Shmutstitu - this is what?

Not everyone is fond of reading books today. And the point here is not only that printed publications are now expensive, but also because most of the necessary information can easily be found on the Internet for free. Despite this, printing continues to flourish. However, in order to save money, some traditional elements of book design today are no longer used by publishers. Among them - the once widespread shmutstituly. This name may seem a lot of outlandish, but just 200 years ago, none of them could not do without a single book. What is it and what is it for?

Shmutstitu - what is it in the printing house?

A typography is called in the printing house a special page, which precedes a new section of the book or even the title page itself. Schmucks in the book actually perform the role of title pages of each chapter or section. As a rule, they consist of the title of the chapter, sometimes decorated with a drawing.

Blinds are added to the book for comfort in navigating through chapters and sections. With their help, the reader, even with a cursory examination, manages to fix such pages in memory and can freely navigate in the publication when reading again.

Speaking about this word, it is worth remembering that in rare cases, a shmutzitul is just a drawing or a decorative pattern at the beginning of a section that 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 rules.

The history of this word

In Russian, this term came from German. In translation from the original language, the word Schmutztitel means "dirty title page".

This name indicates the primary role played by the typography in the printing business - it was protection against dirt and other physical damage to the title page of the book or chapter.

It is interesting that in German the concept of a shmutzitula came from Latin, from the word Antiporta, which, in turn, meant a slightly different concept - "frontispiece" (a picture without an inscription, located on one spread with a title on an even strip).

Types of blunts

As for the style of design, it is divided into several types of shmutstitu. This is a set, drawn, decorative, plot-illustrated and combined. In this case, the names themselves talk about their meaning.

Versions of the appearance of blunts

For the first time, they began to use shmutzituly in printing business in Germany in the middle of the XVIII century. However, a reliable history of their occurrence is unknown. So, there are two theories explaining how the schmoothstools arose (which is 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 membrane was placed in front of the title page as a protective shell, protecting it from dirt and dust.

There is another version. As you know, at that time the printed sheets were not immediately interlaced by the publisher or printer, they were sold without binding, immersed in boxes or even barrels. After the bookshop bought these sheets, the store owner referred them to the bookbinder. And the latter, in turn, thanks to the shmutztulam, on which all the information about the book or each of its sections was indicated, correctly distributed the chapters of the future folio.

To date, when the printing technology has undergone certain changes, using a shmutztool is more a luxury than a necessity. However, some publishers, in order to increase the volume of the book, and, consequently, its sales value, go to the trick, adding absolutely unnecessary blinkers.

The more economical their colleagues, who want to give the book a chic, but do not spend on additional sheets, replace the head-titles with a header separated from the chapter text by a space or elegant ornament. In the printing business, this is called a "hat", however, some people traditionally refer to it as a "shmuttitul".

How are the bumpers made?

The design of this part of the book is usually quite traditional, although some publishers periodically depart from the so-called canon.

Traditionally shmutstitu - a combination of the title of the 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 turn. The previous sheet can either be empty (which is highly undesirable), or contain the end of the previous section. If the text of the preceding chapter ends on an odd page, it must be redistributed in such a way that its ending is on an even sheet.

As for the typeface, it should be similar to the one used for the cover page, but it should be smaller (pins). The lines should be located in the middle and match the style of the title page of the book.

The difference between the shmutstitu from the avanthitool, the title and the counter-titula

Having dealt with the fact that the shmutzituly - what is it, it is worth paying attention to what they differ from other printed terms.

Sometimes the shmutztul is confused with the avanthitulum - the page preceding the title page, on which information is given about the publisher, author, illustrator, copyrights to the text, etc. Previously, the avanthitools traditionally had a photograph or an illustration to the book, but today this element is not mandatory for Design.

The title from the shmutstitu differs by the presence on this page of information about the author and the title of the entire book. While the shmutstitu almost never contains data about the creator of the whole work.

Another similar concept is the "counter-tittle". As a rule, it is used only in multivolume editions, as well as in books translated from another language. Traditionally it is placed on the left side of the title page. The header contains information about the author and the title of the whole series (if this edition is one of the volumes) or the name of the book and the name of its creator in the original language, if this is a translation.

For two hundred years of its existence, the schmoothers played an important role in the preservation of each book. However, today they are a rudiment in publishing. Despite this, every reader should have at least a remote idea of what kind of part of the book and what role it played in the past.