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Subject:Re: It's all Gutenberg's fault... :-) From:Kent Newton <kentn -at- METRIX-INC -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 16 May 1996 10:48:00 PDT
On Thursday, May 16, 1996 9:32 AM, Karen Otto wrote:
> Before Gutenberg invented the movable type, documents were awesome.
> Every page had a beautiful illustration.
> However, once movable type existed, the illustrations almost
> disappeared from documents.
> It has taken computers to bring the cost of illustrations back down
to
> compare with the cost of mass-producing text.
> Look for a renaissance of illustration in ALL documents, technical
and
> non-technical.
> (I internalized the above material from something I learned
recently,
> but can't remember where. Maybe it was the STC conference, and a
talk
> on visual communications by Bill Horton)
<snipped>
Just this week I attended Softbank Institute's Interactive '96 Conference
and Expo in Atlanta, where Bill Horton was the closing keynote speaker.
His speech was titled "future -dot- media -at- interactive -dot- 96 -dot- " This was an
interactive experience in which Mr. Horton provided a list of topics (15
or so) from which the audience selected the topics to be discussed.
(This was his real-life example of how our role as communicators is
changing because of the increasing role our audience plays in determining
what information they want.)
Anyway, during one of the selected topics, Mr. Horton did indeed talk
about how early manuscripts relied heavily on illustration (both
informative and decorative) until the invention of the printing press
reduced the cost of the text and increased the cost of illustration.
I got the impression from him that he had recently presented this same
material somewhere else. It probably was the STC conference.
Kent Newton
Senior Technical Writer
Metrix, Inc.
kentn -at- metrix-inc -dot- com
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