Patent GB-943540-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to photographically justifying text
Inventor: HIGONNET RENE ALPHONSE EUGENE
IPC: B41B27/32
Filed: 1960-07-01
Abstract: 943,540. Photographically justifying unjustified lines of text. INTERNATIONAL PHOTON CORPORATION. July 1, 1960, No. 23192/60. Addition to 917,837. HeadingB6W. A justification unit for photographically justifying lines of text comprises a first support for carrying a sheet of unjustified text; a light source for illuminating an unjustified line of the text; detection circuitry movable along the line for ascertaining positions of interword spaces therein and connected to,a counter for registering the number of interword spaces in the line; line measuring means for measuring the length of the unjustified line and connected to an accumulator for registering a value significant of the unjustified line length; a computor adapted to be preset with a reference quantity significant of the desired justified line length and to compute from said quantity, said value, and said number adjustments to the interword spaces to bring the line to the justified line length; a second support adapted to carry a light-sensitive surface on which the line is to be transcribed, and arranged to be displaced intermittently with respect to the first support by an escapement mechanism controlled by the computor; an optical system disposed between the two supports and movable in the direction of the line for progressively projecting an image thereof on to said surface during transcription; and connections extending from the detection circuitry to the computor for synchronizing the projection of an interword space with operation of the escapement mechanism to effect said adjustments at positions of interword spaces. The apparatus effects justification by a modification of the method of the parent Specification, in which modification the line deficit as well as the number of interwords is measured during the first traverse of the optical carriage 232 along the unjustified line of text on the sheet in the support 186 producing entries on the counters AC and CI respectively. Arrest of the carriage 232 in the end position closes contacts 250 to stop the entry of line length pulses into the counter AC, to effect the justification computation in unit CP and to reverse the carriage movement. The results of the computation are recorded on the switches SZ and PR as in Specification 691,738 and on return of the optical carriage to effect printing the output of the photocell 216 sensing the interword spaces is applied not to the counter CI but over the shifted transfer contact to the switches SZ, PR controlling the variable escapement VE which moves the carriage 204 for the light-sensitive film to insert the justification increment in the transcribed line. To allow for the delay inherent in the operation of the variable escapement, the photo-cell window may be displaced along the line from the exposure window by a compensating distance. For use with ordinary lines of text the width of the interword detecting photo-cell aperture is not less than that of the maximum intercharacter space and by suitable pulse shaping circuits an operating pulse may be produced only when an interword is sensed. Alternatively the interwords may be indicated on the sheet of text by marks as in the parent Specification a special end of line mark provided to simplify detection of interwords and distinguishing between the end of a line and an interword.