"Sherry " wrote in message
...
My mom was a typesetter when she was young too, building up the text
from the individual characters made out of metal. Then she went on to
doing it on computer-like machines, not so computer-like in the
beginning tho, they were loud machines as they operated on pressurized
air, punching holes into a ribbon of paper - that was the text.

YES. Your mom either worked with Compugraphic or Verityper. Back then,
setting
up print jobs was a real craft, and took a lot of skill. You couldn't
"see"
what you were creating until it was finished, ran the punched tape through
the
machine and you developed the film. If you were typing a long legal
notice, and
lost your place, it was a nightmare to figure out from the punched tape
where
you left off. Imagine doing desktop publishing without a monitor. That's
what
it was like. Still I loved it though. I remember when Compugraphic came
out
with the Unisetter, and you could see your text one line at a time. I
though,
wow, that's for wimps.
Your mom & I *would* have a lot to talk about!

And I remember when Compugraphic first developed "computerized
phototypesetting". I worked for a magazine in Boston that used this behemoth
machine. Errors could be corrected and files could be saved. It had special
command keys. They refined the machine over the years and made it smaller
and smaller, and more efficient. But when I worked on it you needed several
strong men to move it away from the wall enough to do any repairs in the
back.