R.O. Vandercook, The Inland Printer January 1925
Because the modern proof press has demonstrated the value of accuracy in machine construction, manufacturers of producing printing presses are now vying with one another in building machines of greater precision and rigidity, with a far-reaching effect on the whole industry. In the first place, these presses take a readers’ proof better and at less expense, but the invention has done much more than decrease expenses and improve the quality of proofs for proofreaders.
These accurately built rigid bed composing-room presses prove not only for proofreaders but, what is of much greater value in lessening costs, they prove for the pressman. It costs much less to correct an imperfect printing surface before the form has gone to press than it does to have highly skilled pressmen patch up by overlay and underlay, holding up the most expensive and productive equipment in the plant while it is being done. If perfect printing surfaces do not print properly on the press, the pressman knows that the error is in the press. When both the printing surfaces and the press are imperfect, it is often difficult for the pressman to tell where the trouble lies, but given perfect printing surface, there is no guessing about it.
The impression taken on the modern proof press has thoroughly demonstrated that there is much to be saved by greater care in building producing presses, and builders of these machines are therefore changing their manufacturing processes and are now holding their limits of toleration much closer. A great saving in the costs of good printing has followed as a result, and the business has been made more attractive to competent artisans who delight in expressing themselves.