Signatures

The letters of the alphabet used by English printers in the fool margin of certain pages as a guide to direct the bookbinder in arranging and folding the sheets. The letter B is put at the bottom of the first sheet or half sheet which comes immediately after the title-page, preface, and contents; C, at that of the second: and so on throughout the alphabet, with the exception of J, V, and W. If the number of pages requires more signatures than the alphabet will indicate, the letters are doubled or trebled, or a numeral is prefixed to them; as, A a, B b; 2 A, 2 B; 3A, &c. Figures, or numeral characters (1, 1*; 2, 2*, &c.), being thought more convenient than letters, are used for the same purpose in America. But in catalogues, and other publications in which figures often occur, capitals or small capitals are. for the Bake of distinction, preferable. The reason that J, V, and W are not used as signatures is, that at the invention of printing there were no such letters in the alphabet. I expressed both I and J; V both U and V; and VV the double letter W.