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 Kenneth Dawson-Howe

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A Practical Introduction to
Computer Vision
with OpenCV
A PRACTICAL
INTRODUCTION TO
COMPUTER VISION
WITH OPENCV
A PRACTICAL
INTRODUCTION TO
COMPUTER VISION
WITH OPENCV
Kenneth Dawson-Howe
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
This edition first published 2014
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Registered office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for
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Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for.

ISBN: 9781118848456
Set in 10/12pt Times by Aptara Inc., New Delhi, India

1 2014
I am grateful to many people for their help and support during the writing
of this book. The biggest thanks must go to my wife Jane, my children,
William and Susie, and my parents, all of whose encouragement
has been unstinting.
I must express my thanks to my students for their interest and enthusiasm
in this subject. It is always refreshing to hear students discussing how to
solve vision problems in tutorials and great to hear their solutions to
problems which are often different (and sometimes better) than my own.
I thank my colleagues (in particular Arthur Hughes, Jeremy Jones and
Hilary McDonald) for their encouragement and support.
Contents
Preface xiii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 A Difficult Problem 1
1.2 The Human Vision System 2
1.3 Practical Applications of Computer Vision 3
1.4 The Future of Computer Vision 5
1.5 Material in This Textbook 6
1.6 Going Further with Computer Vision 7

2 Images 9
2.1 Cameras 9
2.1.1 The Simple Pinhole Camera Model 9
2.2 Images 10
2.2.1 Sampling 11
2.2.2 Quantisation 11
2.3 Colour Images 13
2.3.1 Red–Green–Blue (RGB) Images 14
2.3.2 Cyan–Magenta–Yellow (CMY) Images 17
2.3.3 YUV Images 17
2.3.4 Hue Luminance Saturation (HLS) Images 18
2.3.5 Other Colour Spaces 20
2.3.6 Some Colour Applications 20
2.4 Noise 22
2.4.1 Types of Noise 23
2.4.2 Noise Models 25
2.4.3 Noise Generation 26
2.4.4 Noise Evaluation 26
2.5 Smoothing 27
2.5.1 Image Averaging 27
2.5.2 Local Averaging and Gaussian Smoothing 28
2.5.3 Rotating Mask 30
2.5.4 Median Filter 31
viii Contents

3 Histograms 35
3.1 1D Histograms 35
3.1.1 Histogram Smoothing 36
3.1.2 Colour Histograms 37
3.2 3D Histograms 39
3.3 Histogram/Image Equalisation 40
3.4 Histogram Comparison 41
3.5 Back-projection 43
3.6 k-means Clustering 44

4 Binary Vision 49
4.1 Thresholding 49
4.1.1 Thresholding Problems 50
4.2 Threshold Detection Methods 51
4.2.1 Bimodal Histogram Analysis 52
4.2.2 Optimal Thresholding 52
4.2.3 Otsu Thresholding 54
4.3 Variations on Thresholding 56
4.3.1 Adaptive Thresholding 56
4.3.2 Band Thresholding 57
4.3.3 Semi-thresholding 58
4.3.4 Multispectral Thresholding 58
4.4 Mathematical Morphology 59
4.4.1 Dilation 60
4.4.2 Erosion 62
4.4.3 Opening and Closing 63
4.4.4 Grey-scale and Colour Morphology 65
4.5 Connectivity 66
4.5.1 Connectedness: Paradoxes and Solutions 66
4.5.2 Connected Components Analysis 67

5 Geometric Transformations 71
5.1 Problem Specification and Algorithm 71
5.2 Affine Transformations 73
5.2.1 Known Affine Transformations 74
5.2.2 Unknown Affine Transformations 75
5.3 Perspective Transformations 76
5.4 Specification of More Complex Transformations 78
5.5 Interpolation 78
5.5.1 Nearest Neighbour Interpolation 79
5.5.2 Bilinear Interpolation 79
5.5.3 Bi-Cubic Interpolation 80
5.6 Modelling and Removing Distortion from Cameras 80
5.6.1 Camera Distortions 81
5.6.2 Camera Calibration and Removing Distortion 82
Contents ix

6 Edges 83
6.1 Edge Detection 83
6.1.1 First Derivative Edge Detectors 85
6.1.2 Second Derivative Edge Detectors 92
6.1.3 Multispectral Edge Detection 97
6.1.4 Image Sharpening 98
6.2 Contour Segmentation 99
6.2.1 Basic Representations of Edge Data 99
6.2.2 Border Detection 102
6.2.3 Extracting Line Segment Representations of Edge Contours 105
6.3 Hough Transform 108
6.3.1 Hough for Lines 109
6.3.2 Hough for Circles 111
6.3.3 Generalised Hough 112
7 Features 115
7.1 Moravec Corner Detection 117
7.2 Harris Corner Detection 118
7.3 FAST Corner Detection 121
7.4 SIFT 122
7.4.1 Scale Space Extrema Detection 123
7.4.2 Accurate Keypoint Location 124
7.4.3 Keypoint Orientation Assignment 126
7.4.4 Keypoint Descriptor 127
7.4.5 Matching Keypoints 127
7.4.6 Recognition 127
7.5 Other Detectors 129
7.5.1 Minimum Eigenvalues 130
7.5.2 SURF 130
8 Recognition 131
8.1 Template Matching 131
8.1.1 Applications 131
8.1.2 Template Matching Algorithm 133
8.1.3 Matching Metrics 134
8.1.4 Finding Local Maxima or Minima 135
8.1.5 Control Strategies for Matching 137
8.2 Chamfer Matching 137
8.2.1 Chamfering Algorithm 137
8.2.2 Chamfer Matching Algorithm 139
8.3 Statistical Pattern Recognition 140
8.3.1 Probability Review 142
8.3.2 Sample Features 143
8.3.3 Statistical Pattern Recognition Technique 149
8.4 Cascade of Haar Classifiers 152
8.4.1 Features 154
8.4.2 Training 156
x Contents

8.4.3 Classifiers 156

8.4.4 Recognition 158
8.5 Other Recognition Techniques 158
8.5.1 Support Vector Machines (SVM) 158
8.5.2 Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HoG) 159
8.6 Performance 160
8.6.1 Image and Video Datasets 160
8.6.2 Ground Truth 161
8.6.3 Metrics for Assessing Classification Performance 162
8.6.4 Improving Computation Time 165

9 Video 167
9.1 Moving Object Detection 167
9.1.1 Object of Interest 168
9.1.2 Common Problems 168
9.1.3 Difference Images 169
9.1.4 Background Models 171
9.1.5 Shadow Detection 179
9.2 Tracking 180
9.2.1 Exhaustive Search 181
9.2.2 Mean Shift 181
9.2.3 Dense Optical Flow 182
9.2.4 Feature Based Optical Flow 185
9.3 Performance 186
9.3.1 Video Datasets (and Formats) 186
9.3.2 Metrics for Assessing Video Tracking Performance 187

