Phototypesetting
The term photo set or light kit was used for a method of sentence production, in which the transfer was to be set characters on a carrier film by exposing the characters using an optical (and later optoelectronic ) method with visible light.
The light fell here through a stencil with a negative character through an optical system to a movie or on photo paper. The photo set method is also called " cold" or " weightless " set called because no header lines were cast, such as in the Linotype and less mechanical limited than in the lead sentence. You could for example put characters into each other or distort Scripture. The exposure through a mask was done photographically. Photo Electronic versions were called light kit and laser set in which no template generates the character, but a cathode ray tube or a laser beam transferred the characters on the photo material.
In phototypesetting reproduction templates were generated that could be used, for example after the assembly of the pressure in the offset printing, and gravure printing.
History
Already received in 1893 as one of the first Arthur Ferguson a patent on a photographically working typesetting system. The further development of his system is unknown. In the following years numerous other patents have been granted, but almost always without a marketable result.
The first generation of phototypesetting machines, which actually came in the 1950s on the market, was developed from the existing metal type models. Examples are the InterType photo Etter and Monophoto. They were based technically on their relatives InterType typesetting machine and Monotype, and retained their basic construction in. The difference was that instead of pouring an exposure chamber was assembled, in which the matrices were exposed to writing negative sequentially on film. In Germany, the first photo typesetting machine, a Monophoto, erected in 1959.
Second-generation machines used the same optical principle, but were a completely separate new development. In 1960, the brass line and font manufacturer Berthold presented from Berlin ambidextrous to use Diatype for the display settings. Here the letters were transmitted from a script pane of glass optically by means of fluoroscopy on photographic material with a very hard grade ( line film ). Were set primarily short texts and headlines, which then in the downstream assembly - has been compiled to full screen - often combined with lead type flags. Devices for the amount set came in 1962 with the Linofilm or photon ( formerly Lumitype ) on the market. Especially with the Linofilm - phototypesetting system of the former Linotype GmbH managed the leap into a hitherto unknown performance level. In all early phototypesetting systems, however, there was insufficient solutions for the correction of printer's errors, because data carriers, it was usually to tape whose faulty "Content" could be corrected only with great effort.
As a result, the devices were mechanically evolve and especially with the early electronic components, which soon resulted in a significant increase in speed. Legendary here are the Linotron and Linotronic machines Eschborner manufacturer Linotype as well as the ADS ( commercial dialogue system ) by Berthold. There were also manufacturers such as Addressograph - multigraph, Bobst, Dr. Boeger ( Scangraphic ), CG ( Compugraphic ) Güttinger, Harris, Monotype or stamp.
From 1967, the third generation machines were to get. For electronic devices, the characters were now no longer transmitted with negative letter patterns on the film. In light sentence or Lasersatz now used the characters were digitally stored in the machine and were exposed from a cathode ray tube or a laser on the film. The picture has been transferred to powerful principle, digitally operating computer systems and in particular the exposure, that is, the generation of the printing original, uncoupled from the text entry. Considerable work was also Facilitating the associated risk of generating justified in a ( arbitrarily long ) flag set. Both feed as letter spacing on a full line length and the word separation could be from now on automatically with the software for the devices performed. The set of quality thus generated is not surpassed even by today's conventional desktop publishing systems. Of importance here are the Linotronic 300 from Linotype, the exposer of the DTP based on the page description language PostScript only opened the way, and the still -based font slices mechanical Präzisionsbelichter by Berthold (eg apu ).
At the end of the Fotosatzära (at the end of the 1980s ) ran systems, eg on the basis of then current Sun workstations, could provide the PostScript output. Here are also the first signs of (computer) graphics as well as EBV ( electronic image processing ). The fundamentally open architecture and - if at first only rudimentary - text and image integration paved the way for desktop publishing.
Of interest is certainly that the digitization of the scriptures, so decomposing a single letter in individually controllable pixels, already in electronic phototypesetting happened. More specifically then you talked about the light sentence or laser set. The first digitally operated machine came from the engineer Rudolf Hell in Kiel, whose company developed the HELL digiset.
