Composing rule | Definition and Translations

December 28, 2017

The "Setzlinie" is never used to set the width of the stick. In order to set the width of the stick, the typesetter places the amount of 'Quadraten' that are needed to attain the width and adds a very thin piece of paper between them, to obtain a line that is slightly wider and that can be squeezed. Most typesetters had a set of quads for this purpose in a drawer. The reason: setting or composing rules are always slightly shorter or have slightly rounded corners in order to glide them in and out of the stick. Some of them have got one, others two lips. To set for instance a 20-cicero width, one takes 5 quads of 4 cicero long.

December 28, 2017

Yes, it is certainly not common anymore, but I still left it in as one of the possible uses, since the glossary isn’t time-specific. And never say never. ;-)

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Composing Rules

Before 1883, when United States typefounders agreed on the standard size for the pica, it was every founder for himself, and no composing stick could have an engraved pica scale on its bed. It was not possible to set the knee of a to a certain measure without the use of a set of composing rules. These were strips of steel made to different lengths, which could be put into a composing stick to set the measure.

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Composing rule | Definition and Translations

Related Term(s): Composing stick

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