JPH0330495B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improvement of a phototypesetting machine equipped with a plurality of phototypesetting machines. The typeface storage formats of phototypesetting machines can be roughly divided into analog typeface type and digital typeface type.
The analog dial method uses a dial with characters housed in a transparent body such as glass, and the desired characters are photographed from the dial and printed onto a photosensitive material. The shape of the dial in this analog alphabet system includes a plate type consisting of a flat plate, a drum type, a disk type, a fan-shaped segment type, and the like. When using a plate-type dial, a completely static exposure typesetting method is generally used, which provides high printing quality, but the typesetting speed is slow. On the other hand, when using a drum-shaped, disc-shaped, or fan-shaped segment type dial, a dynamic exposure method is used in which the typesetting is timed while the dial is rotated, so the print quality is lower than the above. However, the typesetting speed is fast, and types that rotate the dial do not require extra space to move the dial, but plate type types allow the dial to be rotated vertically and horizontally (X-Y directions). There is a problem in that extra space must be secured in order to move the device, and the device unit becomes larger accordingly.

In order to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the plate-type dial, Japanese Patent Publication No. 39-4277 proposes a phototypesetting machine equipped with a plurality of phototypes that serve as standards for character transcription. When multiple fonts are installed, the dial can be moved so that the desired character to be typed matches the closest font, which reduces the range of movement of the dial and allows the device to It is expected that the unit will be made smaller and travel time will be shortened (increased typesetting speed). Therefore, according to this method,
The greater the number of apertures, the greater the effect obtained.

However, as a practical matter, as the number of apertures increases, the number of light beams passing through these apertures must increase, and the optical system for this becomes more complex. I couldn't set my mouth. That is, conventionally, the direction of the light emitted from the light source was fixed, and the light from the light source was distributed and guided to each aperture using an optical system consisting of a movable mirror or a group of prisms. Therefore, as the number of apertures increases, the number of movable mirrors, prisms, etc. included in the optical system also increases. Incidentally, to obtain 8 series of luminous fluxes corresponding to 8 apertures from 1 light source, 1
Light flux selection control is required to branch the book light source light into two streams, then branch it into four streams, and then branch it into eight streams. Therefore, suppose the aperture is 32, 64, or even 28.
If a large number of such settings are made, the beam branch selection means in the optical system for setting the respective beams in response to them becomes extremely complex, the reliability of the operation of the movable parts decreases, and there is no opportunity for maintenance. This results in a serious loss of practicality.
Furthermore, because space had to be secured for the large number of movable parts, it was physically impossible to set up a large number (for example, around 100) of apertures on a limited, small dial. For the reasons mentioned above, the conventional method cannot set a large enough number of apertures to produce sufficient effects, and is therefore impractical.

The purpose of this invention is to reduce the size of the device unit and increase the speed of typesetting by providing multiple phototypes in a phototypesetting machine that uses a plate-type dial that can achieve high-quality typesetting using a completely still exposure method. The purpose is to measure the Another object of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of conventional phototypesetting machines equipped with a plurality of photoholes, and to make it possible to put into practical use a phototypesetting machine that is compact and has a high typesetting speed and has a considerably large number of phototypesetting machines. It is to make it.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, black circles and white circles indicate the positions of photographic apertures, respectively. In this example, each aperture is 20
They are arranged in rows and 8 columns in the X direction, for a total of 128 pieces. Each row in the Y direction is coded y1 to y20.
The columns in the X direction are indicated by symbols x1 to x8. The plate type dial 10 is movable in the X and Y directions, and its movement is controlled so that desired characters to be typeset are aligned with the nearby copy space. A rotating light source 1 provided below (or above, in short, on one side of the dial 10) the dial 10
1 rotates around a rotation axis substantially perpendicular to the dial 10 and emits a luminous flux substantially parallel to the plane of the dial 10 . As shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the light source body 11 can selectively emit a luminous flux toward either one of the optical axes α and β, which are set in two stages upward and downward in the direction of the rotation axis. There is.

