Phototypesetting

Phototypesetting is a method of setting type, rendered obsolete with the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing software, that uses a photographic process to generate columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. Typesetters use a machine called a phototypesetter, which quickly project light through a film negative image of an individual character in a font, through a lens that magnifies or reduces the size of the character onto photographic paper, which collect on a spool in a light-tight canister. The photographic paper or film is then fed into a processor, a machine that pulls the paper or film strip through two or three baths of chemicals, where it emerges ready for paste-up or film make-up.