Monophoto

The monophoto film setting machine was a device for setting type in photosetting . The first model called “Filmsetter” was developed in 1955 from the Monotype caster for mechanical metal typesetting. The English inventors E. Kenneth Hunter and JRC August were able to use the principle of the monotype after their patents had expired.

As with the earlier Monotype, the input and production parts of the machine were separated from each other. The film setter could continue to use the input button of the metal typesetting machine, the resulting punched tape also controlled the production of the typesetting . The machine still required a dimension conversion into the machine's own set system. The individual matrices of the completed line were exposed one after the other in the exposure chamber on film, the font size was changed using a prism system.

The Monophoto has been significantly redesigned with the 600 model . Now you could calculate with Cicero measurements and the conversion into set units was no longer necessary. The button now had a luminous scale that indicated the space to the end of the line. There was also a word memory so that corrections could be made before the perforated tape was perforated. The film setting machine of the device no longer worked with individual matrices, but with four writing disks with one hundred matrices each. Flash tubes exposed the desired letter, and prisms were used to direct the light beam onto the correct spot on the film.

literature

• Sepp Dußler, Fritz Kolling: Modern typesetting . 4th edition. Verlag Documentation Saur KG, Pullach 1974, ISBN 3-7940-8703-8 .
• Willy Klemz: The typography and the typesetting machines. Golden Rules No. 4. Kupijai & Prochnow, Berlin 1960.
• Günter Schmitt: typesetter. Typographer. A job through the ages . AT Verlag, Aarau 1990, ISBN 3-85502-380-8 .