Optical beam former and maskless character projector

Optical beam former for generating an emerging light beam from an incident light beam, the optical beam former comprising:

• a condenser lens array for receiving the incident light beam, wherein the condenser lens array comprises a plurality of condenser lenses;
• and
• a projection lens array arranged parallel to the condenser lens array for emitting the emerging light beam, wherein the projection lens array comprises a plurality of projection lenses
• wherein the condenser lens array comprises at least one cluster of condenser lenses, wherein each condenser lens of the cluster comprises an aperture adapted to a subarea of an overall pattern projected by the optical beam former to provide, for the projection lens array, part of the incident light beam associated with the subarea of the overall pattern;
• wherein a combination of the apertures of the condenser lenses is adapted to the overall pattern;
• wherein the overall pattern is a graphic to be illustrated;
• wherein each subarea images a subgraphic of the overall pattern;
• wherein the aperture of the condenser lens is a boundary of the condenser lens and is formed geometrically similar to outer boundaries of the respective subarea.