Computerized typesetting of complex scientific material

The successful development of computerized typesetting has been a process of striking a balance between input coding and capacity to program the variety of decision-making steps which characterize the typesetting process. The most frequent of these decisions---justification---has proved most adaptable to computer handling. Even hyphenation, with its variety of rules, has been handled via the computer with varying degrees of success. But composition for scientific journals creates special needs both for input coding and for computer processing in the handling of non-text elements such as special characters, tables, mathematical expressions, and graphic data in the form of chemical structures. Spacing considerations and character selection become much more complex and involve many decisions which are a matter of choice, not rule.