Monotype Computer Interface

Hardware

The purpose of the hardware assembly is to allow a computer to control the various pneumatic inputs on the composition caster, as well as to report machine cycle position and timing to the computer interface.

The hardware component of the system consists of 3 major assemblies: the computer interface board, the air valve bank and the air bar adapter. Typically, the hardware interface is attached to a composition caster in a semi-permanent fashion. While the interface requires no modification to the caster and is fairly straightforward to attach, it is usually easiest to install it and run the caster from computer.

The computer interface board connects to the caster control computer using an industry standard USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. The interface board allows the caster control computer to control the air valve bank, and also informs the caster control computer of the cycling of the composition caster. An external power supply connects to the computer interface board and provides the 12 volt power needed to activate the various air valves. Additionally, the interface board is electrically isolated from the computer (using optical isolation) in order to protect against any dangerous electrical conditions which may accidentally appear between the caster and computer.

The air valve bank is a set of solenoid activated pneumatic valves, 31 in all, which activate the various air pins and actuators present on the composition caster. The air valves are mounted on a manifold which can be hung from a wall or ceiling near the casting machine. The air valve bank is connected to a compressed air source at 'Monotype' standard 15 PSI, as well as to the computer interface board via cable and the air bar adapter via a set of flexible hoses.

The air bar adapter consists of a machined bar which is placed over the 31 openings on the paper tower in place of a paper ribbon. A set of clamp brackets hold the adapter bar on the paper tower. Additionally, an electronic sensor is attached to the paper tower in order to detect the caster cycle.

Software

The software portion of the system consists of 2 major components: the electronic ribbon (called eRibbons) generator and the caster control application. The caster control application is installed and runs on a computer connected to a composition caster using the computer control interface. We'll start by examining the caster control application first.

The Caster Control Application

As we've mentioned, the caster control application runs on a machine which is physically attached to a composition caster via the caster control hardware interface. The purpose of the caster control application is to send the appropriate control signals to the hardware interface at the appropriate times in order to simulate the effect of having a paper ribbon running through the caster. The caster control application is fairly simple in operation: it resembles the controls of a cassette deck or cd player. Using the caster control application, a "pre-punched" eRibbon is converted to air signals at the casting machine. The caster control application provides a set of simple operations that can be performed, such as loading a ribbon, starting or stopping the advance of the eRibbon as well as controls that allow the operator to advance forward or back through the ribbon, line by line.

The ribbon generator can be run on any computer, not necessarily one attached to a caster control interface. This separation of tasks allows an operator to generate ribbons from the comfort of an office, or while away from the foundry. When a ribbon is generated, the operator need merely transfer the prepared eRibbon to the caster control computer using a CD, USB flash drive or network.

The Ribbon Generator

Using the ribbon generator, an operator manages the various pieces of information necessary to make eRibbons. Most of these pieces of data (we refer to these as files or objects) are directly analogous with aspects of the standard 'Monotype' paper ribbon system. These objects are:

• Stopbar Definitions
• Matrix Case Arrangements (MCA)
• Ribbon Generator input
• eRibbons

Stopbars and MCAs are very similar to stopbars and matrix arrangements or keybars employed in the traditional 'Monotype' composition system. Additionally, the MCA contains some extra information used to drive certain aspects of ribbon generation. The Stopbar and MCA objects are stored as files by the ribbon generator in standard XML format. Subject to the requirement that they be correctly formatted, these files can be edited by hand or using other tools by the operator, in addition to the supplied editing tools.

Ribbon Generator Input is combined with information specified by Stopbar and MCA objects to produce an eRibbon. The Ribbon Generator Input is a text file which is similar in nature to HTML; that is, it contains the text to be cast, and is "sprinkled" with specially formatted control strings. These control strings instruct the ribbon generator to perform special functions, such as quadding a line or engaging letterspacing. Ribbon Generator Input files can be prepared using a standard text editor, such as TextEdit on the Mac.

Working with Stopbars

Stopbar arrangments are the first and most basic component used in generating electronic ribbons. They represent the unit width that a given wedge will produce when employed in the composition caster. In our electronic system, they also provide the default width for a sort when creating MCAs and are used during the actual ribbon generation process to determine whether a sort being cast requires adjustments in its width via Unit Adding, Unit Shift or the Justification Wedges.

Creating a new Stopbar is fairly easy, and it's pretty satisfying, as you can add a new wedge in very little time and feel like you've accomplished something. It's important to get the wedge/stopbar arrangments entered correctly, as everything else you do will be affected by this.

A fairly comprehensive list of stopbars with their width assignments are available from the Alembic Press website:

http://www.alembicpress.co.uk/Typecaster/stop.htm

From the main menu, you click on "Stopbar Arrangements" and then "New Wedge". Give the wedge a name (such as "S158") and click on "Create".

This will take you to the wedge position screen where you'll punch in the units for each position on the wedge. Do that (make sure you've entered them in correctly!) and then click on "Save". If you realize you've made a mistake, you can go back and make changes by clicking on the wedge name/number from the "Stopbar arrangements" menu.

Working with MCAs

During the creation of a new MCA, a name for the MCA is provided. This name can be as descriptive as desired, though since the MCA is stored as a file on disk, it is best to keep the names simple, avoiding punctuation or other special characters that may be forbidden within filenames.

The operator should select the correct matcase size when creating a new MCA. Valid sizes are 15x15, 15x17 and 16x17. Note that a caster must be properly configured for using matcases other than 15x15. Currently, it is not possible to change the matcase size from within the MCA editing tool, but can be changed by manually editing the MCA file.