In order to guide the light flux emitted from the rotating light source body 1 along the optical axis α or β to a predetermined photographic aperture according to the rotation angle of the light source body 11, a fixed reflection mirror M1, corresponding to each photographic aperture is provided. 1 to M8.20 are provided respectively. In addition, each mirror M1,1 to M8・
Among the mirrors 20, two mirrors that receive the light beam from the rotating light source 11 at substantially the same or close rotation angle are arranged with heights shifted from each other so as to correspond separately to either of the optical axes α and β. . This is to prevent the mirror closer to the light source 11 from blocking the light flux that should be given to the mirror farther away. For example, as shown in Figure 2, aperture L6 located at the intersection of x6 column and y14 row,
Mirror M6,1 installed below 14 (white circle)
4 bends the light beam on the optical axis β at 90 degrees and creates the aperture L.
6 and 14. Also,
Portion L7, 17 located at the intersection of x7 column and y17 row
Mirrors M7 and 17 corresponding to (black circles) have optical axes α
The luminous flux of is bent 90 degrees upward and its photoperture L7,
It is fixedly installed so as to lead to 7. Similarly, photographic apertures L2, 5 to L7, indicated by white circles in FIG.
The mirrors M2, 5 to M7, 15 corresponding to 15 are arranged at a height corresponding to the optical axis β, and the fixed mirrors M1, 1 to M7, 15 corresponding to the photographic apertures L1, 1 to L8, 20 indicated by black circles are arranged at a height corresponding to the optical axis β. M8, 20 are arranged at a height corresponding to the optical axis α.

As an example, the rotating light source 11 is constantly rotated in one direction by the motor 12, and the character selection signal is
When LS is given, a light beam is emitted (flashed) to one of the optical axes α or β corresponding to the specific aperture at a rotation angle corresponding to the specific aperture according to the character to be written. In other words, the character selection signal LS is
Information indicating whether the most suitable aperture for transcribing the selected character is a white circle or a black circle (optical axis α or β), and the rotation angle of the light source 11 corresponding to that aperture. Based on this information, the control circuit 13 supplies the light source body 11 with an optical axis selection signal Sα/β that instructs which of the optical axes α or β the light beam should emit, and also sends a rotation detector to the light source 11. Based on the rotation angle detection signal AD by 14, the light source 11
When the rotation angle reaches a predetermined rotation angle, a light emission command FC is given to the light source body 11. Note that the light source body 1 may be kept stationary at all times and rotated only when a character is selected.

The rotating light source body 11 may independently include two light sources corresponding to the optical axes α and β, and select one of the light sources according to the selection signal Sα/β. Alternatively, it may include one light source and a movable mirror for optical path switching that guides the light beam from the light source to the optical axis α or β, and the movable mirror may be switched in accordance with the selection signal Sα/β. Further, as shown in Fig. 3, optical axes α' and β' which are opposite to the optical axes α and β may be further set, and a luminous flux may be emitted from one of them. You can further increase the speed.

Each character on the dial 10 is classified into n (128) groups corresponding to n (128) apertures.
In general, each character is classified according to the aperture located closest to each character when the dial 10 is in the neutral position. When a character selection signal is applied, the dial 10 is driven by an amount corresponding to the X-Y coordinate position of the selected character within the group to which the selected character belongs, and the dial 10 is driven by an amount corresponding to the X-Y coordinate position of the selected character within the group to which the character belongs. Match the photo area. Therefore, dial 10
The maximum amount of movement corresponds to the maximum amount of movement in each group, and since the number of groups n (for example, 128) is extremely large, the maximum amount of movement is limited to an extremely narrow range. For example, in the case of the dial 10 shown in FIG. 1, the actual size is about 25 cm vertically and horizontally, and the maximum movement amount is about 2 cm in the X direction and about 1 cm in the Y direction. Therefore, it can be made significantly smaller and more compact. Further, the actual size of each of the fixed mirrors M1, 1 to M8, 20 is an appropriate size that matches the size of the letters stored in the dial. Furthermore, since there are a large number of photographic apertures, an extremely large number of characters can be placed near the photographic apertures. In other words, the photo area is 1
It is possible to arrange n times as many characters in the vicinity of the photographic aperture as compared to the case where the number of characters is n. Therefore, by only slightly moving the dial 10, an extremely large number of characters can be matched to the copy area, and the speed of the entire typesetting operation can be greatly increased.