10 Vision Problems 189

10.1 Baby Food 189
10.2 Labels on Glue 190
10.3 O-rings 191
10.4 Staying in Lane 192
10.5 Reading Notices 193
10.6 Mailboxes 194
10.7 Abandoned and Removed Object Detection 195
10.8 Surveillance 196
10.9 Traffic Lights 197
10.10 Real Time Face Tracking 198
10.11 Playing Pool 199
10.12 Open Windows 200
10.13 Modelling Doors 201
10.14 Determining the Time from Analogue Clocks 202
10.15 Which Page 203
10.16 Nut/Bolt/Washer Classification 204
10.17 Road Sign Recognition 205
10.18 License Plates 206
Contents xi

10.19 Counting Bicycles 207

10.20 Recognise Paintings 208

References 209
Index 213
Preface
Perception is essential in order for any entity to interact in a meaningful way with its environ-
ment. Humans draw on many senses (such as sight, sound, touch and smell) to perceive the
world. Most machines can only receive input through simple input devices, such as keyboards
and mice, or through wired and wireless communication channels. However, in recent years,
cameras and microphones have been added as standard parts of computers and mobile devices
(such as phones and tablets). At the same time, the speed of these devices has increased sig-
nificantly, making it possible to start to process this data in a meaningful manner. Computer
Vision is about how we can automate image or video understanding on machines. It covers
the techniques used to automate tasks ranging from industrial inspection (where the image
understanding problem is constrained to one which we could easily address 20 years ago)
to video understanding in order to guide autonomous robots so that they can interact in a
meaningful and safe manner in a world designed for humans.
This book provides a brief introduction to this exciting field, covering the basics of image
processing and providing the reader with enough information to solve many practical problems.
Computer vision systems are becoming ubiquitous. They are in our homes (in the interfaces of
the games consoles which our children use), in our cameras and phones (providing automatic
face detection and red eye removal), on our streets (determining the licence plates of vehicles
passing through toll gates), in our offices (providing biometric verification of identity), and
even more so in our factories, helping to guide robots to manufacture goods (such as cars)
and automatically inspecting goods to ensure they look right. Yet it seems that we are only at
the beginning of how computer vision can be employed, and we can expect significantly more
vision systems to emerge.
For those interested in this field as developers (and that hopefully includes you as you are
reading this book) there is very good news as there are a number of high quality systems
in which computer vision solutions can be developed, of which two stand out in particular:
MATLAB® and OpenCV. MATLAB® provides an environment that allows relatively rapid
prototyping of vision solutions. OpenCV is a high quality library for C and C++, with wrappers
for Python and Java (on Windows, Linux, MacOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Android, Maemo and
iOS), which provides implementations of many state-of-the-art vision techniques. OpenCV is
the platform of choice for many vision developers, is developed collaboratively by the vision
community and is available free of charge for educational and commercial use. OpenCV code
snippets are provided throughout this book so that readers can easily take the theory and easily
create working solutions to vision problems.
xiv Preface

This text is intended to:

1. Provide a solid academic background to basic computer vision.

2. Provide enough material for a one-semester course in computer vision. Larger, all encom-
passing, textbooks are very off-putting to new students in this (or any) field.
3. Facilitate practical use of computer vision. The goal is to bridge the gap between the theory
and the practical implementation of computer vision and so explanations of how to use the
relevant OpenCV library routines are included, accompanied by a full working program
including the code snippets from the text in the website mentioned below.
4. Allow students to solve real practical problems by providing images and videos for the 20
application problems in Chapter 10.

Electronic Resources
The electronic resources which accompany this text inlcude:

r the code examples from the text along with images generated from the code to give an idea
of the processing done by each section of the code.
r Powerpoint slides for each of the chapters.
r the media (images and videos) for each of the application problems in Chapter 10 of the
book.
r links to information on OpenCV.

The resources are available at https://www.scss.tcd.ie/publications/book-supplements/A-

Practical-Introduction-to-Computer-Vision-with-OpenCV and at (a shorter alternative
which redirects to the above page) https://www.scss.tcd.ie/Kenneth.Dawson-Howe/
PracticalVisionBook

Teaching Computer Vision Using This Text

A computer vision course based on this text would consist of around 22–28 one-hour lectures
together with tutorials and labs. Anticipated lecture hours by topic are as follows:

r Introduction: 1–2 hours

r Images (2.1 Cameras – 2.3 Colour images): 2 hours
r Images (2.4 Noise – 2.5 Smoothing): 2 hours
r Histograms (Chapter 3): 2 hours
r Binary Vision (Chapter 4): 2–3 hours
r Geometric Transformations (Chapter 5): 1–2 hours
r Edges (6.1 Edge detection): 2 hours
r Edges (6.2 Contour segmentation): 1–2 hours
r Edges (6.3 Hough transform): 1–2 hours
r Features (7.1 Moravec corner detection – 7.3 FAST corner detection): 1 hour
r Features (7.4 SIFT): 1 hour
r Recognition (8.1 Template matching and 8.2 Chamfer matching): 1 hour
Preface xv

r Recognition (8.3 Statistical pattern recognition): 1 hour

r Recognition (8.4 Cascade of Haar classifiers): 1 hour
r Recognition (8.6 Performance): 1 hour
r Video (Chapter 9): 2–3 hours

For tutorials, it is suggested that the class be broken into groups of three or four students
(all in a single large venue) and that the groups should be asked to come up with solutions
to some of the vision problems in Chapter 10 (using the vision techniques they have learnt).
The intention is that the students discuss how to solve the problems, coming up with ways
of combining the techniques that they have learnt in order to solve them. There is more than
one solution to all of the problems, so some of the groups should present their solutions to the
class, and the class and lecturer should discuss how appropriate the solutions are. For labs and
assignments, the same problems can be used, as OpenCV provides the functionality to allow
students to prototype solutions to these problems.
1
Introduction

Computer vision is the automatic analysis of images and videos by computers in order to
gain some understanding of the world. Computer vision is inspired by the capabilities of the
human vision system and, when initially addressed in the 1960s and 1970s, it was thought to
be a relatively straightforward problem to solve. However, the reason we think/thought that
vision is easy is that we have our own visual system which makes the task seem intuitive to
our conscious minds. In fact, the human visual system is very complex and even the estimates
of how much of the brain is involved with visual processing vary from 25% up to more
than 50%.

