Linotype machine

The Linotype machine (/ˈlaɪnətaɪp/ LYNE-ə-type) is a "line casting" machine used in printing which is manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related companies. It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type. Linotype became one of the mainstays for typesetting, especially small-size body text for newspapers, magazines, and advertisements from the late 19th century to the 1970s and 1980s, when it was largely replaced by phototypesetting and then digital typesetting.

The name of the machine comes from producing an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o’-type. It was a significant improvement over the previous industry standard of letter-by-letter manual hand composition using a composing stick and shallow subdivided trays, called “cases”.

The Linotype machine operator types text on a 90-character keyboard. The machine assembles matrices, or molds of the letter forms, in a line. The assembled line is then sent to the casting part of the machine where it is cast as a single piece, called a slug, from molten type metal in a process known as hot metal typesetting. The matrices are then returned to the type magazine via a distribution bar, to be reused continuously.

The Linotype allows for three to five times faster composition of text when compared with hand composition. It revolutionized typesetting and with it newspaper publishing; making it possible for a relatively small number of operators to set enough type for a multi-page, daily newspaper, even in the smallest towns. Ottmar Mergenthaler invented the Linotype in 1886 alongside James Ogilvie Clephane, who helped organize and provide the financial backing for commercialization.