Typography and Technology

[hayleyb_28]

Typography has obviously changed dramatically as technologies have advanced, but how much do you think it has influenced typographic work and have these changes been for the better? Where do you think type would be if the computer was never invented.....?

[nyc_skater]

Are we being graded on this, the question sounds so collegiate.

My answer: I'm going to completely disagree and say type hasn't changed much by technology, more so it's implimentation.

[tZ]

harleyb_28 wrote:
Where do you think type would be if the computer was never invented.....?

mostly paper, card stock… stuff of that nature.

I personally think the computer has brought out the laziness in all of us,lol. I mean… there was just a thread about the proper time to manually kern and track. When the answer should really be allways. However, in this day age with the computer many people just let it think for them in regards to these types of things. Which in the days before the computer(so I hear) were a profession in themselves- laying out type by hand on letter press's and what not. We're to spoiled,lol.

[Riya]

One of my professors used to say something about how we finally had the technology to produce nice, clean type without having to pay thousands of dollars for the equipment and one of the first things people did with it was to invent distressed, grunge and old typewriter looking fonts.

I don't know if that is applicable to your question at all cuz I haven't gone to bed yet.

[follicle]

there was just a thread about the proper time to manually kern and track. When the answer should really be allways.

^ That thread would be mine... Lol.

But it's true. Being computer literate my whole life (I'm only 21) has really made me ignorant to the classic ways of typography. I posted a thread a while back regarding the methods of typography (pre-digital age). I was dissipointed that there wasn't any instruction (at least at my school) of the procedures of typography pre-digital age. I would have liked to learn that information. I think a lot of older designers shun the computer. It's a tool and we shouldn't depend on it to spew out our creations, and I believe it hasn't destroyed the field (yet). I still mostly rely on hand drawn sketches before even considering what program I'll use to excecute the design.

Lord only knows where we'll be in 20 years!

[hayleyb_28]

I agree it makes us lazy, but only because we choose to be, if we were really proud about everything that we do, we could choose to track and kern the tiniest things down to a memo lol (but maybe that would be silly)? It has made things a lot easier and cheaper so it is accessible to more people...but sometimes this means more amateur results (people trying to be typographers)...but theres no harm in trying and experimenting i suppose. We can now experiment quickly and easily which can make end results a lot better.........

[hayleyb_28]

My tutor always says technology should come second. You have an idea, decide what you want to do...then see what technology can do this for you. NOT the other way around. You use the computer as a means to an end.

[Typically]

i had a class at the local community college and the professor had been working in the field for a long time. we did everything by hand. newsprint to trace letter forms, pencils, and prismacolor markers for illustrations. it was a really good class because i got to see how things were done BC (before computers)

i think it makes things a lot easier but also lets a lot of the rif raf in. anyone with a computer and adobe software thinks that they know what typography is. if it was still the way it was back in the day there would be 1/4 of the people doing it. but it also makes the work flow faster which could be a good or bad thing =] anyways i think that it helped but did take some of the talent away from typography

[budafist]

I don't think it makes us lazier. We acheive so much more design wise and workflow is awesome. However it is true that we have lost the art of typography a bit.

What's up with all these new fonts that are incomplete? Not even any standard punctuation marks like !&$ let alone accents and fancier stuff.

[urstwile]

I do think that typography has suffered with the advent of computers. And when I talk about computers, I'm not talking computers pre-WYSIWYG I'm talking Macs and somewhat later PC's and the GUI.

I see work where instead of typographers' quotes, straight quotes (aka primes and double primes) are used. I see work where the wordspacing is so amazingly large you could drive a truck through it. I see incredibly bad kerning and letterspacing is in evidence.

I started in this business on a computer, but it wasn't WYSIWYG. We had kern tables for most of our fonts, and if we got above 16 point type, we'd hand kern it, outside of the kerning table. That's not even done anymore.

Typography is an almost dying art. People are into fonts, but they're not into typography. Give me a beautifully kerned headline in Times Roman versus a badly kerned headline in some trendy font any day of the week.

[bdurk]

I am a graphic designer and a letterpress printer. I think we're maybe missing the point here. Typography and technology advance simultaneously instead of in reaction to each other. Typography changes via rebellion and technology is there the whole way offering another vessels for change. First it was movable type, now it's HTML and CSS.
Typographers get bored with the static of standards and assumptions and in turn we reply with alternate solutions. Now a days - we are experiencing another typographic revolution. It's the rebirth of hand type. Why? Because typographic youth is fed up with "fonts" and "rules of type" and "the new typography."

If the computer were never invented... life would be just like the late 70's-early 80's. lets not forget that cmputers aren't an "old" invention by eny means.

[budafist]

Welcome Bdurk!

You might notice there are older threads all around the place. While you are welcome to add to them, please note that the original poster has probably finished their assignment now.

[bdurk]

Oddly enough, this is the second time I've come across the topic today and thought "if I could stumble onto it...so could anyone else." That considered, I find it necessary to offer as much insight as I can offer (even if it is an outdated listing).

[PrintDriver]

Well, I have to make a comment on the resurgence of 'hand type'.

When the computer first started making major inroads into the design industry just around 1990, all of the oldsters in my design classes, there to learn the technology, would get into discussions about cookie-cutter design. They would say, “You watch, for a while everyone will try to do everything on the computer. Same layout templates, computer line art instead of hand illustrations, hand-drawn ‘fancy’ fonts will all be computer drawn and everyone will use the same ones. But eventually it will all come back to the beginning where individuality and skill will be required once again.”

It's taken over 18 years but people are finally starting to attempt to snap the chains.

[bdurk]

EXACTLY!
I whole heartedly agree. "It's taken over 18 years but people are finally starting to attempt to snap the chains." In a sense, it's an exciting time we're living in. What I find most exciting is that most of the designers who are attempting to revive the hand drawn technique are the youngest of the bunch.
I suppose it makes total sense considering Elisitsky and Tschichold were making their mark on the world at age 23 - 24.