out

In letterpress and metal type composition, an out is text that should appear in the finished print but was never set into the forme. The compositor either skipped lines while reading copy, failed to notice a passage, or physically left type out of the assembled chase. Once the forme is locked and printed, those words simply do not exist on the page. The error is only discovered during proofreading or when the printed sheet is compared to the original manuscript.

Outs differ from other compositorial errors in both cause and consequence. A transposition moves the right words in the wrong order; an out removes them entirely. An out cannot be corrected by simply making new proofs. The entire forme must be unlocked, the missing text set and inserted into the correct position, the type re-locked, and the run restarted. For long print runs already in progress, this means scrapping printed sheets or returning to correct them, a costly mistake.

Detection and Prevention

The error was traditionally caught by the proofreader, who compared each proof against copy line by line. Experienced compositors also caught their own outs by counting characters or using other checking methods, but human error persisted even with care. Some print houses imposed penalties on compositors whose work contained frequent outs, creating pressure to slow down and verify copy before locking the forme.

An out was a mark of carelessness in a trade where precision determined whether a page was usable or waste. The term remains dated because phototypesetting and digital composition made the omission error less common, though analogous oversights still occur in modern workflows. The word survives mostly in the vocabulary of letterpress historians and practitioners who restore or study hand-set printing.