Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-ses!hpcc01!hpwrce!howeird
From: howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM (Howard Stateman)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Typography--Was Re: ventura
Message-ID: <7650004@hpwrce.HP.COM>
Date: 29 May 89 16:34:05 GMT
References: <32118@sri-unix.SRI.COM>
Organization: Ye Olde Salt Mines
Lines: 53

/ hpwrce:comp.text.desktop / calhoun@m.cs.uiuc.edu /  8:26 am  May 26, 1989 /

> /* ---------- "Typography--Was Re: ventura" ---------- */
> 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

I have a degree and 6 years' experience in publication design and
layout, and most of a degree, and 10 years' experience in computer
hardware repair. And now I support desktop publishing software for
a major computer manufacturer. I'll guarantee you that it was a LOT
easier to learn how to design a book than it was to learn how to
design a circuit. And your either/or attitude is way out of line,
since most engineers see publications by the ton, which means they
have gone through half the educational process for book design right
there. On the other hand, you probably have not seen nearly as many
circuit designs. That just means you haven't yet got the background
in their field that they have in yours. It doesn't mean you couldn't
learn.

Of course, there is a lot more objectivity to circuit design than 
there is to book design. I needed to learn all about components and
manufacturing processes and materials to learn how to design a circuit,
as well as how to lay out the drawings and present them for publication.
But all I needed to learn to design a book were a few minor details
about the limitations of the press and bindery, what fonts
were available in what sizes and on which typesetting devices.
The rest were subjective "I know what I like" kinds of art decisions.

What I am saying, Valerie, is that your profession isn't a hard one
for an engineer to learn. Most of us who use DTP have already learned
it. Probably as well, or better, than most book designers. And I speak
from experience on that, not just idle speculation.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------
|Howard Stateman, Hewlett-Packard Response Center, Mountain View, CA |
|howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM      or     hplabs!hpwrce!howeird             |
|Disclaimer: I couldn't possibly speak for HP. I know too much.      |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Sysop of the Anatomically Correct BBS (415) 364-3739                |
 --------------------------------------------------------------------