History
In January 1978, printing operations at the Watch Tower Society's headquarters in Brooklyn, New York were upgraded from letterpress printing to lithographic offset presses (later replaced by the faster photolithographic process). A decision was made in 1979 for the Society to create its own phototypesetting system rather than relying on commercial equipment. In the same year, Witnesses at Watchtower Farms, Wallkill, New York, began designing and constructing the necessary phototypesetters, computers and terminals, in addition to the MEPS software. The system was completed by May 1986, allowing more efficient publication of their literature in dozens of languages, with a small selection available in over 600 languages. As of January 2013, MEPS is used to publish monthly articles of The Watchtower for congregational study simultaneously in 204 languages.
An earlier solution to the problem of requiring multilanguage printing was the IPS project; IPS and MEPS were developed at the same time, MEPS being intended as a longer-term project to supersede IPS once it had been completed and fully developed.
Read more about this topic: Multilanguage Electronic Phototypesetting System
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