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Guest Editorial

The Promise of Computerized Typesetting.

Even without considering the implications of a computer-based information system, there is every indication that computerized typesetting will soon replace the traditional hot metal methods of setting type for scientific journals. Costs of hot metal composition are rising at a rate of about 6% per year as the result of increased labor costs. Computerized composition is much less dependent on human labor and progress is being made which can be expected to reduce costs. This combination of rising costs for one method and lower costs for another should result in a point within a few years when the costs of computerized composition will be competitive with hot metal costs.

As this time approaches, we can begin to think most seriously about exploiting the potential of computerized typesetting as it affects the whole process of publishing primary information. A system where the keyboarding process normally associated with the typesetting process becomes the entry point in a total system of information handling. Thus out of the early and somewhat indistinct vision that the development of computerized typesetting was a step in the evolution of computer-based information systems, has emerged a clearer picture of the differences between a computer-based system and a printbased system and a deeper insight into the meaning of the term, ."total information system."