When creating a layout, you specify the default wedge (stopbar) to be used. This enables the matcase editor to pre-fill the unit width values for any sorts you add. All sorts start out the unit width of the row they're positioned in. Of course you can change that if you want. For example, if you want to put a 6 unit sort in a row that is normally 5 units, the ribbon generator will adjust the width of the sort being cast by using unit-shift, unit-adding or the justification wedges. To change the unit width of a character, click on it and set the value to whatever you want (there are limits, of course… you probably can't put a 18 unit "W" in a 5 unit row and have things work.) The layout will show those sorts whose widths are not the same as the wedge position by coloring the background yellow.

Additionally, the reference to a stopbar is used to automatically select the proper Stop bar when generating an eRibbon. The specified Stopbar may be overridden at ribbon generation time, for example if the standard stopbar is unavailable.

The MCA editor provides a point-and-click interface for editing the contents of a MCA. The operator can either drag-and-drop a sort into the MCA from a list of unplaced sorts, or manually by clicking on a given matcase position in order to edit the matrix present in that position.

Clicking on a matcase position will pop up a "matrix editor", where you can choose from an empty matrix, a fixed space, a justifying space or a sort. If you choose a sort, you'll enter information about that matrix.

Any sorts you've added since the last time you saved will be blue.

Below the MCA display is a space that describes any "problems" with your arrangement. For example, the problem display may say,

Matcase contains duplicate mat: I|E:new C 9, orig G 8

That means that positions C9 and G8 both contain the same matrix, in this case an italic "E". One of them is probably wrong, though if your arrangement does actually have more than one italic E, that's probably okay, but the ribbon generator will only use the first one it finds. You can make the wrong one a blank matrix, or a fixed space, or perhaps there's actually a different mat in that position.

If, for example, your arrangement has a regular italic "E", and a swash "E", you might only want to employ the swash E in certain places. So, you'd leave the regular "E" as it is, and give the swash "E" a different activator. The activator is the text in your ribbon file that will trigger that matrix to be used. Normally, the activator is the same as the character, but they don't have to be. You could make the activator for the swash e something like "_E_", so that if the ribbon generator encounters that bit of text, it knows you really meant "use the swash E". I prefer to use "@E_SWASH": the "@" at the beginning tells the ribbon generator to not use it unless I tell it to actually to, using a special code in the text. That way, it's less likely to get accidentally used if my text contains the activator. You can do the same thing for ligatures that you don't want to automatically use, such as "st" or so on. See the "Ligatures" section below.

Ligatures

By default, any ligatures you add to a matcase will automatically be used when they appear in the ribbon input. For example, if if your text has the word "ruffle" in it, the ribbon generator will notice the "ffl" and cast an "ffl" ligature instead of the 3 individual letters. If you don't want a ligature to be used automatically, you add a "@" sign to the beginning of it's activator. For example, if you add a "ct" ligature and you only want to use it by specifying it manually in the ribbon input, you type "ct" in the character box and "@ct" in the activator box.

Manual Matrix Editing

By clicking on a postion in the MCA, a pop-up editor will appear that allows modification of any of the parameters of the matrix in the selected position:

• type of matrix: empty, fixed space, justifying space or sort. Each matcase should contain exactly one justifying space. The position of the justifying space in the matcase will determine the minimum size that a justifying space may be cast. A justifying space will also be used as a fixed space when necessary.

• character: the character or sequence of characters which will be displayed in previews of the generated ribbon.
• weight: type of alphabet the matrix belongs to, such as italic, small caps, etc. The default alphabet in a MCA should be marked as "Roman".
• activator: the character or sequence of characters that will cause the matrix to be cast when appearing in a ribbon input file, such as "A" or "&" or "ffl"). Multi-character activators that begin with "@" will not be automatically employed when they appear in the input text; they must be specifically brought into use by a special command sequence. By default, the activator is populated with the same value as the character value, described above
• unit width: by default, the unit width specified by the default Stopbar selected during MCA creation. this may be overridden as necessary, such as when using one of the various width manipulation mechanisms (unit shift, etc)

To add a sort to an MCA manually:

1. select the location you'd like to add the custom sort to, and click on the cell (the pointer may or may not change to the "pointing finger", but it shouldn't matter).
2. When you click on the matrix position, a popup should appear that allows you to set that matrix position as a sort (there will also be options for fixed and justifying spaces, or empty). Choose "sort" and a set of options should appear.
3. Type the custom sort character into the "character" field. If you hit tab, it should also copy the same sort into the "activator" field.
4. Click "save", and the matrix picker should disappear.
5. The custom sort should appear in the matrix position you just edited.
6. Click "save" to save the MCA.

Once you have defined Stopbars and MCAs, you can use these to generate eRibbons. To generate an eRibbon, you must tell the ribbon generator about the text you'd like to set. You may do this in one of two ways: a) by creating a text file that you provide to the ribbon generator or b) for smaller texts, by entering the text directly into the ribbon generator.

If you are generating a text that contains non-ASCII characters (simple english text), from a text file, you must make sure that the text is saved in UTF-8 format. If your text contains non-ASCII characters and you do not provide UTF-8, unexpected results, including errors, may occur.

Ribbon generation codes

A ribbon input file is basically plain text that contains special codes that tell the ribbon generator to perform specific functions, such as quadding a line or inserting a particular ligature into the generated text. The following table includes a list of these special codes that can be used to perform these special functions.

Note that in order to create a new paragraph, or to break a line in a particular place, you must use one of the codes below; the ribbon generator ignores extra white-space (tabs, spaces and empty lines).

very simple example:

<center>
My Life Story<qo>
<i>by Bill Welliver</i><qo>
<qo>
<justify>
It was a dark and stormy night. <qo>

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