compose

To compose is to arrange individual pieces of metal type, one letter at a time, into lines and pages ready for printing. A compositor holds a composing stick, a small metal ruler with a movable end, and places types into it character by character, building up words and lines from left to right. Once a line is full, it is removed and set aside, and the stick is cleared for the next line. This fundamental operation was the only way to prepare text for letterpress printing until the late nineteenth century.

The compositor works with type stored in a typecase, a wooden cabinet with dozens of small compartments, each holding one letter, number, or punctuation mark in a specific size and font. Capital letters sit in the upper case (the origin of the term "uppercase"), while small letters occupy the lower case. Speed and accuracy are essential; a compositor might set 1,000 to 2,000 characters in a day. The arranged type must be locked into a form, a rectangular frame, and made absolutely tight so letters do not shift during inking and printing.

Common variants include handsetting of display type (large headlines) and body type (smaller running text), each requiring different handling and spacing. Leading, the thin strips of metal placed between lines to add vertical space, must be inserted as the work progresses. A single transposed letter or upside-down type can ruin a printed page; therefore, composed type must be read backward and proofed carefully before being sent to press.

Composing became obsolete rapidly in the twentieth century with the introduction of linotype and monotype machines, which cast entire lines or characters photographically. By the 1960s, phototypesetting had replaced both hand composition and machine composition in most commercial plants. Today the term survives mainly as historical terminology, though hobbyist letterpress printers and fine-art practitioners still hand-compose type deliberately to achieve its distinctive aesthetic qualities.