2 ms·

> So I'm guessing they're something either custom or from one of the early phototypesetting companies. That was the clue I needed. I think I found a brochure d

by tivert 3y ago

> So I'm guessing they're something either custom or from one of the early phototypesetting companies. That was the clue I needed. I think I found a brochure describing somewhat later models. The AM Verityper Comp/Set 4800 area composition terminal seems to have the same font and similar graphics capabilities of the integrated-keyboard terminal in the close ups: https://archive.org/details/TNM_AMtext_425_word_processor_with_full-page_disp_20171101_0059/page/n9/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/TNM_AMtext_425_word_processor_wi... The AMtext 425 seems to have a similar keyboard layout to the two-piece terminals only seen in the wide shots: https://archive.org/details/TNM_AMtext_425_word_processor_with_full-page_disp_20171101_0059/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/TNM_AMtext_425_word_processor_wi... Looks like they were made by a company called AM Jacquard Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_Jacquard_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_Jacquard_Systems The post has a interesting picture that shows correspondence between the screen display and printed output: https://creativepro.com/scanning-around-gene-back-when-typesetting-was-craft/ https://creativepro.com/scanning-around-gene-back-when-types...

ghaff 3y ago
The student newspaper I worked for in the late 70s, we did all the front-end writing and editing on (manual) typewriters and then production staff typed into a big terminal that could output paper tape for the phototypesetter. It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. Pretty sure I remember the trackball. (It may also have been hooked up directly through some franken-mess of an Imsai 8080 and other stuff.) Don't remember the details and I never used it directly. Headlines were typed into a different system. Then everything was pasted up on a light-table. I think we shot the negatives ourselves as well. At the time, infrequent publications had someone like ourselves do the production work for them or farmed it out to some local company.
- tivert 3y ago
  > It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. I was a little confused, before I realized that name only appeared in one of photos. After trying to resolve my confusion, I found this, which appears to be a document from 1985 enumerating all these types of systems then in existence: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2018/09/102740425-05-02-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201... It says the > AM Varityper 4800 (a Harris 2200 product) There's a few stock image of those in use at the Austin American-Statesman newspaper: https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-employee-typing-ad-typing-advertising-copy-into-computer-system-in-backshop-production-room-bob-daemmrich-image349060336.html?imageid=BA8478A5-122D-492D-A6C7-5FCBAE91F34D&p=86492&pn=1&searchId=11e1e93d3385308187ce50c72105bd07&searchtype=0 https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-... https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at-the-austin-american-statesman-newspaper-where-a-typesetter-uses-a-harris-corp-video-display-terminal-vdt-for-electronic-page-makeup-or-pagination-newsrooms-across-the-country-were-replacing-typewriters-with-electronic-systems-in-the-newsrooms-lead-type-slugs-with-phototypesetting-systems-in-the-composition-rooms-bob-daemmrich-image437470502.html https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at... The hardware is different than in the movie, but the software appears to be similar. Scanning the document, I saw a mention of Interleaf, which some people at my employer were still using until recently (http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm). The comments on that page about the file format ring true, since we decided to not even try conversion and just have the users re-key their documents into our home-grown system for that content.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Compugraphic was another big company at the time. I think that was the manufacturer of our headline producing machine. (Another organization on the same floor used a much older and more manual machine for doing display text.) Don't know the system that did the body copy output. The machine I was thinking of (Page 16 of the PDF https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pdf https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pd...) is similar but it's definitely different. Interesting that the trackball is on the left side.

by tivert 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago

The student newspaper I worked for in the late 70s, we did all the front-end writing and editing on (manual) typewriters and then production staff typed into a big terminal that could output paper tape for the phototypesetter. It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. Pretty sure I remember the trackball. (It may also have been hooked up directly through some franken-mess of an Imsai 8080 and other stuff.) Don't remember the details and I never used it directly. Headlines were typed into a different system. Then everything was pasted up on a light-table. I think we shot the negatives ourselves as well. At the time, infrequent publications had someone like ourselves do the production work for them or farmed it out to some local company.

tivert 3y ago
> It looked a lot like that ULTRASystem photograph. I was a little confused, before I realized that name only appeared in one of photos. After trying to resolve my confusion, I found this, which appears to be a document from 1985 enumerating all these types of systems then in existence: http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2018/09/102740425-05-02-acc.pdf http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/201... It says the > AM Varityper 4800 (a Harris 2200 product) There's a few stock image of those in use at the Austin American-Statesman newspaper: https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-employee-typing-ad-typing-advertising-copy-into-computer-system-in-backshop-production-room-bob-daemmrich-image349060336.html?imageid=BA8478A5-122D-492D-A6C7-5FCBAE91F34D&p=86492&pn=1&searchId=11e1e93d3385308187ce50c72105bd07&searchtype=0 https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa-1980-newspaper-... https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at-the-austin-american-statesman-newspaper-where-a-typesetter-uses-a-harris-corp-video-display-terminal-vdt-for-electronic-page-makeup-or-pagination-newsrooms-across-the-country-were-replacing-typewriters-with-electronic-systems-in-the-newsrooms-lead-type-slugs-with-phototypesetting-systems-in-the-composition-rooms-bob-daemmrich-image437470502.html https://www.alamy.com/austin-texas-usa-circa1983-backshop-at... The hardware is different than in the movie, but the software appears to be similar. Scanning the document, I saw a mention of Interleaf, which some people at my employer were still using until recently (http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm). The comments on that page about the file format ring true, since we decided to not even try conversion and just have the users re-key their documents into our home-grown system for that content.
- ghaff 3y ago
  Compugraphic was another big company at the time. I think that was the manufacturer of our headline producing machine. (Another organization on the same floor used a much older and more manual machine for doing display text.) Don't know the system that did the body copy output. The machine I was thinking of (Page 16 of the PDF https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pdf https://grhpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/packaging_ebook_second.pd...) is similar but it's definitely different. Interesting that the trackball is on the left side.