1.1 A Difficult Problem

The first challenge facing anyone studying this subject is to convince themself that the problem
is difficult. To try to illustrate the difficulty, we first show three different versions of the same
image in Figure 1.1. For a computer, an image is just an array of values, such as the array
shown in the left-hand image in Figure 1.1. For us, using our complex vision system, we can
perceive this as a face image but only if we are shown it as a grey scale image (top right).
Computer vision is quite like understanding the array of values shown in Figure 1.1, but is
more complicated as the array is really much bigger (e.g. to be equivalent to the human eye
a camera would need around 127 million elements), and more complex (i.e. with each point
represented by three values in order to encode colour information). To make the task even
more convoluted, the images are constantly changing, providing a stream of 50–60 images per
second and, of course, there are two streams of data as we have two eyes/cameras.
Another illustration of the difficulty of vision was provided by psychologist John Wilding
considering his own visual system:

As I look out of my window, I see grass and trees, gently swaying in the wind, with a lake
beyond . . . An asphalt path leads down through the trees to the lake and two squirrels
are chasing each other to and fro across it, ignoring the woman coming up the path . . .

A Practical Introduction to Computer Vision with OpenCV, First Edition. Kenneth Dawson-Howe.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2 A Practical Introduction to Computer Vision with OpenCV

67 67 66 68 66 67 64 65 65 63 63 69 61 64 63 66 61 60
69 68 63 68 65 62 65 61 50 26 32 65 61 67 64 65 66 63
72 71 70 87 67 60 28 21 17 18 13 15 20 59 61 65 66 64
75 73 76 78 67 26 20 19 16 18 16 13 18 21 50 61 69 70
74 75 78 74 39 31 31 30 46 37 69 66 64 43 18 63 69 60
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74 75 71 42 19 12 14 28 79 102 107 96 87 79 57 29 68 66
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76 63 40 57 123 88 60 83 95 88 80 71 67 69 32 67 73 73
78 50 32 33 90 121 66 86 100 116 87 85 80 74 71 56 58 48
80 40 33 16 63 107 57 86 103 113 113 104 94 86 77 48 47 45
88 41 35 10 15 94 67 96 98 91 86 105 81 77 71 35 45 47
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86 42 47 11 13 16 71 76 89 95 116 91 67 87 12 25 43 51
96 67 20 12 17 17 86 89 90 101 96 89 62 13 11 19 40 51
99 88 19 15 15 18 32 107 99 86 95 92 26 13 13 16 49 52
99 77 16 14 14 16 35 115 111 109 91 79 17 16 13 46 48 51

Figure 1.1 Different versions of an image. An array of numbers (left) which are the values of the
grey scales in the low resolution image of a face (top right). The task of computer vision is most like
understanding the array of numbers

This is the scene I experience, a world of objects with background, acted upon and
sometimes acting and interacting in events. I have no problem seeing and hearing and
smelling and feeling all these things because they affect my senses directly and they
make up the real world.

Or do they? I can look again and notice things I missed before, or see the scene in new
ways. There is a white wall framing the window I am looking through and the window
in fact fills less of my field of view that the wall, but I did not even notice the wall at first,
and my impression was that the scene through the window was a panorama right across
in front of me. There are metal bars dividing the window into squares and the glass is
obscured with dust and spots but for me the view seems complete and un-obscured. The
‘grass’ is patches of colour ranging from nearly white in the bright sun to nearly black
in the shade but I ‘saw’ green grass in light and shade. Other changing greenish shapes
were for me permanent leafy branches moved by a wind I neither saw nor felt, and two
constantly varying grey shapes were squirrels moving with a purpose. Another shape
increasing in size and changing in position was an approaching woman. (Wilding, 1983)

1.2 The Human Vision System

If we could duplicate the human visual system then the problem of developing a computer
vision system would be solved. So why can’t we? The main difficulty is that we do not
understand what the human vision system is doing most of the time.
Introduction 3

If you consider your eyes, it is probably not clear to you that your colour vision (provided
by the 6–7 million cones in the eye) is concentrated in the centre of the visual field of the eye
(known as the macula). The rest of your retina is made up of around 120 million rods (cells
that are sensitive to visible light of any wavelength/colour). In addition, each eye has a rather
large blind spot where the optic nerve attaches to the retina. Somehow, we think we see a
continuous image (i.e. no blind spot) with colour everywhere, but even at this lowest level of
processing it is unclear as to how this impression occurs within the brain.
The visual cortex (at the back of the brain) has been studied and found to contain cells that
perform a type of edge detection (see Chapter 6), but mostly we know what sections of the
brain do based on localised brain damage to individuals. For example, a number of people with
damage to a particular section of the brain can no longer recognise faces (a condition known
as prosopagnosia). Other people have lost the ability to sense moving objects (a condition
known as akinetopsia). These conditions inspire us to develop separate modules to recognise
faces (e.g. see Section 8.4) and to detect object motion (e.g. see Chapter 9).
We can also look at the brain using functional MRI, which allows us to see the concentration
of electrical activity in different parts of the brain as subjects perform various activities. Again,
this may tell us what large parts of the brain are doing, but it cannot provide us with algorithms
to solve the problem of interpreting the massive arrays of numbers that video cameras provide.

1.3 Practical Applications of Computer Vision

Computer vision has many applications in industry, particularly allowing the automatic inspec-
tion of manufactured goods at any stage in the production line. For example, it has been used to:

r Inspect printed circuits boards to ensure that tracks and components are placed correctly.
See Figure 1.2.
r Inspect print quality of labels. See Figure 1.3.
r Inspect bottles to ensure they are properly filled. See Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.2 PCB inspection of pads (left) and images of some detected flaws in the surface mounting
of components (right). Reproduced by permission of James Mahon
4 A Practical Introduction to Computer Vision with OpenCV

Figure 1.3 Checking print quality of best-before dates (right), and monitoring level to which bottles
are filled (right). Reproduced by permission of Omron Electronics LLC

r Inspect apples to determine if there is any bruising.

r Locate chocolates on a production line so that a robot arm can pick them up and place them
in the correct locations in the box.
r Guide robots when manufacturing complex products such as cars.

On the factory floor, the problem is a little simpler than in the real world as the lighting
can be constrained and the possible variations of what we can see are quite limited. Computer
vision is now solving problems outside the factory. Computer vision applications outside the
factory include:

r The automatic reading of license plates as they pass through tollgates on major roads.
r Augmenting sports broadcasts by determining distances for penalties, along with a range of
other statistics (such as how far each player has travelled during the game).
r Biometric security checks in airports using images of faces and images of fingerprints. See
Figure 1.4.
r Augmenting movies by the insertion of virtual objects into video sequences, so that they
appear as though they belong (e.g. the candles in the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies).

