The Intertype "Fototypesetter" is Invented

In 1946 the Intertype Fotosetter was invented. Unlike the Lumitype Photon, Fotosetters were mechanical devices modeled on hot metal typesetting technology, and they bore a certain physical resemblance to Linotype machines. The Fotosetter replaced the metal type matrices with glass matrices carrying the image of the letters. It also replaced the caster of hot metal machines with a light system and a photographic unit. The photographic unit photographed each matrix character separately. This device enjoyed limited success.

Regarding the first use of the Intertype Fotosetter, Berry & Poole, Annals of Printing (1966) states on pp. 282-83, 1946: "The Intertype Fotsetter was installed in the Government Printing Office, Washington. A sixteen-page pamphlet, "The National Gallery of Art, Washington," was composed on this machine in the same year and may be considered the first publication to be filmset."

The first actual hardcover book set by the Fotosetter was a limited edition of Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth set "without the use of metal type" by Typographic Service, Philadelphia. Copies were distributed as Christmas Gifts by Samuel A. Dalton on December 25, 1951.