The Pagitron electronic composition system offers the potential to manipulate all elements of pagination as easily and as quickly as words are manipulated on computerized text-editing systems. The importance of such an all-encompassing pagination system is that it allows the editorial side of a newspaper or magazine total control over everything that once was done in the back shop. The system, which is about 95% complete, consists of five components: a front end module, a scan/plot module, a makeup module, a compose/typeset module, and a plotter module. Two other modules are also available: the rotating drum graphic typesetter which combines the scan/plot and compose/typeset modules, and the typesetter and COM output module which can drive either a CRT typesetter or a computer output microfilm. The Pagitron would be most efficient in a queued composition system where each page is "closed" and put into a queue by the editor before any material goes to the back shop. Because of the length of composing time needed for an individual page, no newspaper has yet adopted the Pagitron; however, as the cost of computer speed and storage drops, the problem of composition time may be eliminated. (FL)