ANNOUNCE: erlguten

[Joe Armstrong]

> 
> Following your example of inappropriate type faces, would a template 
> offer recommended type faces? Would other graphical elements be 
> incorporated, such as styles for graphics and tables?
> 

  yes ^ 10

  I  have some  books on  typography that  just have  page  after page
showing what different typefaces look  like when set with different point
size/leadings and set in different measures.

  The funny thing is that the "old style" books (pre DTP) were full of
notes like  "ITC Gothic Franklin" looks  best in 24  pica columns when
set 8.5/11  ... etc. -  seeing these layed  out next to each  other in
different combinations of Point size/Leading and in different measures
is quite instructive.

  I imagine  making different templates where I  explicitly choose the
basic  Font/point  size/leading/measure  and  what fonts  to  use  for
displays etc. - this is after all, what a newspaper does. I thought to
start just by copying a normal newspaper design.

  That and a ruler  and squared paper is all I need  - oh and a pencil
and rubber,  we're talking high tech  here - after all,  saying that a
frame should be 30 picas width is an infinitely precise measure - much
better than vaguely indicating the position with a mouse.

  I'd  also try  to  make templates  with  fonts that  look nice  when
printed -  one reason  why people make  crappy documents is,  I think,
because they  spend ages  fiddling with the  document to make  it look
nice on  the screen  and then just  assume that  it will look  nice on
paper.

  Typefaces with very delicate  serifs can look beautiful when printed
on a  decent printer, but  will always look  crap on a  low resolution
screen since  the serifs  just vanish -  I assume  this is why  we are
subjected to  "Ariel" everywhere (because  it looks nice on  screen) -
Garamond on  the other hand  looks worse on  screen but much  nicer on
paper - which is when we rarely see it on paper.

  IMHO one should edit in EMACS and tell the system what font to use -
if you  actually *see* the font  while editing it's either  too big or
too small so you have to  fiddle with the "zoom" controls all the time
to even  see what you  are editing -  Thus I consider "content"  to be
something that is  created in EMACS and stored in a  data base of file
system -  and layout to be decided  purely on the basis  of what looks
nice when it is printed *Not*  on what looks nice when you are editing
it.
 
> Maybe going *slower* would improve things? Taking time to polish would 
> do wonders to the result. But we're all racing to produce stuff too 
> quickly I think.
> 

  Well in  the good 'ol days at  least 4 people were  involved in book
production.

	- the author (who hand wrote, or typed the manuscript)
	- the typesetter
	- the proof reader
	- the editor

All these were highly skilled at their own jobs - it took about 6 years
to become good at typesetting.

Now the author (who knows precious little about layout and typography)
has to do it all - no wonder quality is dropping.

/Joe