US3548725A - Method of organizing the core memory in electronic phototype setters operating by rastering - Google Patents

Method of organizing the core memory in electronic phototype setters operating by rastering Download PDF

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Publication number
US3548725A
US3548725A US706410A US3548725DA US3548725A US 3548725 A US3548725 A US 3548725A US 706410 A US706410 A US 706410A US 3548725D A US3548725D A US 3548725DA US 3548725 A US3548725 A US 3548725A
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United States
Prior art keywords
character
memory
core memory
characters
image
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Expired - Lifetime
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US706410A
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English (en)
Inventor
Eckhard Dirk Lindemann
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Dr Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH
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Dr Ing Rudolf Hell GmbH
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    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41B—MACHINES OR ACCESSORIES FOR MAKING, SETTING, OR DISTRIBUTING TYPE; TYPE; PHOTOGRAPHIC OR PHOTOELECTRIC COMPOSING DEVICES
    • B41B19/00—Photoelectronic composing machines
    • B41B19/01—Photoelectronic composing machines having electron-beam tubes producing an image of at least one character which is photographed
    • B41B19/08—Photoelectronic composing machines having electron-beam tubes producing an image of at least one character which is photographed with combinations of characters appearing on the screen at the same time
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41B—MACHINES OR ACCESSORIES FOR MAKING, SETTING, OR DISTRIBUTING TYPE; TYPE; PHOTOGRAPHIC OR PHOTOELECTRIC COMPOSING DEVICES
    • B41B19/00—Photoelectronic composing machines
    • B41B19/01—Photoelectronic composing machines having electron-beam tubes producing an image of at least one character which is photographed
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41B—MACHINES OR ACCESSORIES FOR MAKING, SETTING, OR DISTRIBUTING TYPE; TYPE; PHOTOGRAPHIC OR PHOTOELECTRIC COMPOSING DEVICES
    • B41B27/00—Control, indicating, or safety devices or systems for composing machines of various kinds or types
    • B41B27/02—Systems for controlling all operations
    • B41B27/10—Systems for controlling all operations with direct control of all operations by input of recorded or stored information
    • B41B27/18—Systems for controlling all operations with direct control of all operations by input of recorded or stored information from memory devices
    • B41B27/20—Systems for controlling all operations with direct control of all operations by input of recorded or stored information from memory devices from electromagnetic devices, e.g. memory matrices
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41B—MACHINES OR ACCESSORIES FOR MAKING, SETTING, OR DISTRIBUTING TYPE; TYPE; PHOTOGRAPHIC OR PHOTOELECTRIC COMPOSING DEVICES
    • B41B27/00—Control, indicating, or safety devices or systems for composing machines of various kinds or types
    • B41B27/28—Control, indicating, or safety devices for individual operations or machine elements
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
    • G06F3/14—Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
    • G06F3/153—Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units using cathode-ray tubes
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
    • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
    • G09G1/00—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of data
    • G09G1/06—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of data using single beam tubes, e.g. three-dimensional or perspective representation, rotation or translation of display pattern, hidden lines, shadows
    • G09G1/14—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of data using single beam tubes, e.g. three-dimensional or perspective representation, rotation or translation of display pattern, hidden lines, shadows the beam tracing a pattern independent of the information to be displayed, this latter determining the parts of the pattern rendered respectively visible and invisible
    • G09G1/18—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of data using single beam tubes, e.g. three-dimensional or perspective representation, rotation or translation of display pattern, hidden lines, shadows the beam tracing a pattern independent of the information to be displayed, this latter determining the parts of the pattern rendered respectively visible and invisible a small local pattern covering only a single character, and stepping to a position for the following character, e.g. in rectangular or polar co-ordinates, or in the form of a framed star
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
    • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
    • G09G5/00—Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators
    • G09G5/22—Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators characterised by the display of characters or indicia using display control signals derived from coded signals representing the characters or indicia, e.g. with a character-code memory
    • G09G5/24—Generation of individual character patterns

