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Re: General typography concerns

Subject: Re: General typography concerns
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:41:51 -0300


Michael West wrote:

there *is* no such thing as good
typography on a computer screen, just varying degrees of "bad"


Perhaps you mean "fine" typography, which would certainly be rare if not impossible in a low-res output device. But "good typography" -- typography that does what it needs to do neatly, cleanly, efficiently, quietly -- I see some of it around.

I imagine that what Arlen means is that the computer screen is an extremely poor medium, largely because of the resolution. He's right - for example, there are some fonts, such as Didot, that you simply can't use on screen. because their strokes are too thin and too variable to render decently.

However, typography is the craft of adjusting presentation to circumstances. You can have good typography on-screen in the sense that you can do the best you can under those condtions, which is what you seem to mean. But Arlen seems to mean that that best isn't very good compared to other media.


--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Better fail in a grand style than succeed in a mean one - you won't enjoy the successes you get the second way."
- Fritz Leiber, "The Oldest Soldier"




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References:
General typography concerns: From: Arlen . P . Walker
Re: General typography concerns: From: Michael West

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