Linocomp II output

Fernando Mello

What exactly was the output of the Linocomp II (sometimes referred as Linocomp 2) machine? Did it produce a piece of paper with text already composed, or was it film? Or was it a perforated card or strip to be taken to another machine, such as an image setter? I'm also curious about its design, particularly the large square blue doors above the keyboard—was it like a typewriter or a computer without a screen? 

The images attached—a picture from an undated mid-70s Linocomp type catalog and a Linocomp 1 functioning diagram from Lawrence Wallis 'A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments (1886–1986)' —suggest a paper output, but it's still unclear to me what exactly came out of the machine. Wallis also mentions the Linocomp II being used in 1977 as an output for the Linoterm direct-entry phototypesetter/MVP Editing Terminal as a frontend, so I assume it had a paper output at the top, with its width limited to the paper roll inside (see picture below)? Or was it a film output?

It would be very helpful if these photosetter manufacturers had produced videos of their devices in use, allowing us to understand them better in the future. Information about their very basic functioning and operation is easily lost, even with diagrams and not very clear manuals.

Scott-Martin Kosofsky

My recall of this machine is a little vague, but I do remember that the output was to paper. I believe the roll contained both a photo-sensitive receiver and the output paper (for paste-up), which one had to pull apart. The blue doors you refer to covered each side of the apparatus (they’re open in the picture you show) and were tight enough to seal out ambient light. The openings above the keyboard (perpendicular to the keys) were small LED screens—the longer one on the left displayed two or three lines of input from the keyboard.

For more info and perhaps an operator’s manual, you might want to contact the Museum of Printing, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, https://www.museumofprinting.org

or the UK Science Museum, which has a color picture of the Linocomp on its website: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8408257/linocomp-photo-typesetter.

I see that you already inquired to the Metal Type Forum: https://www.metaltype.co.uk/forum/index.php/board,22.0.html

Here is a comprehensive catalogue of the various typesetters of the era: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2018/09/102740425-05-02-acc.pdf

These first-generation phototypesetters were really dreadul, especially the American ones, which were the majority. The German and Danish equipment had better optics and better-resolved font film. We should be grateful that the era of photoset text was brief, about thirty years in all!

Fernando Mello

Thanks Scott! Yes, I’ve also sent the same question to the Early Photocomposition Chat on Metal Type and also reached out to the Museum of Printing. Cliff Garber recently replied, mentioning he remembers a similar machine, the Itek Quadritek 1200, which used resin-coated paper. He said my message would be adressed to Frank Romano for more information. Cliff also suggested checking out Frank's book History of the Phototypesetting Era, though it’s quite hard to find these days. I’ll update here if I learn more. The Linocomp specimen I mentioned above does show Linocomp II's interior and parts, but it doesn’t explain the output. Thanks for the links — it's indeed very tough for newer generations to understand those brief thirty years of photosetting!

Thomas Phinney

Although phototypesetting did not get really big until the 1950s, the first phototypesetter came out in 1924, from Morisawa.

Fernando Mello

Bromide photographic paper exposed by a CRT, it seems. The output would typically be pasted up to complete the art or page. Not only the length of the paper roll looks limited in the image above, but someone also said the margins produced were generous. 

Mark Simonson

According to Frank Romano in History of the Phototypesetting Era, the Linocomp I (1974) and Linocomp II (1975) were low-end, direct input machines designed to compete with Compugraphic's CompuWriter series, the first of which debuted in 1972. Generally, direct input devices output directly (as you typed each line) to rolls of photo paper which would be collected in a light-sealed cartridge and then developed in a separate chemical processing unit. Later versions allowed you to save keystrokes to paper tape, floppy disks, etc. which you could then use to re-output a job or output later (rather than set immediately). The Linocomp series didn't sell very well, according to Romano.

You may be able to find a copy of the book at a library. WorldCat lists 16. (I bought mine at TypeCon in 2017.)

(This is off-topic, but Romano's books about the history of typesetting are great, and contain information that would be hard to find anywhere else. Weirdly, each one was published by a different publisher, so the formats, while similar, vary somewhat.)

Fernando Mello

That's awesome, thanks so much for sharing this, Mark. Lawrence Wallis says that the Linocomp I was 'uncovered' in 1973 ('engineered to a low price of £5,300'), whereas the Linocomp II was 'announced' in 1974.

That series by Frank Romano has been in my dreams for some years now. I regret not buying them when they were available; they've gotten expensive these days, especially with the cost of shipping abroad!

Mark Simonson

Linocomp, Linoterm, and Omnitech prices and features (from History of the Phototypesetting Era):


These represent the evolution of the Linocomp line through the seventies. With the Linoterm, the input terminal and photo unit were separated, so you could have multiple input terminals feeding into a single output unit. The Omnitech was based on the same input unit, but had a digital output unit with fonts on floppy disks, instead of the film strip + ROM card system.