Abstract: The photocomposing machine has an integral keyboard and is especially useful in composing headlines and similar graphic material. A zoom lens is used to provide infinitely variable magnification of the characters. An especially simple manual zoom lens magnification control mechanism is provided, together with an electrical digital display device for indicating accurately the setting of the zoom lens. A line measure display is provided to indicate the total length of a line of characters being composed. The line measure is automatically re-calculated and a new measure is displayed after a change of the zoom lens setting, or of the "set size", so as to give an up-to-date reading of the line measure with the new size. Character widths are stored in pluggable read-only memory chips, one type style per chip. Kerning and white-space reduction values for each style are stored in the same chip as the width values. A rotary disc is used as a character matrix. The disc has characters in a plurality of concentric rows.

Abstract: The photocomposing machine has an integral keyboard and is especially useful in composing headlines and similar graphic material. A zoom lens is used to provide infinitely variable magnification of the characters. An especially simple manual zoom lens magnification control mechanism is provided, together with an electrical digital display device for indicating accurately the setting of the zoom lens. A line measure display is provided to indicate the total length of a line of characters being composed. The line measure is automatically re-calculated and a new measure is displayed after a change of the zoom lens setting, or of the "set size", so as to give an up-to-date reading of the line measure with the new size. Character widths are stored in pluggable read-only memory chips, one type style per chip. Kerning and white-space reduction values for each style are stored in the same chip as the width values. A rotary disc is used as a character matrix. The disc has characters in a plurality of concentric rows.

Abstract: The character disc of the photocomposing machine has a "sandwich" construction in which the characters are located close to one another on a piece of film which is "sandwiched" between two glass plates. The thickness of this construction is such that the mask would have to be located very precisely in order to select only one character. The mask device consists of a pair of shields, a front shield located between the flash lamp and the spinning disc character matrix, and a rear shield between the matrix and the character magnification lens system. Preferably, the shields are close to the matrix and are fastened together. Each shield has an aperture. The aperture in the front shield preferably is larger than that in the rear shield so that the rear shield blocks rays missed by the front shield. The use of the two shields greatly reduces the precision required in the location of the mask over that required if only one shield were used.

Abstract: Type characters are formed on a photo-sensitive surface by projecting a laser beam directly onto the photo-sensitive surface while moving the beam rapidly upwardly and downwardly, moving the beam steadily in a horizontal direction, and blanking the beam at selected times during the vertical movements. The horizontal movement gives horizontal dimensions to the characters and proportionally spaces them from one another to form composed lines of characters. The blanking of the beam is accomplished by providing a barrier near the optical path of the beam, and using an acousto-optic modulator to rapidly deflect the beam out of its path and against the barrier. A programmed computer is used to store information regarding the start and the stop of each blanking interval for each vertical stroke forming each of the characters of a substantial number of fonts of characters. An optical-electric feedback system is used to indicate the precise position of the laser beam relative to the photo-sensitive surface.