Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, publisher and most importantly a printer. He introduced moveable type into Europe and by doing so started the ‘Printing Revolution’
This invention is regarded as being the most important event of the modern era. It allowed books to be mass produced and empowered the average person to attain knowledge.
Gutenberg’s first publication was in 1439, a bible set in a German Blackletter font. The importance of his invention was quickly recognised and typographers very soon developed new typefaces to work with this groundbreaking technology.
Within a few years hundreds of type styles were available in movable fonts.
Today’s designers are able to choose from tens of thousands of fonts when they want to print conventionally (Ink on paper).
This isn’t the case with web design.
Due to the restrictions of HTML, the language that is used to program web pages, screen quality and computer platforms, the web designer is limited to a hand full of font styles.
Google Websafe Fonts are touted as the answer but even these are subject to vagaries of technology.
A font that works well on Safari looks like crap on Firefox.
Hayden and I had a discussion the other night that followed the usual banter between a programmer, who follows logic, and a dreamer, who just wants it to be the way they want it to be.
Here is a part of the transcript of that chat.
Bruce:
G’day
Hayden:
Hey
Bruce:
We seem to have issues with Google Fonts. They look different between the Mac and PC.
Hayden:
Hmmm. What browser is Thea using?
Bruce:
Firefox.
Hayden:
Right, don’t worry, that’s normal.
Bruce:
Thea is showing me how the Google Fonts don’t work on her monitor.
So what’s the answer – Times New Roman?
Hayden:
Helvetica, Verdana.
Bruce:
Bugger that, I thought that we had some creative flexibility.
Hayden:
Well, you do.
Bruce:
But not with the fonts I want.
Hayden:
The problem is crappy font support in some browsers on Windows by the look of it.
Bruce:
This sucks. I think we should go back to HTML websites (Sites that are not WordPress) where the designers have the say and the clients just have to pay for it.
Hayden:
But these are HTML websites.
The problem is that you don’t have control over the browser used to view the sites.
Bruce:
Well they should be done in InDesign.
The smarty that develops that interface will make a fortune.
Hayden:
You can’t design a proper website in InDesign. Because InDesign doesn’t move.
Bruce:
I am talking figuratively, in that we (Designers) need to have flexibility to design.
Hayden:
Complain to Firefox, Microsoft, Google and Apple, plus the mobile manufacturers.
It’s due to incompatibility that there are so many issues.
Bruce:
If the computer industry hadn’t embraced film editor’s thinking when they designed editing software, we would still be doing it on a Steenbeck (old film editing machines that were first developed in the 1930s’).
Hayden:
Yes but every format has its limitations.
I am still sure that there must be a way to get better fonts on here. But I’m not sure how.
I mean Titanium (A Google Websafe Font) looks okay, except on Chrome.
Bruce:
But isn’t Chrome a Google interface and if so why doesn’t it support Google Fonts?
Hayden:
I have no idea. At the end of the day the fonts are probably handled by the operating system.
Bruce:
It’s not your fault, it’s that the industry is still run by the geeks and and not by the designers. Once it’s controlled by the creatives, not the techos, it will improve. That’s just history.
Hayden:
I’m not sure. Because at the end of the day, you’re frustrated because you’re used to a different system.
Younger designers have grown up with the current limitations. In fact they’ve grown up with more restrictions than currently exist.
So, perhaps they’ll never know.
Bruce:
Ah, but there in lies the solution. Develop a system that has unlimited creative possibilities.
Hayden:
Technically impossible.
Look at Adobe products. They don’t allow unlimited creative possibilities and they’ve been in development for over 20 years.
Bruce:
I disagree, they allowed the designer to experiment with thousands of fonts, on as many layout options as they could imagine, and they did it all in a fraction of the time it took them to do it conventionally.
Hayden:
Perhaps I’m being pessimistic.
Bruce:
Remember I was there when there was only hot metal type and a layout pad….
it’s come a long way since then.
Hayden:
Yes it has.
Bruce:
We should have this discussion in 5 years time. I think it will have changed a lot by then.
Hayden:
And you’ll be complaining that you can’t do everything you want to. (-:
Bruce:
But that’s what it’s all about. If we don’t aspire to do it differently, it will never happen.
Letterset (Rub-down letters) came into existence because typographers couldn’t kern type tightly enough with hot metal. Then when computers took over Quark had a kerning option. The same thing will happen to web design, someone will come up with a better way, they always do.
So getting back to basics, I’m stuck with Helvetica? It’s a bit like being stuck in the 60s’
Hayden:
Well now. Google fonts should work okay. I don’t know why they don’t. Perhaps you could search for the best way to use a wide range on fonts on web sites.
I’ll have a look a bit later. But I’m in the middle of some IOS development at the moment.
Bruce:
It’s not your problem, it’s just that I thought that Google Fonts were the answer but apparently there are still many issues.
Hayden:
Well I’m the programmer for Caffeine Concepts, so it’s at least partly my responsibility.
Bruce:
Touche.
That’s the extent of my French, so I will leave you to earn a Euro/Dollar.
Hayden:
You missed out the accent I think.
Touché.
Bruce:
My French isn’t that good.
Hayden:
Neither is mine.
