Owing to the steady deterioration of paper and Presswork, which was the real cause of the typographical decline, woodcuts by the end of the sixteenth century had gone quite out of fashion, the old simple style having been lost and no printer being able to do justice to the finer work on which designers insisted.
"Fine Books"
Alfred W. Pollard
Even when the printers had learnt how to print two folio pages at the same time the Presswork remained very laborious.
"Fine Books"
Alfred W. Pollard
That a printer by the selection and arrangement of type, by good Presswork and the use of pretty capitals and tailpieces, could make a book charming to eye and hand, without any help from an illustrator-such an idea as this had nearly perished.
"Fine Books"
Alfred W. Pollard