30.8
30.0
29.1
28.3
27.5
26.6
25.8
25.0
24.2
23.3
22.5
°C

Figure 1.4 Buried landmines in an infrared image (left). Reproduced by permission of Zouheir Fawaz,
Handprint recognition system (right). Reproduced by permission of Siemens AG
Introduction 5

r Assisting drivers by warning them when they are drifting out of lane.
r Creating 3D models of a destroyed building from multiple old photographs.
r Advanced interfaces for computer games allowing the real time detection of players or their
hand-held controllers.
r Classification of plant types and anticipated yields based on multispectral satellite images.
r Detecting buried landmines in infrared images. See Figure 1.4.

Some examples of existing computer vision systems in the outside world are shown in
Figure 1.4.

1.4 The Future of Computer Vision

The community of vision developers is constantly pushing the boundaries of what we can
achieve. While we can produce autonomous vehicles, which drive themselves on a highway,
we would have difficulties producing a reliable vehicle to work on minor roads, particularly if
the road marking were poor. Even in the highway environment, though, we have a legal issue,
as who is to blame if the vehicle crashes? Clearly, those developing the technology do not think
it should be them and would rather that the driver should still be responsible should anything
go wrong. This issue of liability is a difficult one and arises with many vision applications in
the real world. Taking another example, if we develop a medical imaging system to diagnose
cancer, what will happen when it mistakenly does not diagnose a condition? Even though
the system might be more reliable than any individual radiologist, we enter a legal minefield.
Therefore, for now, the simplest solution is either to address only non-critical problems or
to develop systems, which are assistants to, rather than replacements for, the current human
experts.
Another problem exists with the deployment of computer vision systems. In some countries
the installation and use of video cameras is considered an infringement of our basic right to
privacy. This varies hugely from country to country, from company to company, and even
from individual to individual. While most people involved with technology see the potential
benefits of camera systems, many people are inherently distrustful of video cameras and what
the videos could be used for. Among other things, they fear (perhaps justifiably) a Big Brother
scenario, where our movements and actions are constantly monitored. Despite this, the number
of cameras is growing very rapidly, as there are cameras on virtually every new computer,
every new phone, every new games console, and so on.
Moving forwards, we expect to see computer vision addressing progressively harder prob-
lems; that is problems in more complex environments with fewer constraints. We expect
computer vision to start to be able to recognise more objects of different types and to begin to
extract more reliable and robust descriptions of the world in which they operate. For example,
we expect computer vision to

r become an integral part of general computer interfaces;

r provide increased levels of security through biometric analysis;
r provide reliable diagnoses of medical conditions from medical images and medical records;
r allow vehicles to be driven autonomously;
r automatically determine the identity of criminals through the forensic analysis of video.
6 A Practical Introduction to Computer Vision with OpenCV

Figure 1.5 The ASIMO humanoid robot which has two cameras in its ‘head’ which allow ASIMO to
determine how far away things are, recognise familiar faces, etc. Reproduced by permission of Honda
Motor Co. Inc

Ultimately, computer vision is aiming to emulate the capabilities of human vision, and to
provide these abilities to humanoid (and other) robotic devices, such as ASIMO (see Figure
1.5). This is part of what makes this field exciting, and surprising, as we all have our own
(human) vision systems which work remarkably well, yet when we try to automate any
computer vision task it proves very difficult to do reliably.

1.5 Material in this Textbook

This textbook is intended to provide an illustrated introduction to the area of computer vision.
It provides roughly the amount of material which can be covered in a one-semester, year four
or five university course. While this text covers the theory behind basic computer vision, it
also provides a bridge from the theory to practical implementation using the industry standard
OpenCV libraries (by explaining how the operations can be invoked in OpenCV).
In Chapter 2, we consider the basics of cameras and images, along with consideration of
the noise that is exhibited by many images and the techniques through which this noise can be
removed or attenuated.
In Chapter 3, we consider how image information can be summarised in the form of a
histogram and how those histograms can be used in order to enhance images or to extract
information from the images.
Chapter 4 looks at the most commonly used technique for industrial vision – that of binary
vision, where we simplify images so that every point is either black or white. This approach
makes the processing much easier (assuming that the binary image can be obtained correctly).
Chapter 5 looks at how we model and remove distortion from images and cameras (which
is often introduced by the camera/lens system).
Introduction 7

Chapter 6 describes the extraction and use of edges (locations at which the brightness
or colour changes significantly) in images. These cartoon-like features allow us to abstract
information from images. Edge detection does not perform well at corners, and in Chapter 7
we look at corner/feature points that can act as a complement to edges or can be used on their
own to provide less ambiguous features with which to match different images or objects.
In Chapter 8, we look at a number of common approaches to recognition in images, as
in many applications we need to determine the location and identity of objects (e.g. license
plates, faces, etc.).
Chapter 9 looks at the basics of processing videos, concentrating particularly on how we
detect moving objects in video feeds from static cameras (a problem that occurs frequently
in video surveillance), how we track objects from frame to frame and how we can assess
performance in video processing.
Finally, in Chapter 10, we present a large number of vision application problems to provide
students with the opportunity to solve real problems (which is the only way to really appreciate
how difficult computer vision is). Images or videos for these problems are provided in the
resources associated with this book.
We end this introduction with a quote from the 19th century: ‘… apprehension by the senses
supplies after all, directly or indirectly, the material of all human knowledge, or at least the
stimulus necessary to develop every inborn faculty of the mind. It supplies the basis for the
whole action of man upon the outer world … For there is little hope that he who does not begin
at the beginning of knowledge will ever arrive at its end’ (von Helmholtz, 1868).

