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In later years, compositors — we called them printers — would use heavy cardboard flats to create mock-ups of each page, a job strictly restricted to members of the printers’ guild.

The original artwork that Ms. Severin labored over, often under intense deadlines, was then sent to compositors and eventually printed on cheap, coarse paper to be sold to children for 10 cents.

Fraught with still greater danger is, however, the frequent practice of compositors of bringing their type-stained hands in contact with their lips or keeping eatables in composing rooms, etc.

A newspaper compositor might work from 1pm to 4am, with breaks to sort the type back into slots, to eat and, inevitably, to drink.

As a compositor, she learned how to combine several visual elements into a believable on-screen image.