Reply To: 1970s Typesetting

> using a PhotoTypositor manufactured by Visual Graphics Corp. Does anyone else remember this machine?

I remember the results. Usually a strip of paper with type, black on white. The better typesetting shops would do line breaks and proof those on paper, often reeking of ammonia. No fun when you opened the envelope and took an unintended whiff, delivered by a foot or bike messenger (some say courier), containing a bunch of proofs. The Typositor provided type in many sizes, mostly used for display, and had the advantage that a good typographer could space it all properly. Or come fairly close. Problem was they did not all space characters well. But it was fun pasting down a proof, cutting as necessary to correct the spacing, then send it out, via foot or bike messenger, for a photostat, earlier first a negative then a positive, later a DP (direct positive) delivered hours later or next morning, again by a foot or bike messenger.

Given that history, when people complain about a computer's speed, I chuckle.