Photocomposing machine and font strip therefor for kerned characters

A character carrier for use in a photocomposing machine, said character carrier comprising an elongated strip of material having disposed thereon two longitudinal successions of elements aligned in laterally displaced relationship, the elements of one longitudinal succession being typographical characters and the elements of the other longitudinal succession being timing marks, there being a timing mark associated with each of the typographical characters;

• said two longitudinal successions of elements having an optical transmissivity opposite to that of the remaining portion of said strip of material;
• said typographical characters and associated timing marks being positioned laterally with respect to each other along said character carrier such that the right side bearing of each character is located in fixed relative position with respect to its associated timing mark;
• said timing marks being located along said character carrier at irregularly spaced intervals in dependence upon the width of their associated characters;
• and at least one character having a kerned portion extending to the right of its right side bearing.

A photocomposing machine for automatic kerning of typographical characters comprising:

• (a) at least one character carrier for presenting typographical characters, at least one of which is kerned, to an optical system for imaging onto a sensitized medium;
• (b) an optical system comprising:
• (1) an aperture for masking all but a single portion of said character carrier to the path of light, said portion containing a single typographical character;
• (2) flash lamp means for projecting light through said character carrier and said aperture means;
• (3) image offset means for positioning the projection of light transmitted through said aperture means on the sensitized medium;
• (c) means for controlling said image offset means to advance the projection of character images on the sensitized medium by a first predetermined amount prior to energizing the flash lamp and by a second amount determined by the width of the projected character in excess of said first predetermined amount following the energization of said flash lamp.