The Typographic Error

This article was sourced from Interior Journal (Stanford, Kentucky).

When you’ve worked your very hardest

to read all the proofs with care

Till you’re sure there’s not an error or

a bonehead anywhere,

And you really feel quite chesty and

disposed to pat your bean

As you say “She may be empty, but

I’ll tell the world she’s clean!”

But when the sheet is printed and is

once upon the mail,

On its way to the subscribers, I have never seen it fail—

In the centre of the front page, in a

most conspicuous place,

Some typographic error fairly kicks

you in the face.

For the typographic error is a slippery

thing and sly,

You can hunt till you are dizzy, but

it somehow will get by;

Till the forms are off the presses it

is strange how still it keeps

It shrinks down into the corner and

it never stirs or peeps.

That typographic error is too small

for human eyes,

Till the ink on the paper, when it grows to mountain size.

And you will see that blasted error, far as

you could throw a dog,

Looming up in all its splendor, like

a lighthouse in a fog!

That glaring blunder juts out like an

ulcerated tooth

Where it dodged the eagle vision of

the napping comma sleuth.

It is sure too late to mend it, but it

fills your soul with rage,

As you see it swelling loudly in the

middle of the page.

The remainder of the issue may be

clean as clean can be,

But the typographic error is the only

thing you see.

It was down among the six point till

the copy was all read,

When it shifted into blackface or a

two-inch banner head—

Then when the sheet was printed it

jumped up and hollered “Boo!”

You never saw me, did you? This is

sure a horse on you!”

team Simon is a Sydney based digital designer. He is the Director of a boutique digital design studio, Bailey Street Design located in the vibrant inner west suburb of Newtown. Simon studied graphic design at Shillington College and specialises in web design for small and medium size businesses. Simon and his team (Toby the studio dog) are passionate about visual communication in the digital environment