Abstract: The machine preferably utilizes a laser whose light output, modulated to produce a plurality of beams which move simultaneously across a photosensitive surface, thus forming a "broad brush" laser beam. In one embodiment, the photosensitive material is in elongated sheet form and moves longitudinally while the broad brush laser moves continuously back and forth across the moving sheet. In another embodiment, the sheet material is wrapped around the surface of a drum and the drum rotates past the laser beam, while the laser beam moves either continuously or intermittently so that contiguous circumferential bands of composition are formed, filling the whole sheet of material with only one pass of the projection mechanism along the length of the drum. Means are provided for compensating for the simultaneous continuous motion of the broad brush and the photosensitive surface in order to produce straight lines of text composition which are perpendicular to the edges of the photosensitive surface.

Abstract: Character matrices are stored in and retrieved from a magazine automatically. The matrices can be complete discs or pie-shaped "petals" which are assembled to form a disc. A single pivotably-mounted support arm is used to support the spinning disc, and to move it for selection of concentric arrays on the disc, as well as for storage and retrieval of matrices. A reversed zoom lens is used to magnify the characters.The character spacing carriage can move continuously in order to increase the speed of operation. Proper location of the characters can be done by simply altering the carriage speed between projections, or by using a shuttling lens for character spacing compensation, together with flash delay and carriage deceleration.A system for inputting images from any one of three separate discs also is provided.A double-dove prism and optical wedges are used for altering the shapes of characters.

Abstract: Character matrices are stored in and retrieved from a magazine automatically. The matrices can be complete discs or pie-shaped "petals" which are assembled to form a disc. A single pivotably-mounted support arm is used to support the spinning disc, and to move it for selection of concentric arrays on the disc, as well as for storage and retrieval of matrices. A reversed zoom lens is used to magnify the characters.The character spacing carriage can move continuously in order to increase the speed of operation. Proper location of the characters can be done by simply altering the carriage speed between projections, or by using a shuttling lens for character spacing compensation, together with flash delay and carriage deceleration.A system for inputting images from any one of three separate discs also is provided.A double-dove prism and optical wedges are used for altering the shapes of characters.

Abstract: The machine provides access to a relatively large number of different characters located on relatively large spinning discs or drums. The characters are located in arrays such as concentric rows on a disc. A plurality of lenses is mounted on a lens carriage, and one or more light sources is mounted on a flash-lamp carriage. Character spacing is determined by motion of the lens carriage and/or the lamp carriage. Array selection is performed by motion of the lamp carriage, and/or motion of the lens carriage. A simple attachment is provided for composing long lines of enlarged characters for composing headlines and the like. This avoids the necessity of providing a separate headlining machine.

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: Character matrices are stored in and retrieved from a magazine automatically. The matrices can be complete discs or pie-shaped "petals" which are assembled to form a disc. A single pivotably-mounted support arm is used to support the spinning disc, and to move it for selection of concentric arrays on the disc, as well as for storage and retrieval of matrices. A reversed zoom lens is used to magnify the characters.The character spacing carriage can move continuously in order to increase the speed of operation. Proper location of the characters can be done by simply altering the carriage speed between projections, or by using a shuttling lens for character spacing compensation, together with flash delay and carriage deceleration.

Abstract: Character matrices are stored in and retrieved from a magazine automatically. The matrices can be complete discs or pie-shaped "petals" which are assembled to form a disc. A single pivotably-mounted support arm is used to support the spinning disc, and to move it for selection of concentric arrays on the disc, as well as for storage and retrieval of matrices. A reversed zoom lens is used to magnify the characters.The character spacing carriage can move continuously in order to increase the speed of operation. Proper location of the characters can be done by simply altering the carriage speed between projections, or by using a shuttling lens for character spacing compensation, together with flash delay and carriage deceleration.

