A Very High Speed Electro-Optical-Mechanical Phototypesetting Machine

Adanced-performance automated phototypesetting systems which have been introduced to the market recently fall into two general classifications¿the electro-optical-mechanical and the all-electric configurations. Each category has its own advantages in performance, price, and application. This paper describes an advanced electro-optical-mechanical machine, now in field test, which has many important advantages over existing machines: speed, exceedingly high font capacity, very high production/cost ratio, and excellent quality of type production, reliability, and versatility. These advantages are gained by designing a built-in digital computer to perform many of the mechanical and optical functions ordinarily associated with existing machines. During the exposure of a line of type, no optical components are in motion and only one mechanical assembly is in relatively slow continuous rotary motion. (See Fig. 3 of the text for the system configuration). The extremely large font capacity makes the machine ideal for typesetting oriental languages and complex scientific publications.