Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!ukma!husc6!sri-unix!maslak
From: maslak@unix.SRI.COM (Valerie Maslak)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Typography--Was Re: ventura
Message-ID: <32118@sri-unix.SRI.COM>
Date: 25 May 89 00:16:34 GMT
References: <8905160047.AA12857@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: maslak@unix.sri.com (Valerie Maslak)
Organization: SRI, Menlo Park, CA.
Lines: 44

Sigh. We have complaints about the quality of
desktop publishing. Fonts. Resolution.

It's complicated. What will look decent as output from a
small copier will not fly on a Heidelberg press.
Most people who are doing newsletters or memos
don't want to be bothered with the niceties that produce
book publishing quality type.

So what can you do? Pick your typefaces carefully.
Times Roman or Computer Modern are never going to work as well
(in my opinion, I HATE Computer Modern) for heavy text as Baskerville,
Goudy Old Style, Century Old Style, and a few others, if the computer versions
of these are well-executed. There are thousands of fonts out there,
and not all of them work equally well for all applications.

Remember that kerning makes a big difference. If you don't have
kerning, your text will always be a kluge.

Remember that 300 dpi laser printers are never going to give you the
look of real phototypesetters (cold type) or hot type.
If you need phototypeset quality, find a service bureau that will
set your stuff from disk to a high-resolution output device.
An article I'm looking at here in Electronic Publishing and Printing
magazine says there are 500 Postscript service bureaus in the U.S.
And photocopying on copier quality paper is not going to look like
gravure or offset printing on book paper. Take your repro to a printer
if you want it to look printed.

Remember also that books used to be designed by professional designers,
who knew their trade. Are you a professional book designer? Do you know
the optimal proportions of type point size, line length, interline spacing,
marginal white space, intercolumn space, etc? Do you know which
combinations of heading font and text font work well together?
If you don't, and want to do your own publishing (composition),
you'd better get educated.  Find some good references on typograpy.

I'm sorry if I sound testy. It's just that I'm a publications
professional, an editor, and I'm awfully tired of engineers who
think they know as much as I do about publication design.
I don't try to design circuits or write programs; why do they think
they can design publications?

Valerie Maslak