At the end of the curve shapes of the letters have already been described by means of vectors which have only been ousted by the Bezier curves in PostScript. Industry's phototypesetting has today been replaced by the DTP.
Types of phototypesetting machines
After the first generation of re-engineered lead typesetting machines had been replaced, there have been various types of equipment of newly developed phototypesetting machines. Here, these specialized for their respective area of application.
The title setting tools called began to when large font sizes for headings or posters were needed. In the display settings, these devices were used. With special accessories you turned round so set forth or could distort the Scripture. The title Put all appliances worked by the opto- mechanical principle. The beams of light source were first through the typeface carrier. The negative characters could be on a font disk, a type plate or a plastic film strip. Using an optical lens system, then the size of the character has been set before being exposed on film or photographic paper. Most systems allowed a visual inspection of the sentence. Either showed a luminous foil to the last set character or they appeared black immediately visible on a pre-activated film. The right character spacing was adjusted manually with the help of a Dicktenstrichen that had to line up appropriately for the optimum distance, rarely there was for an automatic. Most systems had to be operated in a dark room, as the photo material was open under the unit. However, a few devices could be operated in daylight, with them, the film was in a special cartridge required ( eg when Typomatic of stamp). Other titles set equipment operating in the darkroom were called eg Letterphot of Diversum Letterphot, Mini Star and Staromat of Berthold.
The phototypesetting machines, you started mainly for the set of text blocks were designated as compact systems or composite systems. For the compact systems, all processing elements were summarized by entering the text to the exposure in one case. A key component was an integrated microcomputer to control the system ( computing, storage, exposure operation ). On the control computer and the software, which is about hyphenation and aesthetic programs ( excluding, undercutting ) was included, set font or font Awards mixtures. The user had a keyboard for text entry and command control of the machine. A window or a screen showed the keyed text in one of them stepped line formatting, and control commands are displayed. In a second, separate design of the screen line case, italic, or bold font and lines could be represented, a true representation of the font actually used ( WYSIWYG) but there was not. This ruled only a few composite systems. In an integrated drive could save texts on diskette or magnetic tape. Examples of compact systems are: Cps Berthold Linotronic or CRTronic from Linotype.
One particular development associated with Linotype phototypesetting machines made the set - design - Terminal ( SGT ) dar. He was a development of the Austrian company Grafotron under their chief designer Hannes Schöllauf. Using the SGT could create directly on a graphic screen pages. These pages were then converted by the computer in the SCT set command of a Linotype CRTronic or Linotronic photo typesetting machine and either online or transmitted through the media to Linotronic or CRTronic for exposure. The device represented a huge step forward, as the tedious and time-consuming coding work could be saved. The SCT was sold in 1983 by the company Grafotron across Europe and produced in the late eighties by the Linotype licensed and marketed.
In the composite systems, there was also a central processing unit. You could be extended with more input terminals, paper tape readers, OCR capture or apparatus for data interchange (EDI ) could be fed through the lyrics. The data could then be processed either for the attached exposure station or output to an external storage drive. The individual components of the composite system could connect with each other, the physical support were for the exchange of information then not necessary. You spoke of an " Online System". The illuminators of a composite system mostly worked with cathode ray or laser technology. Examples of composite systems are: digiset of Hell, Tps of Berthold or Monophoto Lasercomp Monotype.
Further processing of the set product
Produced in phototypesetting equipment set is available on film or photo paper. For the manufacture of a printable document, it must be further processed. The individual steps are:
- Corrections: the exposed on film or paper text was not changed, changes therefore had, for example, cut out a line and be glued a new,
- Assembly or full-page Installation: individual parts of the text have been compiled for layout -oriented full-page,
- The copying to new slides, with cut edges were made invisible,
- Imposition, or use mounting with insertion of images.
During further processing of various cutting tools and assembly adhesives were used to insert some corrections. The work took place on a so-called light table, which illuminates the work surface from below.