排字(typesetting)

为不同印刷过程准备的排字动作。最早使用木版印刷的是11世纪的中国；可移动的金属字模是13世纪时出现在韩国的。1450年代欧洲的古腾堡将之改良。在排版史中，排字和印刷向来都是由同一人完成。这个人负责移动字模，依照印刷品上每行字的顺序，一次一个字模，并操纵手压机将字模印在纸上。1880年代「热金属」过程出现所谓的活字印刷术（1884），使排字印刷术获得革命性的改良。活字印刷术使用像打字机般的键盘，将要印刷的每一行排出；每一行再用专属的金属制字模排出来。蒙纳排铸机（1887）则是逐一铸造每一个字而不是每一行。photocomposition指的是将所需文章直接印在底片或具光敏性的纸上，使用的是上用字型的回转桶或圆碟，可以让光线穿透直接接收物表面－－这是20世纪的发明。现在字体印刷都是经由电脑。电脑的排版印刷系统包括可产生磁性线条的键盘，可以制作以连字号连接、排版和其他版面设定的电脑、供印刷输出的印刷单位；雷射光束产生的脉冲可将影像传到对光反应敏感的纸张或底片，进而根据电脑产生的电子脉冲形成每个字。目前发生的趋势是需要印刷的案件都以电子档的形式储存，并将之传输到印表机输出，而不再是传送到纸张或底片上。电脑印刷每秒可传10,000字。现代的影像印刷还可呈现包含图像及文字的版表。

English version：

typesetting

Setting of type for use in any of various printing processes. Type for printing, using woodblocks, was invented in China in the 11th cent, and movable type using metal molds had appeared in Korea by the 13th century. It was reinvented in Europe in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg. For much of its history, typesetting and printing were often performed by the same person, who arranged movable type, one character at a time, in rows corresponding to the individual lines in the publication, and operated the hand press to imprint the image on paper. Typesetting was revolutionized in the 1880s with the invention of the “hot-metal” processes: Linotype (1884), in which the lines of type were assembled by use of a typewriter-like keyboard and each line was cast as a single slug of molten metal, and Monotype (1887), which also used a keyboard but cast each character separately. Photocomposition—the composition of text directly on film or photosensitive paper, using a rotating drum or disk with cutout type characters through which light could be directed onto the receiving surface—appeared in the early 20th century. Today characters are generated by computer; computer typesetting systems include a keyboard that produces magnetic tape for input, a computer for making hyphenation, layout, and other page-makeup decisions, and a typesetting unit for output, which transfers the images to light-sensitive paper or film by pulses from a laser beam, which forms each character in response to computer-generated electric pulses. Increasingely, typesetting projects are simply saved electronically and sent to the printer as electronic files rather than on paper or film. A computerized typesetter can set over 10,000 characters per second, and modern imagesetters can set complex layouts that include a variety of graphic matter in addition to type.