Table Of ContentCOMPUTERS
AND
TYPOGRAPHY
2
Compiled by Rosemary Sassoon
COMPUTERS
AND
TYPOGRAPHY
2
2 · COMPUTERS AND TYPOGRAPHY 2
Cover of Ellington
type specimen,
designed by
Michael Harvey
(Monotype 1990).
COMPUTERS
AND
TYPOGRAPHY
2
Edited by Rosemary Sassoon
4 · COMPUTERS AND TYPOGRAPHY 2
First Published in Hardback in 2002 in Great Britain by
Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK
First Published in USA in 2002 by
Intellect Books, ISBS, 5804 N.E. Hassalo St, Portland, Oregon 97213-3644, USA
Copyright ©2002 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission.
Consulting Editor Masoud Yazdani
Book Design Pardoe Blacker Publishing Limited
Copy Editor Peter Young
Cover Design Pardoe Blacker Publishing Limited
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Electronic ISBN 1-84150-812-8 / HardbackISBN 1-84150-049-6
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cromwell Press, Wiltshire
Contents
Introduction 7
PART 1 ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE DESIGN
OF WEB SITES
How to arrange text on web pages 10
GUNNLAUGUR SE BRIEM
Computer screens are not like paper:
typography on the web 21
ARI DAVIDOW
PART 2 NON-LATIN TYPOGRAPHY
Non-Latin typesetting in the digital age 42
FIONA ROSS
English, Japanese and the computer 54
EIICHI KONO
PART 3 CHANGES IN WORK PRACTICES
Book design 69
IAN MACKENZIE-KERR
Slouching toward cyberspace: the place of the lettering arts
in a digital era 75
DAVID LEVY
6 · COMPUTERS AND TYPOGRAPHY 2
Changes in the relationship between printer and designer:
craft before, during and after graphic design
81
DAVID JURY
PART 4 LETTERFORMS AND THE COMPUTER
Hand, eye and mind: a design trinity
91
MICHAEL HARVEY
Metafont in the Rockies: the Colorado typemaking project
98
RICHARD SOUTHALL
PART 5 TYPOGRAPHY AND EDUCATIONAL
SOFTWARE
The design of educational software
118
ROSEMARY SASSOON
Learning by design: the role of design in facilitating learning
132
ROGER DICKINSON
Epilogue
148
Index
149
ROSEMARY SASSOON · 7
Introduction
This book is intended as a companion volume to the original
Computers and Typography, but in no way supercedes it. The first
book discussed many of the traditional typographic guidelines, and
related them to modern technology. It recognised that this
knowledge had not been part of the training or experience of the
earlier generation of computer programmers and software designers,
and that the importance of such issues was still not fully appreciated.
The following words appeared recently in the publicity for an
exhibiton of the work of Sumner Stone, the American calligrapher
turned computer type designer: ‘As the keyboard becomes a more
familiar tool than pen or pencil, and the ancient bond between
handwritten letterforms and the type used by printers seems about
to vanish, what will determine the standards of legibility, clarity,
impact or fluency of the alphabets that fill our daily lives?’ This
statement seems to echo the concerns of many of the contributors to
this book as they chart the changes that the computer inevitably has
brought to their work. The experience they bring, resulting from
their traditional training allied to their work at the forefront of
typographic design in the age of computers, is invaluable.
The structure of this book is similar to the first volume of
Computers and Typography. The emphasis in the first section is on
layout, but concentrates on design for the web, rather than the
screen in general.The subject is then broadened out into
multicultural aspects of typography and looks at the way
computerised type has affected other writing systems. The third
section concentrates on the changes in work practices, including the
education of typography students, brought about by the spread of
computers. The making and shaping of letters takes up the next
section and design for educational software completes the picture.
There have been enormous technological steps forward in the last
few years. The spread of computers has continued to revolutionise
work place practices and education. The internet has transformed
personal and business lives and opened up seemingly endless
opportunities. With all the technological leaps forward, still there
has been little progress in understanding how different typographic
8 · COMPUTERS AND TYPOGRAPHY 2
and design features can influence or affect the user. By influence I
mean how choice of typeface, layout, colour, use of illustration and
above all spacing can mean the difference between someone wanting
to read (in the case of a web site advertisement) and being able to
read easily (in the case of a screen full of text) or having precisely the
opposite effect. By affect I mean whether the same factors help a
person to assimilate the knowledge they have accessed, and whether
the screen layout is arranged to minimise eye fatigue or will unduly
dazzle and distract. The ever easier access to more complex
techniques is becoming an overwhelming temptation for students
and software designers. Briem puts it into perspective in the first
chapter when discussing designing for the web: ‘Does your
information really need every bell, whistle and blinking light of an
arcade game?’ This concept occurs again and again throughout this
volume: both in the destructive propensity to distract from the real
purpose of educational software and when stressing the need for
design students to learn restraint. They need to be reminded that
those who are as skilled with pencil and paper as they are with the
mouse will be the most successful.
Just as this work was almost completed, an international meeting
entitledPen to Printer(Ditchling 2000) brought many of the issues
wehad been writing about into sharper focus. One point, made by
Hermann Zapf, probably the finest letterer of his generation, was
that the image of the letterforms must be in your mind before you
start to design a typeface. Later on Michael Harvey, when he was
discussing his own typeface designs, described how they all bore a
certain resemblance because, as he put it: ‘that is how I draw’. The
line that you draw is made by a direct action of your body, and is
governed by the way you move your body. It is individual to you.
When designing entirely on a computer, as many students do today,
even with the design all in the mind first, that vision will no longer
be subconsciously influenced and bear the mark of the designer’s
personal hand movements.
I suppose this is how it has always been throughout history at
times of transition from an old to a new technology. It is a meeting
of those who have spent half their lives in one technology, and who
have adapted and often welcomed the new, sifting through the
advantages and disadvantages and trying to ensure the best of the past
is transferred to the future.
PART 1
ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE DESIGN
OF WEB SITES
How to arrange text on web pages
GUNNLAUGUR SE BRIEM LETTERFORM DESIGNER CALIFORNIA
‘Does your information really need every bell, whistle, and
blinking light of an arcade game?’
Computer screens are not like paper:
typography on the web
ARI DAVIDOW TYPOGRAPHER WHO NOW APPLIES HIS SKILLS TO THE
WEB AND TO VIRTUAL COMMUNITY. [email protected]
‘Given the restraints created by today’s web browsers and by
HTML, typography, as it is understood to relate to fonts, might
seem irrelevant to the web. This is not true, although the issues
and the solutions are different to those used for print.’