For example, if the selected character belongs to the group L8,5 (it is near L8,5), move the dial 10 so that the character matches L8,5, and the rotating light source 11 is located at the photographic aperture L.
When positioned at a rotation angle corresponding to 8 and 5, a light beam is emitted along the optical axis α as shown by the broken line in FIG. This light beam along the optical axis α is reflected by the mirror M8,5, passes through the aperture L8,5, and photographs the characters on the dial 10 at that position.

Any configuration may be used for the optical system for condensing the light flux passing through each aperture onto a single optical axis and guiding it to a predetermined imaging position. An example of this is shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

Above the dial 10 (on the opposite side of the light source 11), there are long and narrow mirrors corresponding to each row x1 to x8.
Ma to Mh are provided. The light flux passing through the apertures arranged in each row x1 to x8 is reflected by the corresponding mirror.
Reflected at Ma~Mh and bent 90 degrees, each row y1~
It is guided to a common optical axis L1 to L20 every y20. The luminous flux reflected by the mirrors Ma to Mg is plotted in each row y1 to y20.
In order to guide the reflected light to a common optical axis L1 to L20, the mirrors Mb to Mh located in front of the reflected light are movable up and down as shown by the broken lines in FIG. . For example, in order to guide the light beam that has passed through the aperture in the x1 column to the optical axes L1 to L20, all the mirrors Mb to Mh are moved upward to guide the light from the mirror Ma to the optical axes L1 to L20. In addition, when guiding the light flux that has passed through the aperture in the x2 row to the optical axes L1 to L20, the mirrors Me to
Mh is moved upward to guide the light from mirror Mb to optical axes L1 to L20. Similarly, for each of the other columns (x3 to x8), the corresponding mirrors (Mc to
Each of the mirrors Md to Mh in front of Mh is moved upward so that the reflected light of Mh is not interrupted, and the light flux is guided to one of the optical axes L1 to L20.

As shown in FIG. 4, the optical axes L1 to L20 are connected to mirrors M1 to M6 and half mirrors M7 to M13.
are combined into one optical axis LB. Optical axis L
1 to L4 are bent by 90 degrees by mirror M1 and half mirror M7, pass through half mirror M10, and are guided to optical axes La to Ld, respectively. Optical axes L5 to L8 pass through half mirrors M7 and M10, respectively.
Guided by La~Ld. Optical axes L9 to L12 pass through half mirror M9, are bent by 90 degrees by mirror M4 and half mirror M10, and guided to optical axes La to Ld, respectively. Optical axes L13 to L16 are half mirrors M
8, mirrors M3, M4, half mirror M
9, bent by 90 degrees at M10, respectively optical axis La~
Guided by Ld. Optical axes L17 to L20 are mirrors M
2, M3, M4, half mirror M8, M9, M1
0, it is bent by 90 degrees and guided to the optical axis La to Ld.
Optical axis La is half mirror M13 and mirror M6
It is bent by 90 degrees and guided to the imaging optical axis LB. The optical axis Lb is bent 90 degrees by a half mirror M12, passes through a half mirror M13, is bent 90 degrees by a mirror M6, and is guided to the optical axis LB. The optical axis Lc is bent 90 degrees by half mirror M11, and half mirrors M12 and M1
3, is bent 90 degrees by mirror M6, and optical axis LB
guided by. The optical axis Ld is bent 90 degrees by a mirror M5, passes through half mirrors M11, M12, and M13, and is bent 90 degrees by a mirror M6 and guided to an optical axis LB.
The character image guided to the imaging optical axis LB passes through the lens R and is imaged onto the photosensitive material B.

