Talk:Hot metal typesetting

References for Knuth
If someone wants, all the refrences for Knuth's motivations (love of hot-lead, disappointment with phototypesetting results) are in the TeX article. Mostly it is in essays from his book, "Digitial Typography". --Andorphin 22:15, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I am going to be bold (I hope it doesn't offend) and merge hot type with this entry. My reasoning for keeping this entry is that the equivelent article for phototypesetting is listed as such, not as cold type. I will try to gome back and organize this more in the medium term. --Andorphin 22:15, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Too technical?
If you're still around Andorphin, or someone else who knows about this stuff, do you think you could try to make this article a little more accessible to people who know little to nothing about printing? Skittle 15:21, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I tried a little bit. This is a quite technical article, isn't it? - DavidWBrooks 15:34, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Just wanted tp say thanks
This is a really nice article; I can't think of anything I should like to lose, nor anything that could be added. A superb article and thank you to all for making it so. Its brevity and clarity should stand as an example. I would nominate for FA if I knew how.

Best wishes SimonTrew (talk) 18:06, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Pictures?
This seems a good article, but some pictures of the machines described would make it easier to understand the process.

Help!
Okay, I'm going to try breaking down just the first part of the "types" section. Could you please advise?

1) Okay, so one of the two types is called the "Monotype compostion caster system". It uses perforated paper-ribbons: are these to carry instructions, like punch cards, or are these used to physically carry the glyphs into place, or what? And is "all characters are cast separate" the defining characteristic of this system? Does "large composition" just mean "larger letters and numbers"?

2) Is this just a specific machine that uses the same system as in the previous paragraph? Or is it a different system?

3) Great! Does this system have a name? Who came up with it, or marketed it, initially?

4) So we are talking about the second system, with each line cast as a block? What are display body sizes?

5) What does "where ... make ready for print was essential" mean?

6) What is a "matrix" in this context? Have you found a wikipedia article that explains what they are, which we could link to? I assume such an article would explain what channels are.

7) What does the paper tape do? What is a reading frame?

If I can get my head around this a bit more, I will reorder this section to start with telling us what the two types are, then going into more detail about the benefits of the different types, then telling us what the major machines/systems for these types were.

Skittle (talk) 18:50, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

When did the hot type era end?
whew! I just wanted to know about what year newspapers, book publishers, and other printers switched from hot type to cold processes. I had guessed mid-70s to a first approximation. Now after reading this entry I feel I could tear down a Linotype machine and reassemble it blindfold. But I still don't know when they were melted down, most of them, for scrap. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:ca00:14c:5fa5:62c4:274a:9a8b:ccfc (talk) 00:45, 3 February 2019 (UTC)


 * NY Times reached an agreement with their typesetting union in 1974 and had completely converted to cold type in three years, so that's your general picture. Different newspapers transitioned at different times, of course. The large, metro dailies were often late in the transition because of unions and the sunk cost of all their machines. Not sure about book publishers. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 13:13, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Video
I also found the article too technical and tried to find some video to learn more. Fortunately I found this instructional video that explained everything quite well. Also, it might be in public domain due to its age. Perhaps someone can add a link or cite the video in some way?

Chenxiaoqino (talk) 06:23, 17 November 2022 (UTC)