My old mentor says the IBM Composer available then did not kern. He may still have his, he's a packrat.
I just left a message on his voice mail, will try him back in an hour.
It most definitely did center, but not "auto center." Like the Varitype, to justify you had to type each line twice. The machine would justify - in this case, center - when you typed the same like a second time.
You would set the various elements of type in pieces, wax the back of the paper, and position the pieces on a heavy sheet of paper with a pale blue grid, and that would be "shot" by a huge litho camera, and the film used to make litho plates.
I set type, did layout and pasteup, shot camera, assembled the film and made plates 1975-1983.
I know pre-press like riding a bicycle or driving a car. You never forget. I dream about it regularly. Frustration dreams, trying to get a publication ready for the press before the press crew needs it. |
