Not everyone likes to read books today. And the point here is not only that print media are now expensive, but also because most of the necessary information can be easily found on the Internet for free. Despite this, typography continues to flourish. However, in order to save money, some traditional book design elements are no longer used by publishers. Among them are the once widespread schmucks. This title may seem outlandish to many, but just 200 years ago not a single book could have done without them. What is it and what is it for?
Schmuttitul - what is a printing house?
A printing page is called a special page in Schmuckstitle, which precedes a new section of the book or even the title page itself.
The smut titles in the book actually serve as the title pages of each chapter or section. As a rule, they consist of the title of a chapter, sometimes decorated with a picture.
The titles are added to the book for comfort in navigating chapters and sections. With their help, the reader, even with a cursory examination, manages to fix such pages in his memory and freely orient himself in the publication upon repeated reading.
Speaking about this word, it is worth remembering that in rare cases, the title block is just a drawing or decorative pattern at the beginning of the section, which is not placed on a separate sheet, but is located above the text of the chapter itself. True, this design is an exception to the rule.
The history of the word
In Russian, this term came from German. Translated from the original language, the word Schmutztitel means “dirty title page”.
A similar name indicates the primary role played in the printing business of schmuttitles - it was protection from dirt and other physical damage to the title page of a book or chapter.
It is interesting that in German the concept of schmuttil came from Latin, from the word Antiporta, which, in turn, meant a slightly different concept - "frontispiece" (a picture without an inscription, located on the same page with the title on an even strip).
Types of Schmucks
As for the style of design, it is divided into several types of textbooks. It is typesetting, drawing, decorative, plot-illustrated and combined. In this case, the names themselves speak of their meaning.
Versions of the appearance of schmuttitles
For the first time they began to use schmittitles in printing in Germany in the middle of the 18th century. However, the reliable history of their appearance is unknown. So, there are two theories that explain how schmittitles came about (what we have already explained). It is noteworthy that both of them do not contradict each other at all and, probably, both are true.
According to one, the title block was placed in front of the cover page as a protective cover protecting from dirt and dust.
There is another version. As you know, at that time printed sheets were not immediately bound by a publisher or printer, they were sold without binding, immersed in boxes or even barrels. After the bookstore bought these sheets, the store owner attributed them to a bookbinder. And he, in turn, thanks to the schmittitles, on which all the information about the book or each section of it was indicated, correctly distributed the chapters of the future folio.
Today, when the printing technology has undergone certain changes, using a print title is more a luxury than a necessity. However, some publishers, in order to increase the volume of the book, and therefore its sale value, go to the trick, adding absolutely unnecessary schmuttitles.
Their more economical brethren, who want to give the book chic, but not spend money on additional sheets, replace the headline with a heading separated by a space or elegant ornament from the text of the chapter. In the printing business, this is called a "hat", however, some people traditionally call it the "headline".
How are schmuttitles made out
The design of this part of the book is usually quite traditional, although some publishers periodically depart from the so-called canon.
Traditionally, a schmuck title is a combination of the name of a chapter or epigraph with an illustration or simply with a beautiful ornament, monograms.
It is placed absolutely always on the odd page on the right side of the spread. The preceding sheet can either be empty (which is highly undesirable) or contain the end of the previous section. If the text of the previous chapter ended on an odd page, it must be redistributed so that its end falls on an even sheet.
As for the font of the text, it should be similar to the one used in the design of the cover page, but it should be smaller (size). The lines should be located in the middle and match the style of the title page of the book.
The difference between the title block and the title, title and counter-title
Having dealt with that, schmuttitles - what is it, it is worth paying attention to how they differ from other printed terms.
Sometimes a schmuttitle is confused with an adventitul - a page preceding the title page that provides information about the publisher, author, illustrator, copyright to the text, etc. Previously, photographs or illustrations for the book were traditionally on the titles, but today this element is not required when clearance.
The title from the title is different by the presence on this page of information about the author and the title of the entire book. While the schmutztul almost never contains data about the creator of the entire work.
Another similar concept is “counter-title”.
As a rule, it is used only in multivolume publications, as well as in books translated from another language. Traditionally, it is placed on the left side of the title page. The counter-title contains information about the author and the name of the entire series (if this publication is one of the volumes) or the name of the book and the name of its creator in the original language, if it is a translation.
Over the two hundred years of its existence, schmuck titles played an important role in the preservation of each book. However, today they are the rudiment in publishing. Despite this, each reader should have at least a distant idea of what this part of the book is and what role it played in the past.