Definitions

  • a method of organizing the core memory in an electronic phototype setter operating by rasten'ng is disclosed wherein characters to be used in printing are called up under a binary coded number allocated to each character which number is independent of whether the number is upper or lower case or of script type and size and by addressing with this calling up number a storage cell of the core memory from which cell the address of said character in the desired script type and size in which it is to be set as well as the data concerning the width of such character are taken.
  • the invention relates generally to the methods of organizing core memories in electronic phototype setters operating by rastering such that characters may be stored and called up in an efiicient manner from a core memory under the control of a punch tape or computer and supplied to a cathode ray tube.
  • the present invention allows a character to be stored in a core memory so that it is assigned a binarily'coded'number which is independent of the case, type and size in which it is to be set.
  • its address is deposited in the memory when reading in the font, inother words, when filling the core memory.
  • Special memory cells serve this purpose which are addressed with a number when-the character is called up from the "computer for the setting process. These memory cells constitute the organization part of the core memory.
  • the addresses likewise consist of binarily coded numbers. The addresses of equal characters of difierent font and sizes might be quite different'ln addition, the width of each character is deposited in the respective memory cell of the organization part of the core memory.
  • FIGS. la and lb show script originals of the character n" of two different font.
  • FIG. 2 shows the block circuit diagramof a complete phototype setter equipment.
  • the present invention relates to a method of organizing the core memory in electronic phototype setters operating by rastering.
  • a high resolution cathode ray tube is used as a display tube in electronic phototype setters.
  • the characters of one line to be set are produced point by point and column by column by the cathode ray, as in television, in the form of luminous characters positioned side by side on the luminous screen of the tube.
  • the characters are photographed line by line by a camera onto a film transported continuously or in steps vertical to the direction of the lines.
  • the film is then developed and subsequently reproduced by means ofa printing process, as for example, the offset process.
  • each character is formed by a large number of luminous points with the electron beam being uniformly deflected according toa column raster along an area which is occupied by a character field.
  • the deflection is independent of the kind of character.
  • the final shape of the character is obtained by gating the cathode ray tubebeam at those points of the raster whichcorrespond to black picture Y, elements of the character to be represented.
  • the cathode ray center or corners of the individual character fields the predetermined positionon the luminous screen within a line.
  • the voltages for gating and blocking the video signals which are applied to the grid of the display tube for making the characters visible, are obtained according to the raster method by interrogating a core store which provides binary pulse sequences representing the black and white character elements which compose the character fields point by point and column by column.
  • the cathode ray is periodically vertically deflected synchronously with the interrogation of the core store.
  • core memories of sufficiently high capacity are used into which all the required characters are read as needed in binary form prior to or during typesetting.
  • the alphabets in the core memory that are not required are erased, and the new alphabets required are taken from the high capacity memory and read into the core memory.
  • the core memory serves as temporary storage with a very short access time, and not more than is required each time for a setting order is stored in this temporary memory. This memory corresponds to the magazine ofa conventional setting machine.
  • the selection and the placing of the characters is controlled by setting instructions which can be in the form of punched tapes or punched cards which are punched according to a multidigit binary code.
  • the setting instructions have to contain in very detailed manner all data required for setting the characters such as kind of character (phonetic value), shape of character (type of alphabet, font) size and width of character, spaces, bold face types, italics, length of lines, in-
  • the core memory is organized to call up the character to be set independent of upper or lower case and of script type and size, under a binary coded number allocated to said character, and by addressing with this coded number a storage cell of the core memory, from which the address of the character in the desired script type and size in which it is to be set and the data concerning the width of the character are taken.
  • a character to be set is characterized by its phonetic value or meaning content and by the technical specifications regarding its form. If characters such as letters,.figures, punctuation marks and other symbols are to be set, particulars are necessary which determine whether the respective letters are to be set in capitals or lower case letters and in which particular script type and size. When organizing the core memory, the difference between the phonetic value or the meaning content of the character and its technical design must be maintained.
