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Subject:Re: Need a smarter person than me From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 12 Mar 2003 14:48:34 -0500
Anthony Davey <ant -at- ant-davey -dot- com> wrote:
>
>Sharon,
>
>You realise, of course, that when this document is printed and turns out
>to be totally illegible, because of all the things your client insisted
>on, it's still going to be your fault.
Anthony,
What you say is true. But the client could also be correct in that instance. Sharon has taken on quite a challenge, and the client is certainly being unreasonable. However, what we have here is a design challenge.
This is a bit far afield for someone whose specialty is shaping prose to communicate technical information gracefully, and it really calls for someone with a fair amount of typographical expertise. But it is the kind of challenge book designers face all the time. There is no reason the result needs to be illegible or even ugly. Yes, something's got to give--white space, point size, whatever--and the STC contest judges will never see the original specifications, so they probably won't give it a design award even if it deserves one. But the purpose of _design_ is to fit a solution within the imposed constraints.
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