Note that the optical axis α and β from the light source 11 are set to 1.
The mirror group 1, 1 to M8, 20 corresponding to the optical axis α (corresponding to the photographic area marked with a black circle) are fixed mirrors, and the mirror corresponding to the optical axis β (corresponding to the photographic area marked with a white circle) is a fixed mirror. The groups M2.5 to M7.15 may be vertically movable mirrors. In this case, the structure is simple because the vertically movable mirrors only have to move vertically in common.

Incidentally, in the neutral state, a character that is located near the copying hole can be positioned on the copying hole by only slightly moving the dial. The letter storage area on the dial that can be quickly positioned to the photoport is called a core, and this core corresponds to each photoport. Therefore, a phototypesetting machine having 100 or more phototypes as in the present invention has more than 100 times as many cores as a typesetting machine having only one or a few phototypes. It is clear that if frequently used characters are arranged in this core, the typesetting operation will be further speeded up. For example, if the character arrangement on the dial is 2 mm apart, 1
Assuming that 25 characters are stored in one core, one core is 1
It will have an expanse of cm square, with a maximum of only 5 cm.
The letter capital in the core can be positioned at the photographic aperture by X-Y movement of about mm. The number of cores corresponding to 128 apertures is 128, and the number of characters stored in the core is
128 x 25 = 3200 characters. This is a number that can cover almost all commonly used characters, such as regular kanji, kana characters, alphabetical characters, numbers, and symbols for ornaments. Therefore, most of the normally used characters can be selected by dial XY driving of only about 5 mm at maximum. This will greatly speed up the entire typesetting process.

As explained above, according to the present invention, in a phototypesetting machine equipped with a plurality of photographic apertures, the photographing light flux for each photographic aperture is set by a rotating light source, so that the luminous flux emitted from the light source is adjusted to each photographic aperture. The optical system for selective distribution to the apertures can be extremely simplified, and as a result, a very large number of apertures (eg 100 or more) can be provided in a small area. As a result, in a high-quality phototypesetting machine using a completely static exposure method, it is possible to significantly reduce the size and compactness of the device configuration, and to greatly speed up the overall typesetting work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a phototypesetting machine according to the present invention, and shows the planar arrangement relationship between a rotating light source, a mirror for guiding a luminous flux to each photoport, a plurality of photoports, and a dial. , FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the same embodiment and a control system block diagram, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the rotating light source, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing each aperture. FIG.
FIG. 10... Dial, 11... Rotating light source, 12...
...Motor, 13...Control circuit, 14...Rotation detector, L1.1 to L8.20...Photograph, M1.1
M8/20...Fixed mirror for reflecting the luminous flux from the light source towards each aperture, LS...Character selection signal, AD...Rotation angle detection signal, FC...Light emission command, α, β... ...2 set by the light source
Stage optical axis.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A flat translucent dial, a plurality of fonts arranged corresponding to the dial, and a group of letters stored in the dial corresponding to each font. a driving means for driving the dial two-dimensionally so that the dial corresponding to the selected character is positioned in the corresponding aperture according to a character selection signal; and a driving means for constantly rotating the optical axis radially. a rotating light source body provided corresponding to the photographic aperture so as to reflect an optical axis from the rotating light source body toward the dial, pass through the dial, and guide it to the corresponding photographic aperture; an optical system that guides an optical axis passing through each of the photographic apertures to a predetermined printing position; and, in response to the character selection signal, a rotation angle of the rotary light source body determines the photographic aperture corresponding to the selected character. A phototypesetting machine comprising: a control means for emitting a luminous flux from the light source at a specific pointing angle, thereby transcribing characters of a letter positioned on the photoport by the driving means. 2. The rotating light source includes means for switching the light beam emitting position in a plurality of stages in the direction of the rotation axis, and each of the reflecting mirrors has two or more units that receive the light beam from the rotating light source at substantially the same or nearby rotation angles. The positions of the reflecting mirrors are arranged evenly in correspondence with each step in the direction of the rotation axis, and the light beam is emitted from the light source at a rotation angle and step corresponding to a specific photographic area in accordance with a character selection signal. A phototypesetting machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the phototypesetting machine is adapted to emit light.