NBS MONOGRAPH 99 Automatic Typographic-Quality Typesetting Techniques: A State-of-the-Art Review U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS —— THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS The National Bureau of Standards ' provides measurement and technical information services essential to the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of the Nation's scientists and engineers. The Bureau serves also as a focal point in the Federal Government for assuring maximum application of the physical and engineering sciences to the advancement of technology in industry- and commerce. To accomplish this mission, the Bureau is organized into three institutes covering broad program areas of research and services: THE INSTITUTE FOR BASIC STANDARDS . provides the central basis within the United States for a complete and consistent system of physical measurements, coordinates that system with the measurement systems of other nations, and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform physical measurements throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry, and commerce. This Institute comprises a series of divisions, each serving a classical subject matter area: —Applied Mathematics—^Electricity—Metrology—Mechanics—-Heat—Atomic Physics Physical Chemistry—Radiation Physics—Laboratory Astrophysics ^—Radio Standards Laboratory,^ which includes Radio Standards Physics and Radio Standards Engineering- Office of Standard Reference Data. THE INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH . conducts materials research and provides associated materials services including mainly reference materials and data on the properties of materials. Beyond its direct interest to the Nation's scientists and engineers, this Institute yields services which are essential to the advancement of technology in industry and commerce. This Institute is organized primarily by technical fields: —Analytical Chemistry—Metallurgy'—-Reactor Radiations—^Polymers—Inorganic Mate- rials—Cryogenics ^—Materials Evaluation Laboratory—Office of Standard Reference Materials. THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGY . provides technical services to promote the use of available technolog}' and to facilitate technological innovation in industry and government. The principal elements of this Institute are: —Building Research—Electronic Instrumentation—-Textile and Apparel Technology Center—Technical Analysis—Center for Computer Sciences and Technology—Office of Weights and Measures—^Office of Engineering Standards Services—Office of Invention and Innovation—Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information.^ ' Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, Maryland, unless otherwise noted mailing Washing- ; address ton, D.C. 20234. 2 Located at Boulder, Colorado 80302. 3 Located at 5285 Port Roval Road, Springfield, Virginia 22151. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE • Alexander B. Trowbridge, Jcting Secretary NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS • A. V. Astin, Director Automatic Typographic-Quality Typesetting Techniques: A State-of-the-Art Review Mary Elizabeth Stevens and John L. Little Center for Computer Sciences and Technology Institute for Applied Technology National Bureau of Standards Washington, D.C. National Bureau of Standards Monograph 99 Issued April 7, 1967 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 70 cents Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-62198 Foreword The Research Information Center and Advisory Service on Information Processing, (RICASIP), which has been incorporated in the Technical Information Exchange, Center for Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Standards, has been engaged in a continuing program to collect information and maintain current awareness about research and development activities in the field of information processing and retrieval. An important responsibihty of RICASIP which has been jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and NBS, has been the preparation of state-of-the- art reviews on topics of current interest in various areas of this broad field. This report is one of a series intended as contributions toward improved interchange of information among those engaged in research and development in this field. The report considers new techniques for typographic-quality composition based upon ma- chine generation, manipulation, and processing of textual and other materials to be reproduced in multiple copies for distribution or publication. It should be noted that names and descriptions of specific proprietary devices and equipment have been included for the convenience of the reader, but completeness in this respect is recognized to be impossible. It is also to be noted that certain important developments