the plate reproduce as
accurately and as artistically as possible the original drawing or
photograph. High lights are sometimes cut out entirely, or a fine
engraver's tool may be "run" between the lines; while a
"wood-engraved" finish is produced by cutting, in certain portions of
the plate, lines similar to those used in wood engraving.

In the price-cutting that has been going on as a result of the fierce
competition that has existed among photo-engravers during the past few
years, the artistic possibilities of the half-tone have been lost
sight of to a certain extent. The product of the engravers is sold by
the square inch, regardless of the fact that the cost of one plate may
be double the cost of another plate of the same size, but from a
different subject.

A point also worth remembering is that until the plate reaches the
finishers' hands, it has been more or less of a mechanical product;
and that the plate is made an artistic creation by the skill, care,
and brains of an intelligent class of men earning from $25 to $50 a
week. Those expecting "the best" at "the lowest price" can easily
guess about how much of this high-priced finishing they will get when
the price paid barely covers the cost of the mechanical product. Then,
engravers striving for high quality in the product pay from
twenty-five to fifty per cent higher wages, as a rule, than the cheap,
commercial shops. But the idea of square-inch price has so generally
permeated the buying public, that the larger and better shops have
been compelled, to a greater or less extent, to meet the prices of
their less skilful competitors. They are enabled to do this and give
their customers much greater value for their money, only through
better business methods, more modern facilities, and by conducting the
business on a very large scale.

The screens used in making half-tones represent an enormous outlay in
the large shops. A comparatively small screen costs in the
neighborhood of $100. A screen 18 x 20, ruled 120 or 133 lines to the
inch, costs about $500. Screens are made with different numbers of
lines to the inch, from 65, for coarse, newspaper work, up to 400. The
screens in general use are 65, 85, 100, 110, 120, 133, 150, 166, 175,
and 200; but intermediate sizes are also used, such as 125 and 140. A
screen containing 200 lines to the inch is about the finest ever used
for ordinary printing purposes, though a few screens with 250, 300,
and 400 lines to the