| 释义 |
ˈletter-press
[f. letter n.1]
1. (Now commonly written letterpress.)
a. The text of a piece of printing, distinguished from illustrations, etc.
b. Material printed from a relief surface, distinguished from lithographic or intaglio printing. Also attrib., as in letterpress printing (for which the use of the word in this sense may be elliptical).
1758–65Goldsm. Ess. ii, Four extraordinary pages of letter-press. a1764Lloyd Puff Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 176 Plain letter-press shall do the feat. 1772Hartford Merc. 18 Sept. Suppl. 4/3 Letter-press Printing is neatly perform'd. 1802–12Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) III. 473 note, In the case of letter press, any such alterations are as yet, perhaps, without example. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 711 Plaster of Paris..is poured over the letter-press page. 1828Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. Introd. 1 They who condescend to read the letter-press will have the advantage of my fair correspondent. 1840Lardner Geom. 137 In letter-press printing, the types..are put together..with their faces upwards. 1860–1F. Nightingale Nursing ii. 11 The places where..letter-press printers..have to work for their living. 1861Sat. Rev. 7 Dec. 591 William and Mary Howitt have contributed the letterpress. 1889Spectator 14 Dec. 830 In this cartoon, and the letterpress concerning it, are commemorated [etc.]. 1892A. Powell Southward's Pract. Printing (ed. 4) i. 2 Letterpress printing. In this the subject is printed from a relief above the surface. Ibid. 3 Letterpress printing is done with types, blocks of wood, casts in metal, india⁓rubber, celluloid; electrotypes, &c. 1925Southward's Mod. Printing (ed. 5) II. xxxiii. 274 These methods [of illustration] may be tabulated thus:—For printing by the letterpress method—Wood engravings; Engravings on type metal; Process blocks in line; Process blocks in half⁓tones... All the above blocks are in relief. 1939Guide Exhib. in King's Library (Brit. Mus.) 9 The Old Testament types are explained in two paragraphs of woodcut letterpress in the upper corners of the design. 1946W. L. Hayes in H. Whetton Pract. Printing & Binding xxv. 287/1 Relief printing, as its name implies, is that in which the printing surface stands in relief, that is, above the surrounding non-printing area; identified in this category is letterpress from type, plate, half-tone and line blocks, wood and lino cuts. 1959Penrose Annual LII. 113 It was..decided to use a plate etched as shallow as was practicable and to print by ‘letterpress-offset’. 1966Print (Wynkyn de Worde Soc.) iv. 39 The basic characteristic of the lithographic process is that the printing image is flat: not raised as in letterpress or recessed as in gravure. 1970K. Lindley Woodblock Engravers ii. 29 They [sc. Bewick's woodcuts]..enabled the letterpress printer once more to think in terms of books equal to those with copperplate illustrations. 1971M. Moorman in D. Wordsworth Jrnls. 107 In 1809–10 W[ordsworth] wrote the letter-press for Wilkinson's drawings of the Lake District.
2. A weight to keep one or more letters in place.
1848C. A. Johns Week at Lizard 78 They [pieces of rock] are often worked into..letter-presses, &c.
3. A press for taking copies of letters.
1901Westm. Gaz. 13 June 9/2 Van Helden..slipped a handcuff upon his wrist, and fastened the other to the letter-press. |