diatype
The diatype is a typesetting device for photo typesetting . The Diatype was developed between 1952 and 1960 by Hugo Heine from Braunschweig for the company H. Berthold AG . It is a semi-automatic mechanical photo typesetting machine that can also be used in daylight. The Diatype was mainly used for the typesetting of commercial jobs and forms , but also for the typesetting of fonts for the production and continuation of cards .
description
At the top of the device is a flap that holds a removable light-tight cassette for light-sensitive film . On the front and on the left there are selector levers that are used to select characters. With further dials and buttons can font size, walking distance and line spacing set. The circular glass writing disks used are coated with a black film in which the characters have been left out. The font can be changed by exchanging the writing disc. The writing disks also include a corresponding three-line drawing mask to be attached to the front with magnets, for aiming the selector lever with the release button.
Each font disc contains 195 characters in size 12 points of a font style of the font, e.g. B. narrow fat, broad fat or narrow lean. A control stroke is also assigned to each character, which is required to change the font sizes. This is done using the internal optics. The font sizes can be set continuously from 4 to 36 points. The format to be exposed can be a maximum of 215 x 285 mm.
application
After equipping the film cassette with the light-sensitive film in the darkroom , you can insert it into the device and, after selecting the desired writing disk and the associated writing mask, begin the sentence. To set, move the selection lever with your left hand over a three-line scale. With your right hand you move a lever to the required character and press the release button to expose. The prerequisite for the set of forms is that the manuscript is precisely measured so that you can orient yourself using the coordinates when setting it. There is no way to visually check what has been set. On the device there are dial displays with Cicero , inch and centimeter information for the horizontal and vertical position on the side. When setting, the semi-automatic function of the Diatype device advances the current position in the sentence by the optimal value (automatic character spacing). For blocked text , the spacing of the characters can be adjusted with a so-called micrometer screw. You can change the spacing of the characters from the standard value within +6 mm and −3 mm. After the setting process is complete, the film is taken out of the cassette in the darkroom and developed. The result is a positive, reversed film with the characters set. For use in card production or continuation, a stripping film (from Agfa ) was exposed over contact copies and negatives . The characters that were now on the thin film were scratched with a sharp scraper / scalpel / knife after application of a contact adhesive (e.g. wax) and detached from the carrier film, placed on the original card, if necessary (e.g. when marking curved bodies of water or winding roads) cut and bent and then rubbed / fixed.
Oddities
- To fine-tune the device, the nonsense HillimillihirtzheftpflasterEntferner had to be set with a font size setting of 6 points. A run length of 32 mm was to be achieved, which had to be adjusted by changing the run width of the font. This ensured that the spacing of the font was always the same. It was therefore advisable to warm up the Diatype device to a certain extent every day when starting work and to readjust the setting.
Individual evidence
literature
- Sepp Dußler, Fritz Kolling: Modern typesetting . 4th edition. Verlag Documentation Saur, Pullach 1974, ISBN 3-7940-8703-8 .