1.6 Going Further with Computer Vision

This text contains roughly the amount of material that could be covered in a one semester
introductory course on computer vision. There are many very large comprehensive vision
texts, which allow students to delve more deeply and broadly into computer vision. A few
that come highly recommended are (Sonka, et al., 2007), (González & Woods, 2007), and
(Marques, 2011).
For those wishing to go further with computer vision and OpenCV, I would recommend
the practical textbook by Baggio (Daniel Lélis Baggio, 2012). This leads the reader through a
series of relatively advanced vision application problems on a variety of platforms.
 Another Random Document on
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Shakspere &
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Title: Shakspere & Typography

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKSPERE &

TYPOGRAPHY ***
 Shakspere
&
Typography

By
William Blades

NEW YORK: Edited & Reprinted

by The Winthrop Press for The
American Type Founders Company
MD CCC XC VII
 The INTRODUCTION
n the good old days when printing was better
recognized as a mystery than as an art, one could call
a printer ‘a man of letters’ without being guilty of a
pun. Books were for the few then, and the man who
would print them must be somewhat of a scholar
himself.
To-day, amid the whirr of many presses, and the hurrying to and fro
of the printing office, the printer finds little or no time for literary
pursuits, despite the fact that printing is, in very truth, the handmaid
of literature. It is the more admirable, therefore, when a successful
printer attains to a degree of scholarship—particularly scholarship in
matters that enlighten and dignify his own handicraft.
Such a printer was William Blades. During fifty years of active
business life he contributed to the history of printing, a goodly
number of books and a mass of miscellaneous articles. Among these
is the most complete and authoritative life of Caxton, England’s first
printer, representing an immense amount of study and research.
The book from which the following pages are reprinted is perhaps
the least familiar of Blades’ works, and it evidently was written as a
literary recreation. The thought that reading it may afford recreation
to those busied about the making of books, and the comparative
scarcity of the only edition, are the excuses for reprinting the more
interesting portion.
The first chapter (merely a resumé of the theories that have been
advanced by various professions and callings to claim Shakspere for
their own) has been omitted; likewise the appendix, which is a
suggestion that many of the obscurities in the text of Shakspere may
be cleared up by a study of the typographical errors in the first
editions. With these exceptions, the work is given here entire, and, it
is hoped, in such form as accords with the spirit of the author, whose
tastes were those of the scholarly printer.
Editorial Dept.
The Winthrop Press,
32 Lafayette Place, N. Y.
November, 1897
 The PREFACE
The First Chapter of this Tractate is designed to show, in a succinct
manner, the numerous and contradictory theories concerning
Shakspere’s special knowledge, the evidence for which has been
created by ‘selecting’ certain words and phrases from the mass of
his writings.
The Second and Third Chapters, erected on a similar basis of
‘selection’, are intended to prove that Shakspere had an intimate and
special knowledge of Typography.
Old Printers can still call to mind that period of our history when a
stalwart Pressman, on his way to work, ran considerable risk in the
streets of London of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz.,
the Press-gang, and forced nolens volens into the service of the
King. Some readers (not Printers) may think that I have exercised
over quotations from Shakspere’s works a similar compulsion, by
pressing into my service passages whose bearing is by no means in
a typographical direction. They may even go so far as to strain
somewhat the self-accusation of Falstaff (Henry IV, iv, 2), and bring
against me the charge that
I have misused the King’s press most damnably, by
printing such evidences.
I can only reply that if, notwithstanding a careful consideration of
the proofs here laid before him, the reader should consider my case
‘not proven’, I must submit with all humility to his penetration and
judgment.
At the same time, since my proofs that Shakspere was a Printer are
at least quite as conclusive as the evidence brought forward by
others to demonstrate that he was Doctor, Lawyer, Soldier, Sailor,
Catholic, Atheist, Thief, I would claim as a right that my opponent,
having rejected my theory that he was a Printer, should be
consistent, and at once, reject all theories which attribute to him
special knowledge, and repose upon the simple belief that
Shakspere, the Actor and Playwright, was a man of surpassing
genius, of keen observation, and never-failing memory.
W. B.
 I. SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING
OFFICE

