutting out.  Here we had the beginning of this line was a little bit light, so it has been had to have a piece of make ready glued on here to increase the height.  This whole center section normally in a press will be light, we have added make ready to this point. 

Now this make ready sheet is mounted between the timpen and you have your make ready.  There is a sheet of pressboard and two sheets of printing paper in addition to the pressboard.