Phototypesetting with the Berthold ‹diatype›

[@toonman361]

I was also taught the old fashion way, blue line pencil, waxing machine and paste-up. At first, I relied on two ladies who typeset everything, mostly in Souvenir. Later, My Mac IIci could interface with the AGFA phototypesetter and I was able to print out my own type. It made the dedicated typesetting women jealous because I could do things such as lay out type in a circle or customize my copy as needed. As the local printshops bought new equipment, they were able to take a disk with my files so I abandoned the phototypesetter for digital files. However, their output device did not always read my font choice correctly because they bought fonts from someone other than Adobe. I often got a very odd looking output. Great memories, despite the hassle.

[@LenKenny]

Thanks for the video. It took me back to my apprenticeship. One thing worth noting is:- if one wanted the text to be centred, we had to set it blind to begin with, then calculate how much to indent each line. And justified text was even harder. But the scalpel often came in handy.

[@johnberkley6942]

I was first employed as a layout artist. My job was to create paper mockups of advertisements in pencil on paper. These were very important, because a typesetter had 'nothing to go on' otherwise. I became skilled at representing type in a layout: headlines, fonts, type leading, simulated 'body' copy; centred, flush left, flush right, justified, whatever. I had to become skilled at guestimating the amount of space a given block of text would occupy. (Would a headline of 36pt fit in a given width in a particular font? Would 200 words fit in a column I represented as pencil lines: 8pt, 10pt, 12pt... whatever my pencil lines were simulating?) Over time I became quite good at simulating what could be achieved in a layout, without the typesetter being able to see what he was composing. Eventually I got a job where I was typesetting directly myself. But I still used a rudimentary pencil layout. Everything had to be measured with an em ruler. All the text 'compartments' had to be laid out with x/y co-ordinates: so many picas from the top, so many from the left; how wide and deep the compartment was; what the font was, what size it was, what its leading was, what its orientation was: flush left, centred, justified. All of these things were achieved with codes much like the things you would type at a DOS prompt. etc. In the early days I didn't get to see what I'd typeset until the film cartridge had been developed in the darkroom. Later on I had the inestimable luxury of a separate monitor which showed, in near-real time, what I was typesetting as I did it. (Though far from WYSIWYG, this facsimile made complicated layouts much easier and quicker to typeset. I was dumbfounded when I saw my first demonstration of Pagemaker on a PC. Not least by the relatively inexpensive way to achieve it. I'm still beavering away, producing magazines in my 60s. I've seen so much water under the bridge in my short career. I never would have believed, in my twenties, what I'd be able to do in my thirties, and then my forties. And now print itself is struggling to survive. So it goes.

[@mkaizn]

Would love to see some of your work

[@compu85]

Printers are quite un-loved by collectors. When these machines came out of service I imagine most were scrapped... you could get several $ for how much they weighed! :(

[@TypographyGuru]

In my experience, the smaller the machine, the more likely it is to survive. The large phototypesetting systems, filling entire rooms, were almost always scrapped. But anyone can store a Diatype somewhere and I see them frequently being offered on Ebay.

[@lubingcreative]

The first phototypesetting machines used a film type font, as shown here. More advanced ones were computer driven. The operator was able to set type using alphanumeric commands that controlled line length, leading, font, point size, kerning and other parameters. A font disk, similar to the one shown on this video would spin, and a flash tube would expose the paper. An encoding strip along the edge of the disk was used to synchronize the flash tube to fire when the proper character was in the proper position. Stepper motors, gears, and a carriage moved the exposing lens along the width of the paper. They also operated the zoom lenses to produce the range of type sizes. A set of rollers fed the paper (which came on rolls of various length and widths, generally 8 inches wide by 100 feet long) into the canister with each line feed. When the job was complete an end of job command would run 6 inches of paper into the canister The paper was cut and then fed through a processor that ran the paper through baths of developer, fixer, wash, and sometimes dryer. A machine, called a waxer, applied melted wax to the back of the paper galleys. They were then "pasted up" on boards from which a photographic plate was produced, that was used on an offset press. At the end of the phototypesetting era, a cathode ray tube was used to image the paper. It provided a type medium that was unaffected by dirt and wear, unlike the film disks. Since the characters were produced as vector images their geometry from standard could be squeezed, expanded, and otherwise modified. For typographers the ability to manipulate the geometry of a type character was a magical enhancement to the technology. It also gave rise to some not very pretty type. It is amazing to me that, at least in the U.S., these phototypesetting machines have virtually disappeared. A functioning Varityper, CompuGraphic, or Merganthaler machine is not to be found.

[@toonman361]

This is how I was first exposed to typesetting, Varityper. I have a dozen or so wheels of type.

[@captainkeyboard1007]

Hello, Typography.Guru! It is great to be back with you, even in March. Using the Berthold Diatype phototypesetter was good, but its use was very tedious. I am blessed that I learned typewriting when I was 12 years-old. My microcomputer, color laser printer and label printer all my jobs easier to manage.

[@fury_uri]

Great video! Exactly what I wanted to learn. Short, but comprehensive. Thanks!

[@raptr49]

You make me feel like a dinosaur. In 1975, I worked as a field engineer for Berthold Phototype in the US. I don't recall the model number of the equipment, but is made first use of minicomputers. It had no crt, only a single line display strip to show what was being typed. The font set consisted of glass plates.

[@yaronimus1]

This is awesome and greatly needed video

[@Zakalwe-01]

Utterly Fascinating! Love the Diatype logo too.

[@cutiepeachiepeach]

Thank you for doing this video, it helped me a lot with my project. Keep it up!

[@Rafagafanhotobra]

GReat channel you have. Definately deserves more viewers.

[@박민지-w1j]

Thanks for the video such a great explanation.

[@extraterrestrial7424]

This is quite ingenious. You can photograph literally everything, so why not photograph letters to print them on a photosensitive film.

[@johannes7107]

That was a very informative video! Thank you for your professional content.

[@TypographyGuru]

Glad it was helpful!

[@oyaidelydiasilver1927]

very good, really helped me with my project

[@monsterq6]

Awesome video!!

[@Colectivo_Criollo]

Great Explanation!

[@donnerschwein]

Mehr solcher Videos! Top!

[@thienky2757]

Thank you, i learned a lot

[@alejandroalarcon9662]

Thanks for your videos!

[@heikoich702]

Not only once did I forget to open the slider on the cassette. So I worked on the device for 4 hours and didn't expose a single letter :-( Times were tough LOL

[@raviravipsg]

good work

[@markbrown9458]

Speaking of Berthold, I wish Primus (1962) would be digitized. Priamos is a semi-decent knock-off but never the same weight and aesthetics of the actual font itself.

[@felipecalderon5897]

Phototypesetting is the same as photolettering?

[@JohnSmith-td7hd]

Thank goodness for computers! Dark rooms and not being able to look at what you're doing is not fun at all! For some reason, colleges require old-fashion film photography for some programs, even though the technology's expensive, terribly error-prone, and a huge hassle! I'm so glad the kids born today won't have to deal with all the headache that this technology brought with it because the stubborn old people should have moved on by then.

[@toonman361]

Speaking as a teacher, some projects are assigned so the student can learn problem solving or varying aesthetics (ex. film vs digital). Intolerance to alternative ways can limit your abilities. I teach graphic design on modern Macs using the latest software... but use a 1929 printing press with metal letters at home for a hobby. I know much more about type than many of my contemporaries because I actually handle the physical type rather than simply looking at it on the screen. Is it efficient, no. But is it fun? I think so. Please accommodate more than you understand.

[@JohnSmith-td7hd]

@@toonman361 You're assuming I'm ignorant of these things just because I don't share your hobbyist enthusiasm. There's a reason the world has moved on. About a hundred big reasons.

[@УолтерУайт-о5ь]

I have such a device. I can sell