Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
Berthold Diatronic
This cool Berthold fototype diatronic typesetting machine was spotted by OnlineLion.
Published December 28, 2022
This 200 kg piece of vintage hardware with the intriguing keycap profile was spotted by OnlineLion in a museum. As cerement points out, it's a Berthold Fototype Diatronic phototypesetting machine.
We hadn't had that much time left until the museum had to close. But it was in an area that was about printing – OnlineLion.
Here is the Berthold Fototype brochure (in German) on Archive.
And on page 3 the Diatronic in all its splendor:
The "Fotosatz" part seen in many photos is misleading: it isn't a nameplate but an 8-character display showing the last characters you typed.
This is explained in the brochure, and Marcin Wichary has a tweet about it in his awesome thread on tiny (and expensive) screens from the 70s/80s as well:
A Berthold typesetting machine came with a beautiful and unique keyboard – and in the periphery, a “screen” that felt more like a calculator display, with room for only eight last characters you typed. pic.twitter.com/hLy1ZSCxOz
— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) September 17, 2019
Published on Wed 28th Dec 2022. Featured in KBD #109 (source).
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