Some Possible Effects of Computer Composition Technology on Technical Book Publication

Previous improvements in type composition have not removed the danger that human or machine error would result in output that did not match the input in the form of the author\´s edited manuscript. The consequent need for "verification" of the output has resulted in high costs in both time and money. The new technology, which promises to produce whatever is on the input tape with extremely low probability of machine error, suggests that publishing practices dealing with composition may be ready for extensive changes. These changes, illustrated in Fig. 2 of the text, could lead to reduction in time by a factor of 6 or 7 and similar reductions in cost.