Printing Solutions

Writers: Ames, Eimi
Date Posted: 16th August 2010

Characters: Almonteo, Anatara
Description: Anatara helps Almonteo solve a printing problem
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 10, day 11 of Turn 5

Almonteo

The Hallmaster frowned at the program as he turned it over in his hands.
It was exactly what he had asked for, but it just didn't look...
right. This was a big concert. White Water Hold had been the last
place he thought would allow female crafters, and yet they had agreed to
allow him to bring an all-female ensemble to the wedding of the Lord
Holder's eldest son. Everything had to be perfect, right down to the
program.

And it just wasn't. Sighing, he picked up the sheet and walked down
towards the printers room, considering what it might be as he walked
down the hall, his brows knit in thought.

Opening the door, he found only one journeywoman in the room at the
time. "Excuse me. Can I ask your help with something? Are you
busy?"

Anatara looked up when the door opened. She immediately stood from her
place at the sight of the Masterharper.

"Master, I always have time to help you. What can I do for you?" She
asked.

"Well, I had this program made for a performance, and there's something
that just isn't right." He set down the piece of paper in front of
her. "Tell me, what do you think?"

Anatara looked at the program. Her brow furrowed in thought, even as
her fingers traced over the lettering. "I think the lettering is off.
Perhaps we should try a different lettering. Maybe a different size,
as well," She pursed her lips a bit, then glanced up at Almonteo.
"Yes, I think that might make it look better."

He pursed his lips as he looked at the program with a critical eye.
Nodding slowly he said, "All right. What do you have?"

"I'll show you," Anatara said with a smile. Rising from her seat, she
moved over to a corner of the room and gestured for the Masterharper
to follow.

"We can try just increasing the letter size," she held up one of the
printing plates. "It would take away some of that extra blank space
you see on the program." She turned and pointed to the page he still
held. "Or we could try a different set of letters completely. Here,
take a look at these samples." Anatara moved to another area. She
handed him a printed page. "These are all the different types we can
try. Do you like a certain one?"

He followed her direction with more than a little amusement. Usually
he was the one giving directions. "I like the type I had originally
for
the title. I think the size might need to be increased slightly."
What he would really like was to also increase the size of the
illustrator's
picture, but that would take way too much time to re-carve. "As for
the rest I think the size is fine, but the font might need a little
improvement."

"That sounds perfect, Master. Here let me lay it out and we can
decide." Anatara stepped around him, glanced at the program once more,
then moved to a shelf and grabbed the die that had been made of the
illustration. Placing it on the printing tray, she scooted around and
picked up the dies for the title. Just slightly larger than the one
they'd previously used.

Carrying the tray she ran it through a test printing by cranking the
handle on the press to make an imprint of the illustration with the
heading.

"How does this look?" She asked, handing the sheet to Almonteo. "We'll
add the rest of the words with the typesetter if you like this."

Almonteo was impressed by just how fast she had worked at setting the
title like that. Printer's fingers were just as nimble as any
instrumentalist it would seem! "The title looks fine! I like that
much
better. But I still think the font on the rest of the program needs to
be different. It just looks too blocky and uniform. Maybe we need
some
italics to make the song's name just pop out a bit more and make it
obviously different from that of the name of the composer."

"I'm glad you like it, Master," Anatara said, beaming to know she'd
pleased him. "The rest will take quite a bit longer to prepare." She
picked up the program and carried it over to a corner of the room
where a large machine with a strange looking keyboard sat.

"Okay, first, we need to load the correct type." Anatara looked at the
table. "What do you think of this one?" She asked handing Almonteo a
tray of the little metallic letter dies. "I think it would complement
the program well and the title we've chosen."

"What does the italicized version look like?" If they were going to
use
both styles, it was important to see them together.

"Wait, I have a sample you can look at," Anatara turned and moved
quickly around the room, searching for something. "Here it is!" She
called out, carrying a page back to the Master Harper. She held it up
beside the mock-up of the title she'd made. "What do you think?"

It was close, but it still wasn't there. "Do you have anything that
would look more hand-written? I would love it if the guests looked at
it and wondered if it were really printed or made by human hands."

"Hmm," Anatara looked up in thought. "Well, we've been experimenting
with a new type. We have the letters ready for the typesetter, but
we've not done any major projects with it yet." Anatara moved over to
another table in the large room. She picked up a few of the letter
dies and carried them back to Almonteo. The dies left ink-marks on her
hands as they had just been experimenting with them earlier in the
day. "What do you think of these? The only problem is this is the only
size we have of them so far. It's about the size we were considering."
She held the letter dies out to Almonteo, not even considering the ink
still on them.

He looked at the die carefully a moment, more to find a place for his
fingers. Almonteo quickly gave up on the idea of being clean. "Yes,"
he nodded slowly as he looked at the first and then the second. "Yes,
I would like to see it if you don't mind."

"It will take me awhile to get the typesetting done for the whole
program. Would you like to come back in, say, a candlemark and a half?
I should have it all in place by then and be able to print you a
single page to see what you think." Anatara looked up at him, "unless
of course you'd rather stay and watch?"

Almonteo thought about it. Did he really have anything pressing on his
schedule? Not at the moment. And his curiosity was piqued. He was
the
printer's Hallmaster too. Perhaps it was time he learned a little more
about their craft. "Can I help?"

"Oh, I would _love_ help, Master!" Anatara exclaimed, beaming at him.
"I need to remove this tray of letters," she pointed to the tray in
the typesetting machine, "then replace it with the one we've decided
on. The trays are very heavy. I was worried about that, actually."
Anatara smiled at him, and moved to stand on one side of the large
tray of letters, ready to take it from the machine when he was.

"All right," he said, taking the other end. "I guess I'll just be your
apprentice today."

Last updated on the September 22nd 2010

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Printing Solutions