IBA
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

J THE ninth letter of the alphabet. As a capital it
is a straight line with a serif above and below,
and as a lower case it is distinguished by having
a dot over it, the only letter which has one, ex¬
cept j. These two letters, in fact, were identical
for a long time, and when /they were differentiated from
each other it was done by making the consonant i longer
than the vowel i, and the capital consonant I with a little
curve at the bottom which the vowel did not have. In
dictionaries these two letters were treated as one until
after the first quarter of this century, and in some works
this confusion is still carried on. In a Latin religious
book, printed in Belgium since 1880 for the use of the
pious, ejus appears as eius and jacet as iacet. In the
upper case J does not appear by the side of I, but is
transposed to the place where the twenty-fifth letter of
the alphabet should be. It is preceded by X, Y, Z. In
the lower case i is among the most-used letters. It is
as thin as any alphabetic letter, and the capital I is the
thinnest capital. The lower case varies setwise from a
fourth to a third of an em, and the capital from two-
fifths to one-half. The manuscript letter for the capital
is very misleading. In many persons' penmanship the
two are exactly alike, although there are a great num¬
ber who extend the bottom stroke much below the line.
Where the writer confounds the two, or where no other
J occurs, it is better to construe them thus in initials than
as I, Three or four of the commonest first names begin
with J, such as John, James and Joseph, while compar¬
atively few take I.

Ibarra, Joachim, printer to the King of Spain, who
carried the typographical art to a degree of excellence
unknown in that country before his time. Ibarra was
a native of Saragossa, where he was born in 1726, His
presses produced fine editions of the Bible, the Mazara-
bic Missal, Mariana's History of Spain, Don Quixote, and
Grabrial's Spanish translation of Sallust, He invented
a superior kind of printing-ink. Dr. Franklin speaks in
terms of high commendation of him. Ibarra died in 1785.
Icelandic.—The language of the people of Iceland.
The type of Icelandic is very nearly the same as that of
Swedish or Danish. The Saxon th and the oe form two
additional letters. Formerly the black-letter characters
were used, but now the custom is to use the Roman letters.
Runic characters were employed before the introduc¬
tion of Christianity, about the year 1000. The language
itself is the oldest in Western Europe. It is a member
of the Scandinavian family, but is far more richly in-
fiected than Danish or Swedish, having altered very little
since the dawn of history. Little printing is done in
Icelandic, as the whole population of Iceland does not
exceed 65,000. There are three or four newspapers.
Printing was introduced into Iceland in 1531, when a
breviary was printed at Hoolum from types rudely cut,
it is alleged, in wood. In 1574, however, metal types
were provided, and several works were brought out.
After a period of decline printing was revived in 1773.
Iconotype.—An American process, invented by
William Brah of Milwaukee, for engraving an intaglio
or sunken drawing in a transparent ground on a trans¬
parent base over the original drawing, which can then
be electrotyped and used for typographical printing.—
Caspar.

272
 

Idaho.—The name of one of the United States, In
1870 seven and in 1880 ten newspapers were published
in Idaho, the earliest then living having been founded
in 1864. Newspapers there, as everywhere else in the
West, preceded all other attempts at printing. In 1890
thirty-eight newspapers were issued. Boise City, the
capital, is the chief town.

Igualar Punturas (Sp.).—To equalize the points
so that margins shall be equal.

Illinois.—The name of one of the States of the
American Union. Printing was introduced into Illinois
in 1815 at Kaskaskia by Matthew Duncan. In Chicago
a newspaper was published in 1833 by John Calhoun.
It was entitled the Chicago Democrat, Springfield pub¬
lished a newspaper in 1827, Peoria in 1834, and Galena
in 1828, The total number of periodicals issued in 1840
was 43; in 1850, 107; in 1860, 286; in 1870, 505; in
1880,1,017; and in 1890,1,309. Of these 111 were daily,
1 tri-weekly, 20 semi-weekly, 938 weekly, 5 bi-weekly,
32 semi-monthly, 190 monthly, 4 bi-monthly and 8 quar¬
terly. Illinois stands second in number of periodicals
among the States of the Union, but in the number of
copies issued is third, being exceeded by both New York
and Pennsylvania. Besides Chicago, the chief centres
of population and printing are Alton, Aurora, Belleville,
Bloomington, Cairo, Decatur, Joliet, Peoria, Quincy,
Rockford and Springfield. Combined, however, these
smaller towns would not make a respectable second to
Chicago, which monopolizes the trade and news of that
section to an extent unknown elsewhere in the Union.
Most of the printing-offices and newspapers in the State
outside of Chicago are small; the latter are generally
printed on the auxiliary plan, and the drummers of Chi¬
cago take away a very large proportion of the printing
which might otherwise be done in the local centres. The
amount of business in Chicago is enormous. In news¬
papers it only falls behind New York and London, and
in printing behind them and Philadelphia.

Illumination.—The decoration formerly employed
at the beginnings of books or chapters, or whole pages,
consisting of paintings, frequently in the most brilliant
colors. The term illuminated is derived from the use of
minium for a red color by the artists ; hence called min-
iatores or illuminator es. Gilding of two kinds was also
employed, fiat and raised or embossed, A great variety
of colors were used in conjunction with the gilding. Oc¬
casionally something of the same kind is attempted now,
but the multiplicity of times the form must go on the
press raises the cost of the work to such a degree as to
practically forbid it.

Illustrated Newspapers.—Illustrations have al¬
ways been used by printers, but from the difficulty of
printing them properly in a short time they were little
employed on newspapers until within the last half cen¬
tury. The first attempt in English which continued
was in Punch in 1841, although the Penny Magazine, a
periodical giving information somewhat in the style of
a popularized cyclopsedia, had used illustrations largely
from its beginning in 1832. This magazine was reprinted
in America; but it was not until the Illustrated London
News was established in 1843 that it could be said that
illustrated journalism had begun.    The first of these