Integrating computer text processing with photocomposition

Using a computer text processing system as the entry and change vehicle for a photocomposition system affects the publishing function in many ways. Costs are reduced, quality and readability are enhanced, esthetics are more controllable, and entry personnel require little training. Proofreading is almost entirely replaced by a computer-generated concordance. Mechanicals for reproduction are completed at the editor's site, not at the printer's, completing one more step in the movement to the automated office. The Honeywell Computer Journal is published concurrently on hard copy, microfiche, and magnetic tape. The tape can be used to drive other photocomposition systems that differ from our own, just as a computer can translate COBOL programs to the running instructions of a particular computer. Thus our work has shown the way to a common composition language that can describe all formats and identify uniquely the universe of printed symbols.