Software and hardware considerations for a technical typesetting system

The typesetting of mathematics requires consistency and high quality, which has formerly meant high labor costs and long production schedules. OCR devices, computers, and CRT phototypesetters can provide a low-cost, high-speed alternative to labor-intensive metal typesetting when they are coupled to an adequate software system. The software must encompass the many complex, though precisely definable, rules for math setting and an easy-to-learn, labor-efficient input language. This paper describes such a system, currently in use, including hardware, the logic and assumptions of the software, and examples of the input language.