I N November, 1589, the company acting at the Blackfriars Theatre

thought it would be advantageous to their interests to send in to
the Privy Council a memorial, certifying that they had never given
cause of displeasure by introducing upon the stage ‘matters of State
or Religion’. The actors who signed this memorial styled themselves
‘Her Majesty’s Poor Players’, and among them appears the name of
William Shakspere. We here meet the Poet’s name for the first time
after he had left his home at Stratford-on-Avon, about four years
previously. What his employment had been in the intervening period
is a question which few of his biographers have cared to ask, and
which not one has answered.
It is usually supposed that immediately upon his arrival in London he
became in some way associated with the Stage,—but there is no
evidence of this. On the contrary, we shall give reasons for believing
that coming to London poor, needy, and in search of employment, he
was immediately taken into the service of Vautrollier the Printer.
Thomas Vautrollier, entitled in his patents ‘typographus Londinensis,
in claustro vulgo Blackfriers commorans’, was a Frenchman who
came to England at the commencement of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
He was admitted a brother of the Stationers’ Company in 1564, and
commenced business as Printer and Publisher in Blackfriars, working
in the same premises up to the time of his death, which occurred in
1588. His character as a scholar stands high, and his workmanship is
excellent. He had a privilege, or monopoly, for the printing and sale
of certain books, as all the chief Printers then had. Shortly before his
death he married his daughter to Richard Field, who for this reason,
and because he succeeded to the premises and business of the
widow, is erroneously supposed by Ames to have served his
apprenticeship to Vautrollier. But why bring in the name of Richard
Field? The reply is important. Field was Shakspere’s own townsman,
and being of about the same age and social rank, the boys probably
grew up together as playfellows. Field’s father, Henry Field, was a
Tanner at Stratford-on-Avon, and Halliwell says ‘a friend of
Shakspere’s family’. Early in 1578 young Field came up to London,
and at Michaelmas was apprenticed for seven years to George
Bishop, Printer and Publisher. Being in the same trade as Vautrollier,
Field would naturally become acquainted with him; and in 1588, a
year after he was out of his time, he married Vautrollier’s daughter.
Here, then, we seem to have a missing link supplied in the chain of
Shakspere’s history. In 1585 Shakspere came up to London in a
‘needy’ state. To whom would he be more likely to apply than to his
old playmate Richard Field. Field, a young man nearly out of his
apprenticeship, on terms of intimacy with Vautrollier, could do
nothing better than recommend him to the father of his future wife.
Once introduced we may be sure that Shakspere, with his fund of
wit and good humour, would always be a welcome guest; and that
this friendly feeling was maintained between him and the Vautrollier-
Field families receives confirmation from the fact that Richard Field,
who succeeded to the shop and business soon after the death of his
father-in-law, actually put to press the two first printed works of the
great Poet, the ‘Venus and Adonis’, 1593, and the ‘Lucrece’, 1594.
Here then, in Vautrollier’s employ, perhaps as a Press-reader,
perhaps as an Assistant in the shop, perchance as both, we imagine
Shakspere to have spent about three years upon his first arrival in
the metropolis. Placed thus in Blackfriars, close to the Theatre, close
to the Taverns, close to the Inns of Court, and in what was then a
fashionable neighbourhood, Shakspere enjoyed excellent
opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of men and manners.
Field did not succeed Vautrollier immediately upon his death. His
widow endeavoured for some time to carry on the business alone;
but for some unknown reason the Stationers’ Company withheld
their license; and after a fruitless effort to obtain it, she was
succeeded by her son-in-law. These business changes would
probably be the occasion of which Shakspere eagerly availed himself
to join the Players at the neighbouring theatre.
The Sonnets, although not printed until 1609, are generally
acknowledged to be among Shakspere’s earliest efforts, and we
cannot help imagining that Sonnet XXIV was written while in the
employment of Vautrollier; or at any rate, while the shop, hung
round with prints, was fresh in the Poet’s memory. May be some of
their warmth was inspired by the charms of the buxom widow
herself who was apostrophised by the Poet when wishing her
To find where your true image pictured lies,
Which in my bosom’s shop is hanging still,
That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes.
Sonnet xxiv.
At any rate, we have here in three lines as many metaphors, and all
derived from just such employment as we suppose Shakspere at that
time to have been engaged in.
Then, again, to a Printer’s widow, not over young, what more telling
than the following reference?
Or what strong hand can hold Time’s swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
Sonnet lxvi.
Note here, that the jet black ink which everybody admires in old
manuscripts was much too thick for a running hand, and had long
been superseded by a writing fluid which, in the 16th century, was
far from equalling the bright gloss of Printing Ink.
Before turning to the internal evidence supplied by Shakspere’s
writings in support of our theory, let us glance at the list of works
printed and published by Vautrollier, and see if Shakspere reflected
any trace of their influence upon his mind.
From Herbert’s ‘Typographical Antiquities’ we find that in the ‘Shop’
would be the two following works:
A brief Introduction to Music. Collected by P. Delamote, a
Frenchman; Licensed.
London, 8vo., 1574.
Discursus Cantiones; quæ ab argumento sacræ vocantur, quinque et
sex partivm. Autoribus Thoma Tallisio et Guilielmo Birdo. Cum
Privilegio.
London, oblong quarto, 1575.
Delamote’s Introduction, as well as the Sacred Songs by Tallis and
Bird, were Vautrollier’s copyright, and we have already seen how
intimate an acquaintance Shakspere had with music. Might not the
above works have been the mine from which he obtained his
knowledge?
Of religious works, Vautrollier printed and published several, all in
accordance with the principles of the great Reformation, and the
writer who argued that from his intimate knowledge of the tenets of
Calvin, Shakspere must have been himself a Calvinist, would have
found sufficient explanation of his special knowledge in the following
books from Vautrollier’s press:
The Neu Testament, with diversities of Reading and profitable
annotations. An epistle by J. Calvin, prefixed.
4to., 1575:
Institutio Christianæ Religionis, Joanne Caluino authorè.
8vo., London, 1576: and
The Institution of Christian Religion [not in Herbert’s Ames] written
in Latine, by Mr. John Calvine, and translated into English by Thomas
Norton. Imprinted at London, by Thomas Vautrollier.
8vo., 1578.
This last contains an Epistle to the Reader by John Calvin, as well as
an address headed Typographus Lectori. Of each of the above works
several editions were published.
In one of his pedantic speeches Holofernes exclaims:
Venetia! Venetia!
Chi non te vede non ti pretia.
Old Mantuan! Old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not,
loveth thee not.
Love’s Labour Lost, iv, 2.
Where did Shakspere learn his Italian, which, although then a court
language, he quotes but rarely, and in an awkward manner? Surely
at second-hand, and probably quoting the phrases current at the
period, or still more probably from conning in his spare moments:
An Italian Grammer, written in Latin by M. Scipio Lentulo: and turned
into Englishe by Henry Grantham. Typis Tho. Vautrolerij.
London, 16mo., 1578.
This was put to press again in 1587. In Vautrollier’s ‘shop’ he would
also have often in his hands:
Campo di Fior; or else the Flourie field of foure Languages, for the
furtherance of the learners of the Latine, French, English, but chiefly
of the Italian tongue. Imprinted at London, by Thos. Vautrollier,
dwelling in the Black Friers by Ludgate.
16mo., 1583.
Here, again, we have a very extensive Italian vocabulary upon all
common subjects quite sufficient for an occasional quotation; as to
the plots taken from Italian sources, such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’, it
seems to be now generally admitted that Shakspere in every
instance followed the English translations.
But Shakspere knew also a little French, and uses a few colloquial
sentences here and there. In one play indeed, Henry V, iii. 4, there
is a short scene between the Princess and her attendant, in alternate
French and English, which reads almost like a page of a Vocabulary.
Shakspere’s knowledge of Latin was apparently about the same in
extent; and for the uses to which he has applied both tongues, the
Flourie Field of Four Languages, already quoted as the source of his
Italian, would be quite sufficient. If not, he had the opportunity of
consulting under his master’s roof
A Treatise on French Verbs.
8vo., 1580.
A most easie, perfect, and absolute way to learne the Frenche
tongue.
8vo., 1581; and
Phrases Linguæ Latinæ. 8vo., 1579;
the last compiled from the writings of that great Printer, Aldus
Manutius.
Some of Shakspere’s biographers have maintained that he must
have been acquainted with Plutarch and other classical writers,
because he quotes from their works. Dr. Farmer in his masterly
essay on the learning of Shakspere, has shown that the Poet took all
his quotations, even to the blunders, from the edition of Plutarch, in
English, printed and published by Vautrollier, a year or two before we
suppose that Shakspere entered into his service:
Plutarch’s Lives, from the French of Amyott, by Sir Tho. North.
Licensed.
 Folio, 1579.
Moreover, Vautrollier, who was a good scholar, appears to have had a
great liking for Ovid. He printed Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ovid’s
Epistles, and Ovid’s Art of Love. Now it is a notable fact that
although Shakspere, unlike contemporary writers who abound in
classical allusions, scarcely ever mentions a Latin poet, and still more
seldom a Greek poet, yet he quotes Ovid several times:
As Ovid, be an outcast quite abjured.
Taming of the Shrew, i, 1.

Tit. Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?

Luc. Grandsire, ’tis Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Titus, iv, 1.

I am here with thee and thy goats as the most

capricious poet, honest Ovid was among the Goths.
As You Like It, iii, 3.

Ovidius Naso was the man.

Love’s Labour Lost, iv, 2.
Of Cicero’s Oration Vautrollier issued several editions, and had the
privilege ‘ad imprimendum solum’ granted him; and to this work
also, on at least two occasions, Shakspere refers:
Hath read to thee
Sweet poetry and Tully’s Orator.
Titus, iv, 1.

