Phototypesetting was a method of
setting type, rendered obsolete with the popularity of the
personal computer and
desktop publishing software, that used a
photographic process to generate columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. Typesetters used a machine called a phototypesetter, which would quickly project
light through a
film negative image of an individual character in a
font, through a lens that would magnify or reduce the size of the character onto
photographic paper, which would collect on a spool in a light-tight canister. The photographic paper or film would then be fed into a processor, a machine that would pull the paper or film strip through two or three baths of chemicals, where it would emerge ready for
paste up or film make-up.