  • each character corresponding to its phonetic value or meaning content independent of case, type, and size in which it is to be set, is assigned a binarily coded number.
  • letters are numbered in their alphabetic order.
  • the letter may be indicated by the number 1, bby the number 2, nthe number 14, etc.
  • figures, punctuation marks, and other symbols are numbered successively.
  • the desired character In order that the desired character can be located at its position in the core memory, its address must be deposited in the memory when filling the core memory.
  • Special memory cells serve this purpose which are addressed with the number under which the character is called up from the computer for the setting process. These memory cells constitute the organization part of the core memory.
  • the addresses also consist of binary coded numbers. The addresses of the same characters of different font and sizes can be quite different.
  • the letter n represented by the number 14 in the case of a 6-point Grotesque-Script, may have the address-number 3 l2,while the same letter with a 10-point Garamond-Script may have the address number 786.
  • the width of a character is the number of picture columns which constitute the character at its raster-type dissection into picture points and includes a certain number of empty columns to the left and to the right of the character.
  • the widths of the individual characters of a definite font and size vary considerably from each other. If the letter awhich has an average width, requires 2830 picture columns, narrow characters such as i, l, comma and full stop need only 8-l0 columns, whereas broad letters such as M and W require 50- 60 columns.
  • the width of a character therefore, determines the amount of space required by the character at its division into image columns in a group of binary magnetized annular cores in the core memory.
  • the core memory addresses of the individual characters together with their widths including the number of empty columns on both sides of the character are placed at the head of the hold combinations which contain the information about the division of the characters into image elements as identifiable signals in binary coded form. .
  • the addresses and widths are first stored under the identification number of the character, independent of script type and size, in the memory cells of the organization part of the core memory.
  • the address itself is triggered, and the information bits of the character image are stored in the core memory. In this way, it is possible to fill the core memory with different font, and to change the font by erasing them.
  • the instructions specify how many column widths the cathode ray beam must be horizontally deflected to the right without being vertically deflected after the beam has written the last column of a character and before it begins to record the first column of the next character. This number of column widths is equal to one more than the sum of the numbers of empty columns to the right of a character and to the left of the following character.
  • the means for storing the character information in the core memory are groups of annular cores which correspond to the image columns which make up the characters.
  • the annular cores of these groups are magnetized in either one or the other of the two possible modes corresponding to the presence of white or black image elements in the image columns.
  • the selection of the number of digits of the binary code depends upon how many image elements can be contained in an image column of the largest characters which may occur; since there are image columns in such as M or T, which consist only of black elements.
  • the average number of image elements of constant color in a column is, of course, considerably smaller. Nevertheless, when using the method of run-length-coding a considerable saving of annular cores is generally achieved.
  • the storage of this white section is not necessary since the cathode ray is blocked during the interrogation of this section.
  • the identification number of the last black section of the image column can then be provided with an additional characteristic number which causes the vertical deflection of the cathode ray beams to be stopped, and the recording of the next image column is begin.
  • the white and black values obtained during scanning are converted into binary data inthe scanning device, either as one bit for each image element, .or as a multidigit binary number (one byte) for the length of each image column section which consists of equal (white or black) image elements.
  • the binary data are punched into a tape in the form of hole combinations, the punched tape being then read into either the core memory of the phototype setter equipment or the high capacity memory.
  • FIGS. la and lb Two script originals prepared for scanning are represented in FIGS. la and lb. These figures (FIG. the character nin Grotesque-Script (FIG. 1a) and in Garamond-Script (FIG. lb). It is seen that each character is drawn into a character field l or 2 provided with a raster line network.
  • the small rectangles (the network meshes) which need not necessarily be squares formed by the raster lines arethe image elements.
  • the character field 1 has leading and trailing widths of three empty columns each, whereas the character field 2 has a leading width of two empty columns and a trailing width of one empty column.
  • Each of these two characters nwill be assigned the same number in the organization part of the core memory, while the addresses under which their image contents are stored will be difierent.
