Electronic pattern generator

Abstract

In an electronic pattern generator characters to be recorded are displayed on the screen of a cathode ray tube and then exposed on a recording medium mounted on a carrier, which is displacable in a plane parallel to the plane of the screen. The characters are displayed from video-data recallable from a store. The recalled video-data are transformed into a first video signal for the brightness control of the electron beam of the cathode ray tube into first deflection signals for the beam and into displacement signals for the carrier. For controlling the make-up and composing process the characters are displayed identically on a further screen of a soft copy terminal independently of the display on the screen of the cathode ray tube. By identical display it is understood, that the various type fonts and sizes of characters are not displayed in an unitary fashion, but in the original font of writing, as they will appear later in the typographical composition on the recording medium. By identical display it is further understood, that also the appropriate displacement motions of the carrier are taken into account when displaying the soft copy for control purpose. The identical display is achieved by storing the first video signal and transforming it into a second video signal for the soft copy terminal with the help of different read-in and read-out signals for the storage means and different second deflection signals for the screen of the soft copy terminal.