Systems

The “diatype” had been the first successful attempt to combine typesetting with photographic technologies. The device was presented to the world public at drupa 1962. Its nickname – more or less affectionate – was “one-handed bandit”. For the first time it was possible to set letters on lithographic film or paper. A handle was used to turn around the type disk out of glass at the back of it til it was in the correct position and then exposured by an electric bulb. There have been three available layers on that disk, chosen by another handle to the left. For the correction of spacing and type size there have been lathe operators on the top of it.

Setting on block, to the right and to the center required a blind setting and a calculation first. Primitive tables were possible. The benefit of the diatype was the possibility to create reproductionable films in a short time, while the handling was complicated and there has been no possibilitey to make any changes afterwards. The operator had to work very carefully.

After diatype the diatronic was following, a machine attached by a writing keyboard and one of the first typesetting computers as by an optical device. The calculation of a line now was made electronically, what extremely helpful. With the diatronic Berthold also introduced the optical disks in the form of a rectangle, what have been used by the vendor for a very long time. Although the machine was called diatronic, it was not possible to save ones work.

The diatext machine was using a round disk, what was rotating during exposure. That was a difference to all the other photo typesetting machines Berthold had ever developed. Setting had been done using a keyborad, while the information about the width of a letter was stored in a little box to the left. It had to be changed when another typeface came into use.

ads was the abbreviation for “Akzidenz Dialog System”. Here has been no integrated exposure unit. Instead of this the apu 3608 was used for this demand, what was using the same rectangle glass disk as the diatronic had used. The keyborad had been expanded by a lot of functionality keys. Data was saved on quite huge 8" floppy disks. Before starting to work, the operating system TOS (Text Operating System) had to be loaded from disk.

The typesetting commands as well as the “type numbers”, a kind of typographical presets, and the text itself had to be manipulated using a green monochromatic screen. The idea of using mnemotechnical code had been transferred onto following systems, for example the tps (Text Produktions System), the mft (Multi Funktions Terminal), the gst (Graphis Satz Terminal), the Fox and had been the basis for the later following, fully digitized phototypesetting system called “Serie M”.

The “Serie M” machines had been the first system worlwide allowing to look at the real glyphs. Normally, half of the screen to the right was used for controlling the visual result, while to the left there was the text, still interrupted by mnemotechnical code.

The TextStation had been limited to the use of the typesetting application ProfiPage, while the GraphicTerminal was equipped with two graphical applications: PixelGraphic for black and white image processing, and LineGraphic for vector graphics.

The step into real-world black and white image processing was done by introducing a high resolution flatbed scanner. Logos had been scanned on a small bitmap scanner and had been converted into graphic elements or into pi types.

The output language had been the BPL (Berthold Page Language), what has been 10 times faster at text based documents than PostScript at that time, while in the beginning had not been able to process color images. To the end, there had been the opportunity to give out PostScript code.

From the starting point as being a typesetting manufacturer, it was a consequence for Berthold to go on towards color processing. !98x the color system ColorStation had been introduced. Positioned as a midrange system, it worked quite well in comparision to the high-end color systems of that days.

The possibilities of the systems had been proved during the “1. Deutschen FarbSatzContest”. The job that had to be done made it not so easy for the competitors to show their potentionally existing superiority. Typesetting studios could surely make a senseful investion by using that system.

Pictures, from top to bottom:

diatype

diatronic

diatext

ads

ColorStation