A phototypesetting machine works by projecting text onto a light-sensitive medium – film in some models, photosensitive paper in others – which is then used to transfer the material for offset printing. ... By the 1960s, it became possible to use CRT monitors to display multiple lines of text, and even images, onto film.

Why was phototypesetting significant?

Moyroud and Higonnet's breakthrough was significant because type creation went from being a mechanical to an electronic process. But more fundamentally, the two French engineers had initiated technologies that would later lead to a transformation of the graphic arts from analog to digital technology.

How is photocomposition done?

Photocomposition, also called Phototypesetting, or Filmsetting, method of assembling or setting type by photographing characters on film from which printing plates are made. In other machines the characters are generated by computer and electronically created on the film. ...