CompuServe Thread

#goodtype

3 messages in this thread
#13366From: J.Sherman/Sherman's ArmyOct 6, 1989 12:32 PM
Greetings from Mars. The software support is a little thin here, just like the atmosphere…[Who's a lurker?] Let the treaty talks begin. I learned to "set" type on the old IBM MT/ST machines…and eventually came back to the Intergraphics' remote Linotron 202's, which I found all sorts of ways to abuse. (Read: Make them do what they never did before). So Postscript and FUZZY-WIG screen displays with ten minute turnaround are much appreciated here, even if the typographic controls aren't as precise. I had [discreeetly] custom distorted a typeface for a packaging client several years ago on the 202's, an effect that was lost when "offshore" manufacturers' gave up on trying to match the style afterwards. So when the same client asked for another product, I offered them the range of faces I can access in DTP, which is faster turnaround and cheaper revises. (They're penny-tight.) They picked Souvenir Bold [Frank Romano, eat your heart out] and that wonderful Windows environment, unable to find Souvenir on the soft-font list for the Linotron 300, politely grabbed the first font on the list; AACHEN BOLD. (Looked better to me, too. Maybe Frank is right about Souvenir being useless…) What to do? The job is set, the clock is running….since the client is on very good/familiar terms, I said take a look, I'll have the correction ready in the morning, or you can have this today. THE CLIENT DIDN'T NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE! So much for good type/vs/good taste. Maybe that makes me a whore, but there are certain realities when you work for both pleasure AND a living. —-The point of this being:—Submitted, regardless of your approval, a working definition of "Good Type": *1* The client happily pays for it. *2* The typographer/typesetter/designer is willing to sign their name to it and accept the payment. –Anything more is not merely good type, but the ART of typography, as opposed to typsetting. –jared sherman d/b/a sherman's army–N ……………………. … …-….1200 N81N EDDIE CH
#13380From: Kathleen TinkelOct 6, 1989 6:23 PM
That's a wonderful story. I'm not positive your working definition of 'good type' will withstand all challenges, but it is in the cards for working definitions to take a little buffeting. I, too, learned to set type on IBM systems (I don't count several stints on 1940s/50s vintage Varitypers). The IBM font library is responsible for my aversion to Univers to this very day. Kathleen (are we interrupting your march to the sea?)
#13411From: Tripp NarupOct 7, 1989 8:06 PM
I love your definition of good type. BTW, our favorite phrase around the shop these days is: "We're just whores for typography!"