Fotosetter

The Fotosetter was a photocomposition machine that became commercially available in the 1950s. Photocomposition is a method of typesetting where characters are photographed onto film, from which printing plates are then made for various printing processes.

These machines automatically select and position character negatives, projecting their images onto film. Different type sizes can be achieved by varying the projection scale. The operation is controlled by a keyboard, and by the 1960s, these machines began integrating with digital computers for high-speed operations. Modern photocomposition machines use computers for tasks like hyphenation, justification, and page design, making the process faster and more cost-effective than earlier methods. The Fotosetter itself was an adaptation of the Intertype machine, utilizing special "fotomats" containing photographic negatives of characters.12