The Itek Quadritek allowed the typographer to mix and match four different fonts without changing font discs. Each font was contained on a wedge-like piece of plexiglass forming one quadrant of a full-size disc. The four quadrants could be assembled to provide a custom font selection. It was not a new idea—patents from Imagex and Addressograph Multigraph among others had already described it. The innovation with the Quadritek addressed the need to align the quadrants with high precision. Earlier patents had the user aligning the quadrants using pins and holes, which was difficult and time consuming. The Quadritek allowed the operator to simply slide them into a horizontal rotating carrier through an opening in the front of the console. The carrier was machined to close tolerances. When spun at the typical speed of 1800 rpm, centrifugal force drove the quadrants firmly and accurately against the edge of the carrier (Ebner 1978).

Itek, founded in 1957, was best known as a military contractor specializing in reconnaissance. It had extensive experience with optics and electronics. It diversified aggressively in the 1960s, making contributions to printing and photocopying. Phototypesetting was a natural application of that experience (Romano 2014, 292;  Ebner 1978).