Historical Perspective: Cataloging’s Early Years

The “type” man would scale the layout’s copy spaces and provide a separate tissue of each copy block with a rectangle on it. This indicated a fill-in space for the typewritten content that corresponded to the amount of final typeset copy to fit into each layout space.

The writer then would either type right onto this tissue sheet, or make duplicate-size type boxes, onto which he or she would edit copy to fit. It usually worked flawlessly, until a writer noticed something like a sizing chart was needed, and page creation would have to start all over again.