RCA Techniques in Electronic Photocomposing.

The RCA Electronic photocomposing Machine is a high-speed text composing system based on optical and television techniques, which is entirely non-mechanical in its operation with the exception of line-to-line film transport. Its operating speed is 500 characters per second (900 newspaper column lines per minute), and an alphabet of 100 to 500 characters can be handled simultaneously. Complete alphabets can be quickly interchanged. The unique character generator technique employed provides for a large alphabet without compromising resolution, so that output image quality fully compatible with graphic arts industry needs will be achieved. The machine is intended for on-line operation with the RCA-301 computer, and it takes advantage of the computer for many control and logic functions. In particular, the hyphenation-justification function programmed for the 301 and already in successful use provides character size and spacing information which is used directly within the Photocomposing Machine.