A fact from Composition roller appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 12 February 2013. The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that in letterpress printing, composition rollers are used to apply ink to the bed of type? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Did you know archive/2013/February. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Composition roller.

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The article describes the evolution of composition rollers into the early 20th century, and then abruptly stops. What happened then? Do these rollers still survive in use? Were they superseded by something else (such as rubber rollers)? Were they made obsolete by advances in the presses themselves? Inquiring minds want to know! --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 13:22, 12 February 2013 (UTC)Reply

(From a writer of the article) I think the issue is more that letterpress printing was largely superseded in the mid-20th century by offset lithography. That said, the best I can tell, they were partially superseded by rubber rollers, (which I am trying to find the cite that says they tried those as well in the 19th century but that they didn't work right given the knowledge of rubber at the time), BUT composition rollers are still made and are still for sale. The trick has been trying to find reliable sources online - blogposts, etc. indicate that yes, they are still in use, and so do the websites for the sellers (e.g. Tarheel Roller & Brayer Co., but I don't feel comfortable using those as cites. Thoughts? Morgan Riley (talk) 13:38, 12 February 2013 (UTC)Reply

So on further inquiry of the blogosphere and forumsphere (e.g. see here (Feb 2012) and here), it seems that rubber and other synthetics may have mostly replaced composition rollers, however, there too seems to be a strong following for the composition rollers, and they do appear in quite a number of letterpress blogs by printers who prefer their advantages. So it is factually correct that they ARE still used in letterpress printing as more than a mere historical novelty, though not as the only or even predominant method. By contrast, I have yet to find any such claim for the ink ball. I can put it in the text, but I really don't think I can cite to forum-posts for support of a WP article. Anyone with knowledge of the subject know of a more acceptable source for all this? Morgan Riley (talk) 14:57, 12 February 2013 (UTC)Reply