LettError at Type 90
Things that change, Random things,
decisions will always be here. So there is
definitely not going to be a standard. A missed
chance for digital type.
Another thing is the way spacing of
letters. For instance on the Macintosh are so
many different systems are being used. Some
programs you have to define absolute values
between characters in points. For instance in
Pagemaker you have to give a certain percentage,
but nobody tells you what the percentage is of,
so you just try and print and see what happens.
It is all very vague what is happening. In Quark
Xpress they use two hundred units on the
em-square, but the em square is not really
square, but it is just the value of the width of
the two numerals zero. So if you have a narrow
typeface, the spacing of say, ten units is much
less than if you use it with a wider typeface.
Another random desicion in typography is
the story of how Bezier got stuck in PostScript.
Ban the Bezier?
-not really ours- Bezier was originally
designed by a by named Bezier (I guess) to
calculate curves on the body's of french cars. It
is very simple and fast and somebody decided to
put it into PostScript. The Bezier algorithm to
make curves makes it necessary for us to specify
two control points, and those points are
definitely not on the curve. So you have to move
them around and do things with them and sort of
see what happens.
Bezier travelled the world like a tornado,
leaving many a destroyed typeface. One example of
that is Adobe version of Helvetica. Probably the
first typeface they ever digitized. This is a
very nice attempt to a RandomFont, (..) it has
very nice distorted outlines, but they forgot to
make it dynamic, so all the mistakes are the
same.
Bezier curves seem to be a nice way to
make type. It is very easy to make nice curves
and so on, but in fact you need a lot of
practice to get the curve you really want. It is
difficult to make subtle transitions in curves.
For instance if you have a stem that is a bit
thinner in the middle and then bends into a
curve, in the outside curve of a lowercase n, you
probably need to have a very subtle transition.
Using a Bezier tangent point, the transition will
be quite sudden. To make it better you need some
extra control points, but then the curve very
easily gets deformed.
The trouble is that discussions about
typedesign and type in general have become
discussions about where the controlpoints should
be, and it is rather stupid I guess, because the
algorithm used for curves is rather arbitrary, it
could be any other algorithm. I think Truetype is
using something else as well. It is not a god
given truth that curves should be built from
Beziers.
Macintoshes, PostScript, and all the
typefaces and typeprograms made typedesign much
more accessable to more people. Anyone could make
type, but it still depends on how skilled you are
to what level you could reach.
The trouble is now that we have reached
the end of our notes and there are quite a lot of
slides, so we'll just explain what's on the
slides. (..) A random decision to let us give a
lecture here, and that's it.
Last year for
the Atypi conference we made a little magazine
called Letterror.
The error of letters, or the terror of
letters..
We tried to make another one for this
year's conference, but we proved it is not
possible to make a new magazine with the deadline
of one year. (..)
Working in Berlin we did some things on
the wall..
when it was still there
This Just van Rossum making a sidebearing
on the eastside of the wall. He didn't get shot.
Apologies for the misspelling.
These are our holiday pictures.
The idea is that type is everywhere, type is
the way for people to say things, and people
change and type shoould change accordingly.
[stuff missing]
Ban the Bezier?