COMPUTERIZED COMPOSITION

The computer does far more than assist proofreaders. It is a marvelous tool for page composition as well. How so?

Previous editions of the New World Translation were set on Linotype machines, requiring upward of a thousand man-hours of work. The operators of these machines typed the Bible text one line at a time, deciding at the end of each line if the last word in the line needed to be hyphenated and, if so, how the word should be divided. In the course of setting type for the entire Bible, Linotype operators had to make thousands of such decisions. Inevitably, some hyphenation errors resulted.

Moreover, “Linotype operators are only human,” pointed out one experienced factory worker, “and they don’t all set type exactly the same way. Some of them tend to set type a little ‘tight,’ which means they will try to squeeze a little more on every line than other operators, who set ‘loose.’ Or the same operator might set type somewhat differently on different days.”

The Society’s computer eliminated the need for Linotypes in Bible production. Once it contained the text of the New World Translation the computer program decided how that text should be composed into lines of type, and how the lines should be arranged on pages. The computer was programmed to hyphenate words with a high degree of accuracy, and it set type with the same degree of “tightness” throughout the entire Bible, improving the appearance of the printed page.

Actually, the computer cannot set type by itself. All it can do is decide how the type should be set. The type is really set by an electronic phototypesetter, which is controlled by the main computer. This machine uses an electron beam to draw each letter of type on a special television tube. The letters, which can appear on the tube in a wide variety of sizes and type styles, are recorded on photographic material in the typesetter. This material is then used to produce platemaking film. Once the text of the Bible has been entered into the computer, printing plates can be produced in a variety of formats without having to reenter text. In a matter of seconds the computer can decide how a page of the Bible should be composed, and in minutes the phototypesetter can produce a proof that will be used as the basis for making a printing plate that will be used on a printing press.

MULTI-LANGUAGE COMPUTERIZATION

When the New World Translation was first undertaken, no one expected that it would someday be available in six languages besides English, with the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures available in another four. Today this Bible version is printed in the native tongues of over one billion people who thus can benefit from the textual research and scholarly attention that went into the original English translation.

This retranslation work has been greatly simplified by the literal nature of the English New World Translation itself. “It is nearly impossible to retranslate a paraphrased Bible,” admitted a representative of one of Christendom’s Bible translating societies. Not so with the New World Translation! To date, careful retranslation of the English text, with comparison of the Hebrew and the Greek, has yielded fine results in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Japanese and Swedish. Serious students of God’s Word in many lands now benefit from a translation that courageously restores God’s name, Jehovah, to its proper place in the Biblical text, that is free from the bias of religious traditionalism, and that gives the literal meaning of God’s Word as accurately as possible.

The Watchtower Society’s new computer facilities should be a great help in this ongoing work of multi-language Bible printing. Future editions of the New World Translation, regardless of language, will eventually be entered into a computer and will have the same excellent features as the 1981 English edition.

WORLDWIDE MODERNIZATION

The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures is only the beginning of the Watchtower Society’s conversion to computerized photocomposition and typesetting. The Society’s major printing branches are presently installing modern offset presses. It is hoped that in the near future phototypesetting can be used worldwide to handle pre-press operations for many of the more than 160 languages in which the Society currently prints literature. As a result, faster and more accurate typesetting will reduce the time lapse between the English editions of the Society’s publications and the editions in other languages. The prospect is thrilling indeed!