Editing Phototypesetting (section)

===1980s===

==== Transition to computers ====
[[File:Neue Helvetica phototypesetting lower case a with circumflex (8277798760).jpg|thumb|A [[frisket]] cut on [[rubylith]] film used as a master for phototypesetting. Cutting friskets by hand as a continuous, smoothly-cut curve was one of the most challenging aspects of preparing phototypes and dry transfer lettering.<ref name="Letraset Berry">{{cite web|last1=Berry|first1=John|title=The man who launched a thousand fonts|url=https://creativepro.com/dot-font-the-man-who-launched-1-000-fonts/|website=Creative Pro|date=16 June 2000|access-date=18 May 2017}}</ref>]]
Early machines have no text storage capability; some machines only display 32 characters in uppercase on a small [[Light-emitting diode|LED]] screen and spell-checking is not available.

Proofing typeset [[galley proof|galleys]] is an important step after developing the photo paper. Corrections can be made by typesetting a word or line of type and by waxing the back of the galleys, and corrections can be cut out with a [[razor blade]] and pasted on top of any mistakes.

Since most early phototypesetting machines can only create one column of type at a time, long galleys of type were pasted onto layout boards in order to create a full page of text for magazines and newsletters. Paste-up artists played an important role in creating production art. Later phototypesetters have multiple column features that allow the typesetter to save paste-up time.

Early [[digital typesetting]] programs were designed to drive phototypesetters, most notably the [[CAT (phototypesetter)|Graphic Systems CAT phototypesetter]] that [[troff]] was designed to provide input for.<ref name="vacation">{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/202/summer.reconstructed.pdf|title=Experience with the Mergenthaler Linotron 202 Phototypesetter, or, How We Spent Our Summer Vacation|date=January 6, 1980|publisher=Bell Laboratories|author1=Joseph Condon|author-link=Joseph Condon|author2=Brian Kernighan|author2-link=Brian Kernighan|author3=Ken Thompson|author3-link=Ken Thompson}}</ref> Though such programs still exist, their output is no longer targeted at any specific form of hardware.
Some companies, such as [[TeleType Co.|TeleTypesetting Co.]] created software and hardware interfaces between personal computers like the Apple II and IBM PS/2 and phototypesetting machines which provided computers equipped with it the capability to connect to phototypesetting machines.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Compugraphic-to-Macintosh Solutions |url=https://support.apple.com/kb/TA39251?locale=en_US |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=support.apple.com}}</ref>
With the start of desktop publishing software, [[Trout Computing]] in [[California]] introduced VepSet, which allows Xerox [[Ventura Publisher]] to be used as a front end and wrote a Compugraphic MCS disk with typesetting codes to reproduce the page layout.

In retrospect, cold type paved the way for the vast range of modern digital fonts, with the lighter weight of equipment allowing far larger families than had been possible with metal type. However, modern designers have noted that compromises of cold type, such as altered designs, made the transition to digital when a better path might have been to return to the traditions of metal type. [[Adrian Frutiger]], who in his early career redesigned many fonts for phototype, noted that "the fonts [I redrew] don’t have any historical worth...to think of the sort of aberrations I had to produce in order to see a good result on Lumitype! V and W needed huge crotches in order to stay open. I nearly had to introduce serifs in order to prevent rounded-off corners – instead of a sans-serif the drafts were a bunch of misshapen sausages!"<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frutiger|first1=Adrian|title=Typefaces - the complete works|date=8 May 2014|isbn=978-3038212607|page=80|publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref>