US2170668A - Printing method and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 22, 1939. A. SOLODAR PRINTING METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR Filed Aug. 22, l936 Patented Aug. 22, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PRINTING METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR 8 Claims.

My invention relates to a method of and means for printing with Hebrew characters. It relates more in particular to the use of linotype and similar equipment in the printing of such characters.

The Hebrew alphabet comprises consonants and vowels. The letters, however, are used in a manner unusual from the standpoint of the student of ordinary European languages in that 1 the consonants only are written on the line, the Vowels being indicated by characters applied on a lower line underneath the consonants. In early Hebrew, it was not customary to write the vowels, those skilled in the language knowing, from the consonants employed in a word, what vowel sounds would be employed with such consonants. Even at the present time, in writing classic Hebrew the vowels are always omitted. By and large, however, the reader of Hebrew, or languages employing Hebrew characters, requires the presence of the vowels for a full and clear understanding of the text. Expense must be considered, however, and it is common in say an eight-page Jewish newspaper to find only one page in which the vowel characters are employed.

Because of this unusual characteristic of the language, very great difliculty has been encountered in applying modern printing practice to the printing of the Hebrew characters. It is thus apparent that substantially every consonant may be employed with every vowel, and this would require a number of separate characters equal to the sum of the consonants and vowels if con-' ventional type line casting equipment and conventional type line casting equipment methods were sought to be employed. Standard types of equipment have been capable of use in part, the practice up to the time of my invention being to produce a type line employing only the conson- 40 ants, and then to insert by hand, beneath the consonants, the vowel signs required. This is a tedious and time consuming occupation, and adds greatly to the cost of printing with Hebrew characters. In addition, it limits the application of standard printing equipment and methods. In addition to the use of vowels in the unusual manner explained, the application of standard printing equipment has been limited by other features, some of which will be brought out in the de-- scription of the invention.

The principal object of my invention is to utilize improved equipment and methods in printing from Hebrew characters.

Another object is to make it possible to employ type line casting equipment such as the linotype.

Another object is to adapt the Hebrew characters to printing from, standard equipment and by means of standard methods.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, illustrate matrices em.- ployed in accordance with my present invention,

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a type line, known in the printing trade as a slug,

Fig. 6 is a similar type line or slug showing the manner in which the vowels are cast,

Fig. '7 is a plan view showing a plurality of slugs assembled in position for printing, and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view of a sheet of paper showing the finished print job.

According to the principal feature and fundamental concept of my invention, I provide separate slugs for the consonant and vowel signs in a given line of print. The consonants are cast near one margin of the slug, the lower margin, and the vowels are cast at the upper margin of a second slug in such a position that when the two slugs are placed together the vowel signs will be printed in their proper places immediately underneath the consonants. In providing this arrangement a number of minor but important developments are required, both from the standpoint of suiting the characters themselves to printing by my improved method, and for adapting the standard linotype and similar machines to operation for casting both consonant and vowel type lines and slugs.

Up to the time of my invention all designs of the Hebrew letters resulted in there being letters of several different widths. This raised serious difficulties because assuming that five different widths of consonants were found in a particular design of letters, then obviously five different widths of a particular vowel would be required, or in preparing the vowel slug a number of blank spaces of various widths would be required. Obviously any method of attacking the problem which would retain letters of various widths would lead to substantially as much complication and expense as the system of setting the vowels by hand. The first step of my development, therefore, preparatory to making it possible to cast separate slugs for the consonants and vowels was to design the consonant letters so that only two Widths of letters would be necessary. I have found that such a design not matrix for printing the same vowel.

only makes it possible to apply my improvement to printing from Hebrew characters, but results in a very pleasing and acceptable design of letter from the standpoint of the reader of the completed printed page. Accordingly, by reason of this design the consonants are of two sizes which, for the purpose of explanation, may be termed broad and narrow.

Looking at Figure l, I show a matrix for a broad letter while Figure 2 shows a matrix for a narrow letter. Figure 3 shows a wide matrix for printing a vowel, while Figure 4 shows a narrow It will be noted that the vowels appear at the top of the matrices and the consonants at the bottom of the matrices. At a corresponding place, however, at the top of the consonant matrices blank spaces are provided, these blank spaces being utilized in a manner to be explained.

Before proceeding to a further discussion of the invention, I shall refer to common arrange-,,

ments employed on linotype machines, in order that the adoption of my method to the linotype machine may be understood.

It is common to provide on each matrix two types of letters, one being the common block type of letter, and the other the same letter in italics form. The linotype equipment is so arranged that either portion of the matrix may be presented to the type line so that from the same group of matrices a word may be printed in either vertical letters of italics depending upon the adjustment of the equipment. tomarily there is a key which shifts the position of a given matrix topresent the italics portion thereof for casting into a slug. The ordinary linotype machine also has a double row of keys for the control of matrices used in printing numbers. Ordinarily this row of keys is at the right side of the main letter key board. I utilize both of these arrangements in adapting the linotype to printing Hebrew characters in a manner to be explained.

The number keys on the linotype are employed for controlling the movement of the vowel matrices, one line of letter keys controlling the movement of the broad vowel matrices, and the other for controlling the narrow matrices bear-- The consonants.

extend to almost the extreme lower edge of the a slug. It should be remembered that all of these consonants are printed from one of two types of matrices, that is, either a broad matrix H as illustrated in Figure 1 or a narrow matrix 12 as illustrated in Figure 2. Blank matrices functioning as separators may, of course, be employed in accordance with the usual practice.

The next step is to cast the vowel slug [3 as illustrated in Figure 6. The printed sheet l4 (Figure 8) may be referred to and considered as illustrative of the text or copy which the operator would have before him. The first line of this copy would be printed by the two slugs l0 and i3 employed together, and for explanation Gus-- purposes these two slugs and the first line of the text may be considered together.

Looking now at the copy l4 near the center of the first line, the character 3 appears, this being the same character illustrated in Figure 1. This character corresponds generally in sound to the English letter 1:, the letter itself being pronounced kofi. Beneath this letter in the text is a single dot used to indicate the sound ee, the latter being pronounced Chireck. The first letter of the last word in the first line of the text (reading from right to left) it will be noted corresponds to the letter shown in Figure 2, This consonant (yot) corresponds roughly in sound to the English letter y. It will be noted that this consonant also has the vowel Chireck beneath it. Accordingly, the operator when casting the vowel slug uses at the point coinciding with the consonant Kofi, a broad matrix carrying the vowel Chireck. At the place corresponding to the position of the consonant yot, he also employs the vowel Chireek but this time utilizes a narrow matrix bearing the same letter. It will be noted that the single straight line appearing like a dash occurs also under two different consonants. This vowel character, patthach corresponds in general to the English sound a. This vowel is utilized in exactly the same way as explained for the vowel Chireck, in one case a broad matrix being employed and in the other case a narrow matrix. This arrangement holds throughout wherever a vowel sound is printed beneath a consonant.

We now come to the case where the consonant has no vowel character appearing beneath it as occurs in four instances in the first line of the text I l. tion, I may provide, if desired, wide and narrow blank matrices to be employed in this connection, for several reasons an advantage is obtained in utilizing the blank section of the consonant matrix. This is accomplishedby pressing the key normally employed for printing italics as described hereinabove. Since, however, the consonant matrix is provided with a blank in place of the usual italics character, the vowel slug at the points referred to bears a blank as, for example, shown in the four places in the slug I3 corresponding to the vowel characters printed in the first line of the text M. This arrangement has two distinct advantages. In the first place it makes it unnecessary for the operator to consider whether or not the consonant is broad or narrow as he would have to consider if separate blank matrices were employed because a corre-- sponding consonant matrix is set up in proper position to secure the blank space on the vowel slug. Secondly, and more pertinent, the part of the matrices within sight of the operator always carries a stamped letter index corresponding to the letter in reverse from which the slug is cast. This provision is made so that the operator can at all times check the matrices as they are delivered to casting position to be sure that the letters being cast correspond to the text. As a result, therefore, when the operator is preparing the vowel slug he will have before his eyes at least some of the consonants appearing in the text. This furnishes a guide to the reading and following of the text during the composition of the slug.

To review now the order of preparing the vowel slug, it must, of course, be kept in mind prepared. The operator may go through the entire text and prepare all .of the consonant copy, he may prepare any portion thereof or he may prepare a line at a time. In either event he prepares the consonants 1 and vowels separately and preferably the consonant slugs first. Looking now at the first line of text l4, this time starting at the left of the line to set the vowels because the standard linotype equipment delivers the matrices in the order in which the letters are read in the English language, the operator first presses the first consonant key. He next selects with the proper key the character patthac from the line set aside for controlling the movement of the wide matrices. This is followed by two narrow matrices bearing vowel characters, by a blank corresponding to the blank employed in the consonant line, by the consonant yot again controlled to present its blank portion to casting position, then by the vowel chireck on a wide matrix, etc-., until the entire line has been set up. The slug is then cast in the ordinary way.

In printing, the slugs are set up in the manner indicated in Figure '7, first the slug I!) followed with the slug l3, and slug l0 followed with the slug 13' in the order shown. The resulting type set up comprises alternate slugs of consonant and vowel characters with the consonant characters near the bottom edge of the slug and the vowel characters near the top. As shown, ample space is provided by the successive printed lines, that is to say, between the lower part of the vowel characters and the upper part of the consonant characters.

In describing my invention I have neither described nor shown in detail mechanical features of the linotype or similar mechanism, nor have I illustrated all of the characters found in the Hebrew alphabet. As to the former, the construction and operation of standard equipment I believe to be sufiiciently well known so that those skilled in the art will understand and be able to practice my invention only by consideration of the discussion given hereinabove. As to the characters, it is clear that the features employed may obviously and logically be utilized whatever the characters may be.

By means of my invention a great deal of saving in time and expense results.

While the invention has been described as applying to printing with Hebrew characters, it is obvious that it may be utilized for printing in languages having a generally similar arrangement of letters; that is to say, where the normal letter line is provided with separate letter characters above and/or below the line. Arabic is illustrative of another language to which my invention is readily applicable.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination in a printing system of the character described for printing in Hebrew and similar characters, of matrices for casting consonant characters of more than one width but each single consonant having only one width, and matrices for casting vowal characters, each vowel character having a matrix corresponding to each width of consonant matrix, whereby said matrices may be employed to cast slugs of consonants and slugs of vowels which may be placed side by side in accurate register.

2. The combination in a printing system of the character described for printing in Hebrew and similar characters of a plurality of matrices for each vowel character, each matrix having a different width, each vowel matrix corresponding in width to a consonant matrix, whereby a slug of vowel characters may be cast adapted to register with a slug of consonant characters.

3. The combination in a printing system of the character described for printing in Hebrew and similar characters of a plurality of matrices for each vowel character, each matrix having a different width, and consonant matrices, the matrices for the various consonants having widths corresponding to the several vowel widths, whereby when vowel and consonant slugs are cast they may be placed side by side in accurate register.

4. The combination in a printing system of the character described for printing in Hebrew and similar characters, of a plurality of matrices divided into standard widths, so that a matrix for a single letter has only one standard width, each of said matrices having a casting area for casting a consonant and a casting area for casting a blank, and a plurality of matrices for casting vowel characters, there being a number of matrices for each vowel character corresponding to the number of different standard widths of matrices for casting consonant characters, whereby a slug of consonant characters may be cast with the said consonant matrices, and a slug of vowel characters may be cast with the consonantmatricesfor casting blank spaces where no vowel occurs, and the vowel matrices corresponding in width to the consonants with which the particular vowels are associated, and whereby, when the said consonant and vowel slugs are placed side by side, the vowels and consonants therein will be in accurate register.

5. The method of printing with Hebrew and similar characters, which comprises casting one slug bearing the consonant characters of a text from matrices of standardized widths, the consonant characters being cast near the bottom of said slug, casting a second slug bearing the vowel characters spaced to correspond to their proper positions in the text below the consonants, said vowel characters being cast from matrices having the same width as the corresponding consonant matrices and said vowel characters being cast near the top of said slug, placing the two slugs against each other to form a composite type line of vowels and consonants in which the consonant and vowel characters are in true alignment, and printing therefrom.

6. The method of printing with Hebrew and similar characters, which comprises casting one slug bearing the consonant characters of a text from matrices of standardized widths, casting a second slug bearing the vowel characters spaced to correspond to their proper positions in the text below the consonants, said vowel characters being cast from matrices having the same width as the corresponding consonant matrices, placing the two slugs against each other to form a composite type line of vowels and consonants in which the consonant and vowel characters are in true alignment, and printing therefrom, all of the said consonants being cast by the use of matrices having twostandard widths, one broad and one narrow, and each vowel being cast by the use of a matrix having the same standard width as the consonant with which it is associated.

7. The method of printing with Hebrew and similar characters, which comprises casting one slug bearing the consonant characters of a text from matrices of standardized widths, casting a second slug bearing the vowel characters spaced to correspond to their proper positions in the text below the consonants, said vowel characters being cast from matrices having the same width as the corresponding consonant matrices, placing the two slugs against each other to form a composite type line of vowels and consonants in which the consonant and vowel characters are in true alignment, and printing therefrom, the portions of the vowel slug not provided with vowel characters being cast by the use of a blank casting area provided in the same consonant matrices employed in casting the consonant slug, whereby the spacing between the vowel characters is automatically proportioned to correspond to the space occupied by the consonants.

8. The combination in a printing system of the character described for printing Hebrew and. similar characters, of matrices for casting vowel characters, each of said vowel characters having a wide matrix and a narrow matrix, and matrices for casting consonants, said consonant matrices being of but two widths and each consonant matrix adapted to register with one of the vowel matrices, whereby a slug cast from a group of consonant matrices is adapted to register with a slug cast from the vowel matrices.

ABRAHAM SOLODAR.

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