have remained proprietary or have not been reported in the open Uterature. Some of the major contributors to key developments in the field may thus have been inadvertently omitted. The omission of any method or device does not necessarily imply that it is con- sidered unsuitable or unsatisfactory. Conversely, inclusion of descriptive material on any proprietary instrument, product, or process does not constitute endorsement. In general, we shall be concerned with the techniques that offer reproduction copy of typographic quality, which may be defined in terms of a variety of' factors involving human engineering, aesthetic, economic, and productivity considerations. It is to be noted that this report was prepared on the Linofilm equipment of the United States Government Printing Office. A. V. ASTIN, Director. Ill Contents Page Foreword ,. HI 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Purpose and scope of report 1 1.2 Background 2 2. Typographic quality and the compositor functions 9 3. Hardware for typographic composition , H 3.1 Hot metal casting equipment 11 3.1.1 Line casting equipment 11 3.1.2 Tape-controUed hot metal typesetters 13 3.2 Cold type techniques 15 3.2.1 Sequential card camera systems 15 3.2.2 Ribbon impression machines without tape perforators 17 3.2.3 Perforated paper tape systems 18 3.2.4 Tape perforators without printers 18 3.2.5 Teletypesetter systems 20 3.2.6 Tape perforators with ribbon impression printers 20 3.3 Photocomposition equipment 21 3.3.1 Techniques of photocomposition 22 3.3.2 Classes of photocomposers 22 3.4 Electronic character generator systems 34 3.4.1 Techniques of electronic character generation 34 3.4.2 Specific character generating equipment 35 3.5 Computers used for typography 37 3.5.1 Small special-purpose typography computers 37 3.5.2 General purpose computers used for typography 38 4. Automation of the compositor functions 41 4.1 Horizontal justification 42 4.1.1 Equipment and techniques for horizontal justification 43 4.1.2 Semi-automatic and automatic hyphenation 44 4.2 Corrections, updating, and merging 50 4.3 Vertical justification and page composition 53 4.4 Two-dimensional composition 54 4.5 Specific photocomposing equipment 56 5. Documentation appUcations 59 5.1 General purpose computer programs : 60 5.1.1 Barnett and others at M.I.T 60 5.1.2 Newcastle program 63 5.1.3 University of Pittsburgh program 63 5.2 Primary pubHcations 64 5.2.1 Computer-compiled and computer-generated primary publications 64 5.2.2 Newspaper composition 65 5.2.3 Book composition 66 5.3 Secondary pubhcations, speciahzed bibhographic aids, and integrated systems 67 5.4 Service centers 71 6. Problem areas 72 6.1 Character sets, encoding and alphabetization 72 6.2 Programming 77 6.3 Imphcations for management planning, industry adjustment and systems design 79 6.3.1 Problems of author-editor-publisher relationships 79 6.3.2 The possible role of automatic character recognition 80 6.3.3 Keyboard design and related problems 81 6.3.4 Imphcations for systems design 82 6.3.5 Imphcations for industry adjustment 85 7. Summary: The present state-of-the-art and future prospects 96 Bibliography 91 V List of Figures and Tables Page Figure 1. Example of computer-typeset tables of physical data 6 Figure 2. Typical page, "Automation and Scientific Communication, Short Papers, Pt, 1" 7 Figure 3. Special notice. Index Medicos 8 Figure 4a, 4b. Foundry type character matrices and example of cast line 11 Figure 5. Linotype Comet 12 Figure 6. Intertype linecaster 12 Figure 7. Linotype Elektron 13 Figure 8. Monotype keyboard 13 Figure 9. Monotype caster 14 Figure 10. Monotype matrix case 14 Figure 11. Recordak Listomatic 16 Figure 12. Fotolist 16 Figure 13. Compos-o-line 16 Figure 14. Fairchild Graphic Standard Teletypesetter perforator 18 Figure 15. Fairchild Graphic Multiface perforator 19 Figure 16. Mergenthaler Linomatic perforator 19 Figure 17. ATF Typesetter 19 Figure 18. Monotype narrow tape keyboard 19 Figure 19. The Teletypesetter (TTS) code 19 Figure 20. Perforated tapes used in typesetting 21 Figure 21. Sample output, Varityper Series 800 photocomposing machines 23 Figure 22. Sample output, Friden Typro 23 Figure 23. Monophoto optical system 24 Figure 24. Intertype Fotosetter 25 Figure 25. Photon disc 25 Figure 26. Photon Series 540 Tapemaster 25 Figure 27. Photon photographic system 26 Figure 28. Harris-Intertype system 27 Figure 29. Harris-Intertype installation 28 Figure 30. Harris-Intertype equipment 28 Figure 31. Linofilm grid font 28 Figure 32. Linofilm grid font turret 29 Figure 33. Linofilm system 29 Figure 34. Alphatype photocomposer 30 Figure 35. K & E engineering symbol disc 30 Figure 36. ZIP optical system 31 Figure 37. ZIP reciprocating lens 31 Figure 38. GRACE installation. National Library of Medicine 32 Figure 39. Linotron video device