composition

In the first decades of the 20th century all type was set and composed into columns and pages by hand or by mechanical means. These methods are still widely used.

…the rotary press and a composition printing roller. Because the old flatbed press that moved back and forth could not print fast enough to produce large numbers of newspapers, the inventors arranged four trays, each containing a page of type, on the four sides of a revolving spindle. An important…

Special-purpose typewriting machines have been developed for use as composing machines; that is, to prepare originals that look as if they had been set in printer’s type (or at least more so than ordinary typewriting does), from which additional copies can be printed.…