CUTTING THE PRINTING PAPER.
It is customary to purchase all papers except albumen in cut sizes, so that in structions for cutting albumen paper will be required. It must be borne in mind that as a full sheet of gelatine-chloride paper is 14 in. longer and 4 in. narrower, it cannot be cut up in the same way. The first consideration in cutting up the paper, which should be done with an eye to economy of time and material, is the stretching peculiarities of the sheet. If a print is cut one way of the paper it stretches in hreadtb, but if cut the oppo site way it stretches in length. The point to bear in mind is that the paper stretches most the width of the sheet. Some makes now on the market stretch in length. This is a point the worker should ascertain. It is usual, therefore, to cut the paper so that it comes the same way, as an increase in breadth is less objectionable than an in crease in length. In landscape and most
record work this is of little importance, but in scientific work accuracy is necessary. In such cases it is best to leave the prints unmounted, or at least to mount them only when dry. It is. in portraiture that the effect of stretching is most striking, and for such work the paper must be cut as directed. As a rule, a person will have less objection to looking broader in the face than to looking narrower. except, perhaps, when the face is already too broad, then the paper may be cut the rev..rse way, so as to make the face look narrower. A diagram is given in Fig. 273 for cutting the paper for twelve cabinets, suitable for lengthening effects. Fig. 274 shows the method of cutting the sheet for whole plates, and Fig. 275 for thirty cartes.