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From: amanda@intercon.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Typography--Was Re: ventura
Message-ID: <30-May-89.150841@192.41.214.2>
Date: 30 May 89 18:58:06 GMT
References: <7650004@hpwrce.HP.COM> <32118@sri-unix.SRI.COM>
Sender: news@intercon.UUCP
Reply-To: amanda@intercon.UUCP
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation
Lines: 58

In article <7650004@hpwrce.HP.COM>,
howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) writes:
> 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.

[insert sound of head bonking against the wall here :-)]

There's a large gap between learning the basics of working with a printer
and professional publication design, Howard.  Getting something "workable"
isn't too hard, even though a lot of "DTP" newbies haven't even got that
much down.  However, this compares to professional design roughly the
way building an electronic project out of "Popular Electronics" compares
to laying out a 6-layer board with a weird form factor and 50MHz clock
signals running around it.  There's a difference between even an experienced
amateur and a professional, and with good reason.

Your books may well look pretty good ... up to a point.  Did you spend time
thinking about things like:

  - Text color and visual consistency;
  - Column and margin proportions;
  - Rivers and ladders in the text;
  - Ink flow on the press, especially if you had illustrations;
  - The visual resiliency of the typestyle you chose when it's used with a
    particular kind of printing technology;
  - How well your design fit the uses it would be put to by the readers;
  - Characteristics of how humans read and how they can be taken into
    account for more effective layout;

and so on.  Photographs and color separation require their own bodies
of knowledge, as well.

"DTP" systems, when used well, are very good at allowing people and
organizations to produce reasonable looking documents in a short period
of time and at a low cost.  This isn't all there is to the field, though,
and many of the problems people complain about with "DTP" are simply
lack of experience with the complexities of effective design.

I've had a lot of art training, and work with letterforms (modern and
historical) as a major hobby.  Even so, I tread very carefully with
book design.  With time and experimentation, I can come up with things
that look "real," but it's been a hard-won skill, and I'd still say I'm
in the "advanced amateur" category, despite having designed and produced
effective manuals, magazines, and advertisements.

Sometimes when I'm dealing with people doing "DTP," the phrase "knows just
enough to be dangerous" comes to mind :-).

--
Amanda Walker <amanda@intercon.UUCP>
InterCon Systems Corporation