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: Lens alignment means is provided whereby mis-alignment is amplified by a lens system, is detected by a photocell array, is electrically encoded, and the coded information is stored and used to correct electronically the character placement so as to properly position characters on the film. A detailed description of this feature appears herein under the heading "CHARACTER ALIGNMENT", and in FIGS. 18 through 20 of the drawings. Master characters are packed more densely on the matrix by allocating each an area comprising one-third to two-thirds of the usual character area, and using a separate illumination device to illuminate each such separate area. The illumination devices can be energized in different combinations to illuminate characters of various sizes. A detailed description of this feature appears herein under the heading "CONCENTRATION OF MASTER CHARACTERS", and in FIGS. 34 through 40 of the drawings.

Abstract: The machine preferably has a character matrix comprising a rotating drum with character-bearing film strips wrapped around it. The machine has a light source comprising a plurality of flash lamps and fiber-optic light pipes. The light-pipes are arranged in a linear array aligned parallel to the direction of travel of the film strips on the drum. Photographic film is formed into a semi-cylindrical arc and remains stationary during composition of up to a full newspaper page of text before the film is moved to another exposure position. Both character spacing and line spacing are performed by a combination of selective timing of the operation of the flash lamps, a lens and reflector traveling parallel to the film in a beam of collimated light, and a swinging mirror mounted on the axis of the semi-cylinder formed by the film. Both timing slits and base-line reference marks are located on the film strips near each character.

Abstract: The machine provides access to a relatively large number of different characters located on relatively large spinning discs or drums. The characters are located in arrays such as concentric rows on a disc. A plurality of lenses is mounted on a lens carriage, and one or more light sources is mounted on a flash-lamp carriage. Character spacing is determined by motion of the lens carriage and/or the lamp carriage. Array selection is performed by motion of the lamp carriage, and/or motion of the lens carriage. Composition of lines or columns of characters taken from a relatively large number of different arrays, such as would be the case in type composition using Chinese ideographs, is speeded considerably by controlling the order in which the characters are projected so that the lens carriage need not reverse its direction of motion during composition of a line. A simple mechanism is used to change lenses for size changes by the selective use of stops at the ends of the travel path of the lens carriage.

Abstract: Style changes, size changes and character spacing all are accomplished by the use of a single drive motor. This is done by providing style-changing and size-changing means which are operable by relative movement in the same direction as the character spacing mechanism, and selectively coupling and uncoupling the style-changing or size-changing means to the character spacing mechanism. To this end, a preferably linear array of small, short focal-length projection lenses is provided, so that linear movement of the array relative to the spacing mechanism will produce style and/or size changes, whereas movement relative to the photographic film will produce character spacing.

Abstract: Described are improvements upon my machine in which the character spacing drive system also is used to change the size and/or style of the characters. One improvement is the provision of a "pi-character" insertion and rules-forming system which uses much of the mechanism of the size/style changing system in its operation. Another improvement is the use of a lens turret which also uses much of the size/style changing mechanism in its operation. A movable shutter band is provided to facilitate lens selection. Data such as character width codes are stored in circular tracks on the rotating character matrix disc, and are read by a read head utilizing much of the same mechanism as that used for size/style changes for data track selection.

Abstract: The machine provides access to a relatively large number of different characters located on relatively large spinning discs or drums. The characters are located in arrays such as concentric rows on a disc. A plurality of lenses is mounted on a lens carriage, and one or more light sources is mounted on a flash-lamp carriage. Character spacing is determined by motion of the lens carriage and/or the lamp carriage. Array selection is performed by motion of the lamp carriage, and/or motion of the lens carriage. Composition of lines or columns of characters taken from a relatively large number of different arrays, such as would be the case in type composition using Chinese ideographs, is speeded considerably by controlling the order in which the characters are projected so that the lens carriage need not reverse its direction of motion during composition of a line. A simple mechanism is used to change lenses for size changes by the selective use of stops at the ends of the travel path of the lens carriage.