Sweet Tully.
2 Henry VI, iv, 1.
The fact to be noted with reference to these classical quotations is
this: Shakspere quotes those Latin authors, and those only, of which
Vautrollier had a ‘license’; and makes no reference to other and
popular writers, such as Virgil, Pliny, Aurelius, and Terence, editions
of whose works Vautrollier was not allowed to issue, but all of which,
and especially the last, were great favorites in the sixteenth century,
as is shown by the numerous editions which issued from the presses
of Vautrollier’s fellow-craftsmen.
Among other publications of Vautrollier was an English translation of
Ludovico Guicciardini’s Description of the Low Countries, originally
printed in 1567. In this work is one of the earliest accounts of the
invention of printing at Haarlem, which is thus described in the
Batavia of Adrianus Junius, 1575. ‘This person [Coster] during his
afternoon walk, in the vicinity of Haarlem, amused himself with
cutting letters out of the bark of the beech tree, and with these, the
characters being inverted as in seals, he printed small sentences.’
The idea is cleverly adapted by Orlando:
these trees shall be my books,
And in their barks my thoughts I’ll character.
As You Like It, iii, 2.
Lastly, it would be an interesting task to compare the Mad Folk of
Shakspere, most of whom have the melancholy fit, with
A Treatise of Melancholie: containing the Causes thereof and
Reasons of the Strange Effects it worketh in our Minds and Bodies.
London, 8vo., 1586.
This was printed by Vautrollier, and probably read carefully for press
by the youthful Poet.
The disinclination of Shakspere to see his plays in print has often
been noticed by his biographers, and is generally accounted for by
the theory that reading the plays in print would diminish the desire
to hear them at the theatre. This is a very unsatisfactory reason, and
not so plausible as the supposition that, sickened with reading other
people’s proofs for a livelihood, he shrunk from the same task on his
own behalf. His contemporaries do not appear to have shared in the
same typographical aversion. The plays of Ben Jonson and
Beaumont and Fletcher were all printed in the life-time of their
authors. Francis Quarles had the satisfaction and pride of seeing all
his works in printed form, and showed his appreciation and
knowledge of Typography by the following quaint lines, which we
quote from the first edition, literatim:
On a Printing-house.
The world’s a Printing-house: our words, our thoughts,
Our deeds, are Characters of sev’rall sizes:
Each Soule is a Compos’ter; of whose faults
The Levits are Correctors: Heav’n revises;
Death is the common Press; fro whence, being driven,
W’ are gathered Sheet by Sheet, & bound for Heaven.
From Divine Fancies, 1632,
lib. iv, p. 164.
 II. THE TECHNICALITIES OF
PRINTING, AS USED BY SHAKSPERE

N ATURE endows no man with knowledge, and although a quick

apprehension may go far toward making the true lover of Nature
a Botanist, Zoologist, or Entomologist, and although the society of
‘Men of Law’, of Doctors, or of Musicians may, with the help of a
good memory, store a man’s mind with professional phraseology, yet
the opportunity of learning must be there; and no argument can be
required to prove that, however highly endowed with genius or
imagination, no one could evolve from his internal consciousness the
terms, the customs, or the working implements of a trade with
which he was unacquainted. If, then, we find Shakspere’s mind
familiar with the technicalities of such an art as Printing—an art
which, in his day, had no such connecting links with the common
needs and daily pleasures of the people, as now—if we find him
using its terms and referring frequently to its customs, our claims to
call him a Printer stand upon a firmer base than those of the Lawyer,
the Doctor, the Soldier, or the Divine; and we have strong grounds
for asking the reader’s thoughtful attention to some quotations and
arguments, which, if not conclusive that Shakspere was a Printer,
afford indubitable evidence of his having become at some period of
his career practically acquainted with the details of a Printing Office.
We propose, then, to carefully examine the works of the Poet for any
internal evidence of Typographical knowledge which they may
afford.
But here, at the outset, we are met by obvious difficulties. Would
Shakspere, or any poet have made use of trade terms and technical
words, or have referred to customs peculiar to and known by only a
very small class of the community in plays addressed to the general
public? They might have been familiar enough to the mind of the
writer, but would certainly have sounded very strange in the ears of
the public. Shakspere was too artistic and too wise to have
committed so glaring a blunder. His technical terms are used
unintentionally, and with the most charming unconsciousness.
Therefore, when we meet with a word or phrase in common use by
Printers, it is so amalgamated with the context, that although some
other form of expression would have been chosen had not
Shakspere been a Printer, yet the general reader or hearer is not
struck by any incongruity of language.
What simile could be more natural for a Printer-poet to use or more
appropriate for the public to hear than this:
Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince;
For she did print your royal father off,
Conceiving you.
Winter’s Tale, v, 1.
Here, surely, the Printer’s daily experience of the exact agreement
between the face of the type and the impression it yields must have
suggested the image.
Printers in Shakspere’s time often had patents granted them by
which the monopoly of certain works was secured; and unscrupulous
printers frequently braved all the pains and penalties to which they
were liable by pirating such editions. It is this carelessness of
consequences which is glanced at by Mistress Ford when debating
with Mistress Page concerning the insult put upon them by the
heavy old Knight, Sir John Falstaff:
He cares not what he puts into the Press when he would
put us two.
Merry Wives, ii, 1.
What printer is there who has put to press a second edition of a
book working page for page in a smaller type and shorter measure
but will recognise the Typographer’s reminiscences in the following
description of Leontes’ babe by Paulina:
 Behold, my Lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father ...
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.
Winter’s Tale, ii, 3.
Is it conceivable that a sentence of four lines containing five distinct
typographical words, three of which are especially technical, could
have proceeded from the brain of one not intimately acquainted with
Typography? Again, would Costard have so gratuitously used a
typographical idea, had not the Poet’s mind been teeming with
them?
I will do it, sir, in print.
Love’s Labour Lost, iii, 1.
The deep indentation made on the receiving paper when the strong
arm of a lusty pressman had pulled the bar with too great vigour is
glanced at here:
Think when we talk of horses that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i’ the receiving earth.
Henry V, Chorus.
The frequency with which the words print or imprint are used is very
noticeable:
The story that is printed in her blood.
Much Ado about Nothing,
iv, 1.

I love a ballad in print.

Winter’s Tale, iv, 4.

She did print your royal father off conceiving you.

Winter’s Tale, v, 1.

You are but as a form in wax, by him imprinted.

 Midsummer-Night’s
Dream, i, 1.

His heart ... with your print impressed.

Love’s Labour Lost, ii, 1.

I will do it, sir, in print.

Love’s Labour Lost, iii, 1.

This weak impress of love.

Two Gentlemen of Verona,
iii, 2.

To print thy sorrows plain.

Titus Andronicus, iv, 1.

Sink thy knee i’ the earth;

Of thy deep duty, more impression show.
Coriolanus, v, 3.

Some more time

Must wear the print of his remembrance out.
Cymbeline, ii, 3.

The impressure.
Twelfth Night, ii, 5.

