The use of a computer eliminates manual intervention in preparing the perforated tape, in assessing the length of the lines, and even in deciding how to end them; i.e., whether by completing or dividing a word.

Normally, the operator types out a continuous tape called idiot tape in the United States (kilometre tape in France) without concern for the length or division of lines. This band is inserted into the computer’s input device, a tape scanner, which operates by means of either electric sensors or photoelectric cells and converts letters, signs, and orders into combinations of electric impulses. The computer semi-automatically or automatically processes this raw information in accordance with its programmed instructions and immediately communicates the result to an electromagnetic perforator, the output device, that produces a second tape, like the first but that also bears, in the proper places, perforations ordering the ends of lines.

A general program establishes the operation of the computer in its application to the work of composition. Individual programs adapt it to the machinery of the company concerned (models of typesetters, available magazines of matrices) and to the kind of work carried out (usual length of line, method of indenting paragraphs, etc). Finally, special instructions punched on the tape by the operator at the same time as the text can interrupt the execution of the programs registered in the computer with directions valid for this text alone, in its entirety or in certain parts: choice of typeface among those available, transition from one kind of typeface to another available for the same typesetter, length of line and changes in the length, alignment to right or left, squaring of lines, indentations for ornamental capitals, spaces for borders or illustrations, and other details.

Having identified the combinations of the perforations on the tape and separately retained the service signals addressed directly to it, the computer proceeds to estimate the amount of the space occupied in a line by its letters and symbols, referring to instructions registered in its memory regarding each. In the same way, it determines a justification zone in which a division in the line is necessary and possible, the minimum and maximum limits of this zone being fixed by the limits of expansion of the spacebands on the typesetter.

If the end of a whole word comes within the justification zone, the computer itself signals the end of a line after this word and suppresses the space that would normally follow it. Otherwise, the last word must be divided. The process is said to be semiautomatic if a special operator, seated at a keyboard linked to the computer, must intervene to decide where to place the division in the word submitted to him on, for example, a cathode-ray viewing screen. The process is automatic if the computer is designed and programmed to make the decision itself; the operation then is carried out by starting a subprogram in which all the divisions possible in the word considered are listed (after a prefix, between syllables). This list is tested against prohibited divisions (according to the rules of etymology, phonetics, typography) stored in the rapid-access memory of the computer. From among the positions that are not eliminated during this test, the computer chooses the one situated nearest the end of the word. It automatically inserts the signal for the hyphen and orders the end of the line.

The computer can also carry out the correction of mistakes before composition. Various methods are possible, of which two will be described briefly. In one, the perforation of the justified tape delivered from the computer includes the introduction at the beginning of each line of a numbered signal and is accompanied by a proofing copy of the text with a corresponding reference number for each line. When the mistakes have been corrected on the proofing copy, an operator prepares another, much shorter correction tape, which consists of the corrections preceded by the reference to the line on which they occur. The justified tape and the correction tape are jointly introduced into a double reader, the mixer, which determines anew the length of the line and where the division should occur, as well as for such succeeding lines as need to be modified, before producing a final tape.

In the second method, the proofing copy can be typed out or shown on a cathode-ray viewing screen with the lines numbered but without the tape. At a keyboard connected to the computer, an operator types out the corrections, preceded by their line reference. If a viewing screen is used, the text reappears immediately in its corrected form, and the output perforator immediately delivers a justified and corrected tape.

The computer is usually programmed to sort out and correct even mistakes or anomalies in typing, such as the presence of two consecutive spaces, in which case it cancels one. It can, if its capacity allows, receive a makeup program independent of the tape of the text; following the specifications of the layout (positioning and size of headings, text, and illustrations) coded in binary language, the computer itself introduces onto the perforated tape the special instructions concerning kinds of typeface, length of lines, changes in lines, etc.

Because of the quantity of information needed for composition, the six-channel Teletypesetter tape is being increasingly replaced by seven- and eight-channel tape.

Computer processing using a continuously typed tape can be applied equally well to the Monotype system. The programmed operation for dividing lines is in this case carried out by the automatic calculation of the width of the spaces between words and by the perforation, before the end-of-line signal, of a signal signifying the appropriate position of the justifying quoins. To enable the text to be read by the pneumatic tower of the typesetter, a converter transcribes the perforations from a narrow six-, seven-, or eight-channel conventionally perforated tape to the wide tape of the Monotype system.

The use of computers is now widespread in preparing photocomposition jobs, with programs adapted to the specifications. The computer’s output device can produce magnetic tape instead of perforated paper tape.

One intake device no longer reads perforated tape but is an optical mechanism for scanning a typewritten text. The Retina reader, for example, is a sort of artificial retina made up of a group of photosensitive units able to identify each letter typed by a special typewriter, using only three data: height, width, and gray value; that is, the surface area occupied by the outline of its design.

Cold type

Cold type is the expression used, particularly in the United States, to describe a simple and economic method of preparing text by machines resembling ordinary typewriters but capable of producing justified lines in type that varies in width according to the letter involved. Justification is achieved in several ways by different versions of the machine. In the IBM Multipoint, a first typing calculates the total measurement of the type pieces up to the beginning of the justification zone and causes a coded sign to appear. A button is set in position over the coded sign thus assigned to each line before a second, final typing is done. The position of this button determines the automatic adjustment of the spaces between the words to the amount needed to obtain justification.

In the Justowriter, the keyboard on which the uncoded, unjustified proofing copy is typed simultaneously perforates a paper tape with the code for the letters, as well as, for each line, the code for the amount of space between the words as indicated by a calculator. The tape then controls, on a second unit of the machine, the electric typing of the final justified copy.

In the IBM Multipoint with magnetic tapes, a magnetic tape produced at the keyboard is processed by a computer for justification and, if necessary, for corrections. The final tape delivered by the computer controls the action of an output unit, which carries out the final typing.

If the copy thus produced on paper is to be photographed to prepare printing plates by photogravure, cold type cannot be directly incorporated into photocomposition because of the intermediate operation.

Optype is a hybrid process that simultaneously carries out the operation of justifying a text typed directly in cold type and transmits it to photographic film. By means of optical distortion, each line is stretched to the exact length of line projected on the film. The same mechanism also enables the line to be magnified or reduced or set in italics.