  • the phototype setter equipment consists of the recording device 10 containing the cathode ray tube 11, the imaging lens 12, and the photographic film 13. Also, the core memory '14 with the input register 15, the address registers 16 and 17, the output register 18, the computer 19, and two control devices 20 and 21.
  • horizontally arranged wires of the same line of each matrix plate and the vertically arranged wires of the same column of each matrix plate are connected in parallel, respectively.
  • the vertical wires are connected with the outputs of the address register l6, and the horizontal wires with the outputs of the address register 17.
  • the wires visible atthe outputs of the input register and the wires visible at the inputs of the output register 18 are the reading or output conductors of the memory.
  • a complete alphabet therefore, requires about 4,000 memory cells. Since it may be desired to be able to store four different alphabets for a setting order, each of the required matrix plates must have at least 16,000 annular cores. At least 100 cores per alphabet are also required for the organization part of each matrix plate. The number of the horizontal and vertical wires required'in this example are 128 each.
  • the first combination of holes of the punched tape 23 represents the command for beginning the storing process. This command is fed via the conductor 25 to the control device and causes the switching processes required for ad dressing, so that the next scanned data combination is used as a character number, and the memory cell to which this numberis assigned in the organization part is called up via the address registers 17 and 16. Then the punched tape 23 gives theaddress that the character has in the memory. This is the address of that memory cell in which the first data combination of the image content is to be stored. The data combination corresponding to this address is fed via the conductor 26 to the input register 15 and from there into the memory cell of the organization part called up under the character number.
  • this address is also called up in the memory part after which the storing of the image content of the character may begin.
  • an electronic counter contained in the control device 20 and having counted the read-indata causes the addition of lto the counting result and switches the storing to the next column.
  • the data conceming the width of the character is read-in into the organization part. Besides the actual width of the character, the number of empty columns on either side of the character is known. These empty columns are necessary so that the varying spaces between successive characters offer a pleasant view to the eye.
  • a characteristic feature of the memory organization is that only the first 14. digits of the mentioned 16 digits of each memory cell are utilized for the actual image content while the remaining two digits, the 15th and 16th digit, serve for selecting the desired font from the supposed four different fonts. These last two digits may be occupied by commands of the computer 19 or by manually operated switches.
  • the setting process occurs and is accomplished as follows: First, the computer 19 controls the deflection of the cathode ray beam of the cathode ray tube 11 so that the beam is deflected to its initial position on the screen which is the starting position of the beam for the recording of the first character of a character line, and, also, the computer gives the command for the beginning of the setting process. Then, via the control device 20, the computer calls up the number of the character to be set in the organization part of the core memory 14. The control device 21 causes the output register 18 to read out the memory address of the character from the memory cell assigned to this number, and the output register 18 feeds the memory address to the address registers 16 and 17.
  • the image content of the first image column is read out and fed to the control device 21 which is caused to control the brightness of the cathode ray beam according to the image content.
  • the deflection of the cathode ray beam is controlled by commands from the computer.
  • the memory data read out are counted by the control device 21, and, as soon as all the data of one image column are read out, the control device 21 calls up the address of the next image column by adding lto its counting result.
  • the control device 21 feeds back a control pulse via the conductor 27 to the computer 19 and the pulse'causes the computer to call up the number of the next character to be read out.
  • the setting commands such as font, size, length of line, justification, hyphenation, space lines, etc. are given by the computer 19.

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US706410A 1967-02-25 1968-02-19 Method of organizing the core memory in electronic phototype setters operating by rastering Expired - Lifetime US3548725A (en)

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US (1) US3548725A (enrdf_load_html_response)
CH (1) CH484746A (enrdf_load_html_response)
FR (1) FR1566423A (enrdf_load_html_response)
GB (1) GB1161590A (enrdf_load_html_response)
NL (1) NL6802254A (enrdf_load_html_response)

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US4005390A (en) * 1974-11-11 1977-01-25 International Business Machines Corporation Merger and multiple translate tables in a buffered printer
US4031519A (en) * 1974-11-11 1977-06-21 Ibm Corporation Printer

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FR1566423A (enrdf_load_html_response) 1969-05-09
NL6802254A (enrdf_load_html_response) 1968-08-26
DE1522486A1 (de) 1969-08-28
DE1522486B2 (de) 1972-11-16
CH484746A (de) 1970-01-31
GB1161590A (en) 1969-08-13

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