He will print them, out of doubt.

Merry Wives of Windsor, ii,
1.

We quarrel in print, by the book.

As You Like It, v, 4.

Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow.

Lear, i, 4.
 His sword death’s stamp.
Coriolanus, ii, 2.
Hear how deftly Title-pages are treated:
Sim. Knights,
To say you’re welcome were superfluous.
To place upon the volume of your deeds,
As in a title-page, your worth of arms,
Were more than you expect, or more than’s fit.
Pericles, ii, 3.
Hear, too, Northumberland, who thus addresses the bearer of fearful
news:
This man’s brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
2 Henry IV, i, 1.
Evidently Shakspere had a good idea of what a Title-page should
contain.
From Title to Preface is but a turn of the leaf, and its introductory
character is thus noticed:
Is but a Preface of her worthy praise,
The chief perfections of that lovely dame.
1 Henry VI, v, 5.
We must not forget a well-known passage about the introduction of
Printing to England, which has caused much discussion. It is where
Jack Cade accuses Lord Saye:
Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in
erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our forefathers
had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused
printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity,
thou hast built a paper mill.
 2 Henry VI, iv, 7.
The early-invented fable of Faustus, and the assistance given him by
the Devil in the multiplication of the first printed bibles (certainly a
most short-sighted step on the part of his Satanic Majesty) had got
fixed in the minds of the populace, and created among the ignorant
a prejudice against the Printing-press, and it was to this feeling Jack
Cade appealed. All our Chroniclers place the erection of a Printing-
press in England some years too early, but no one except Shakspere
has put the date so far back as 1450, the date of Jack Cade’s
insurrection: it is simply a blunder; but it was the Printing-press and
its introduction to this country that was in the Author’s brain, and
the exact date of that event was unknown, being probably as
difficult to arrive at then as it is now.[1]
We have already noticed in how simple a manner originated that
grand discovery which, instead of one perishable manuscript,
produced numberless printed books, and thus enabled mankind to
perpetuate for ever the knowledge they had gained. The real
superiority of the Press over the pen was the easy multiplication of
copies, and this was the idea in the Poet’s brain when he wrote:
She carved thee for her seal and meant thereby
Thou shouldst print more nor let that copy die.
Sonnet xi.
Type-founding has in these days arrived at such perfection, that
most of the blemishes and faults common in Shakspere’s time are
now unknown. Under the old system of hand moulds a type founder
was sure when commencing work to cast a certain number of
imperfect letters, because until the mould by use got warmed, the
liquid metal solidified too soon, and the body or shank of the type
was shrunk, and became no inappropriate emblem of an old man’s
limbs whose hose would be
A world too wide for his shrunk shank.
As You Like It, ii, 7.
The names of the various sizes of type in the sixteenth century were
few compared with our modern list; Canon, Great Primer, Pica, Long
Primer, and Brevier almost complete the catalogue; and however
familiar Shakspere may have been with their names, it is difficult to
imagine any scene in which these technical names could be
introduced with propriety. Yet, of one, Nonpareil, a new small type
first introduced from Holland about 1650, and which for its beauty
and excellence was much admired, Shakspere seems to have
conceived a most favorable idea. Prospero, praising his daughter,
calls her ‘a Nonpareil’ (Tempest, Act iii, Sc. 2); Olivia is the ‘Nonpareil
of beauty’ (Twelfth Night, Act i, Scene 5); and Posthumus speaks of
Imogen as the ‘Nonpareil of her time’ (Cymbeline, Act ii, Scene 5).
The exactitude and precision of everything connected with the
arrangement of printing from types is curiously hinted at by
Touchstone, when describing the preciseness of the Courtiers’
quarrels:
We quarrel in print by the book.
As You Like It, v, 4;
that is, no step was taken except according to acknowledged rules.
It often happens when a book comes to its last sheet that the text
runs short, and two or three blank or vacant pages remain at the
end. In the middle of one of these it is usual to place the
typographer’s imprint. What compositor is there who has rejoiced in
such fat pages[2] but will not at once recognise the following
allusion:
The vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning mayst thou taste.
Sonnet lxxvii.
People with a grievance write now-a-days to the Newspapers, in
hope of redress. In Shakspere’s time the only method to make
wrongs public and to show up abuses was by the Broadside, in prose
or rhyme, passing from hand to hand. Many of these have survived
to the present day, and are treasured up as curious relics of a by-
gone age. They were frequently libellous and grievously personal,
and hence the point of Pistol’s remark:
Fear we broadsides?
2 Henry IV, ii, 4.
We must not think here that the naval ‘broadside’—a volley of guns
from the broadside of a ship—is meant. Shakspere does not use the
word once in that sense, nor was it a conversational word in his
time. That Pistol was indeed thinking of a printed broad sheet is
evident from the whole sentence, which, although composed of
disjointed exclamations continues with the following expressions,
both strongly suggestive of the Composing room or Reader’s closet:
Come we to full points here? and are etceteras nothing?
2 Henry IV, ii, 4.
‘Come we to full points here?’ This question is often a puzzler for
both Compositor and Reader. Indeed, few things cause more
disagreements between Author and Printer than the very loose ideas
held by the former concerning punctuation. Some writers, like
Dickens in his early days, insist upon ornamenting their sentences
with little dashes and big dashes, with colons where commas should
be, and with
Points that seem impossible.
Pericles, v, 1.
In vain does the Printer declare that in altering the Author’s
unregulated punctuation,
No levelled malice infests one comma,
Timon, i, 1,
the irate Author exclaims, that he
Puts the period often from his place,
Lucrece, l. 565,
and adds, ‘Follow
My point and period ... ill or well.
Lear, iv, 7.

You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent.

Love’s Labour Lost, iv, 2.

Wherefore stand you on nice points?

3 Henry VI, iv, 7.
The Printer has no resource but compliance, which, however, unless
the affront be very severe, will soon
Stand a comma ’tween their amities,
Hamlet, v, 2,
and thus heal the breach, and end all happily with mutual
Notes of Admiration.
Winter’s Tale, v, 2.
‘And are etceteras nothing?’ What a typographical question! and
probably the only occasion on which so unpoetical a figure has done
duty in any drama. The &c. makes an insignificant appearance in
either MS. or type, and yet how often it stands for whole pages of
matter. Hence the point of the question.
If a book is folio, and two pages of type have been composed, they
are placed in proper position upon the imposing stone, and enclosed
within an iron or steel frame called a ‘chase’, small wedges of hard
wood termed ‘coigns’ or ‘quoins’ being driven in at opposite sides to
make all tight.
By the four opposing coigns,
Which the world together joins.
Pericles, iii, 1.
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