Abstract: A precise chinese character phototypesetting system controlled by computer is presented. It consists of a big keyboard of chinese characters, automatic phototypesetting machine and a check system consisting of a chinese character generator and a laser scanning dot-matrix printer. The chinese character generator is composed of 32×32 dot-matrix implemented with E-shape soft magnetic-core. In order to guarantee the quality of characters and page format, to have a higher speed of phototypesetting and to make full use of large difference in the frequency of usage of chinese characters, the working principle of this automatic phototypesetting machine is to focus the image of all chinese typeheads at different position on the model plate into a small square by means of one big lens and several hundred small lenses. This machine has four typefaces: Song-dynasty-style typeface, imitation song-dynasty-style typeface, blackface type and reqular script. There are 10 sizes and 7 shapes for each typeface, so that the machine may be considered as consisting of about 2 million typecasting.