Lithomat

The Lithomat, invented in 1949 by René Higonnet and Louis Moyroud, was a revolutionary phototypesetter. This machine, also known as the Lumitype, used light to compose text onto a photosensitive surface by exposing it through transparent letter matrices. Early models featured attached keyboards, while later versions with separate keyboards could produce over 28,000 characters per hour.1

Phototypesetters like the Lithomat significantly increased the speed of typesetting compared to traditional methods. For instance, a book with over 600 pages was completed in 12 hours using a Lumizip, a successor machine, a task that would have taken nearly a year with a typecasting machine. These machines reduced moving parts and inertia, aiming for greater efficiency and speed in the printing process.12