A couple inaccuracies (double-spacing after a period, or at least using a wider space than usual, dates back before typewriters and was used in book printing until the 1960s, and with a two-color ribbon you could use color as emphasis) but mostly very true…!
Yes, they make some valid points, and computers have given us back many beautiful fonts. I enjoy using them myself. But with packaged CAD programs, everybody thinks they're a graphic artist and writer - some are, but most aren't. Just read Yahoo news once in a while, and you'll see that we have forgotten how to use punctuation, and so many can't even use "spell check" let alone " grammar check"! I doubt they even really teach english grammar in schools anymore. What have we gained - and what have we lost!??
Computers have made us lazy and self-centered. Typing really capializes on the printing press by brining neatly printed pages to the masses.
There are some good points in the artilce, but much crap also. I can tell it is written by a non-typist PC junkie.
One thing not mentioned is how much easier a typewritten page is than the proportional too-small font of a PC where too many letters too close together make them hard to see. Then there is the crappy spell checkers. They check spelling for correctly spelled wrong words.
Oh dear, what a moany lot of crap. Confusing the typewriter and its primary function with the very different discipline of typography. It's not the typewriter's fault that computer graphics designers were half-asleep in the eighties! And it wasn't the computer's fault that it only had eight-bit whatsit to begin with. We don't need a world full of typewriter haters, we need a diverse world filled with the whole spectrum of writing implements. The written word is the important thing. I found that fancy typography much more distracting to read than the typewritten version, by the way.
It's really a question of empowerment, not typography. The typewriter may have limitations (some fewer than others) but it enabled generations of writers to express their ideas in print, when otherwise they would not have been able. In my teens, I had access to neither a computer nor a printing press, but there was the family typewriter. What a marvelous experience.
Later, I would purchase a Mac and discover a whole other world of expression (still later, blogging). That one medium is superior to any other sometimes ignores the practical realities of said technologies.
A couple inaccuracies (double-spacing after a period, or at least using a wider space than usual, dates back before typewriters and was used in book printing until the 1960s, and with a two-color ribbon you could use color as emphasis) but mostly very true…!
ReplyDeleteYes, they make some valid points, and computers have given us back many beautiful fonts. I enjoy using them myself. But with packaged CAD programs, everybody thinks they're a graphic artist and writer - some are, but most aren't. Just read Yahoo news once in a while, and you'll see that we have forgotten how to use punctuation, and so many can't even use "spell check" let alone " grammar check"! I doubt they even really teach english grammar in schools anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhat have we gained - and what have we lost!??
Computers have made us lazy and self-centered. Typing really capializes on the printing press by brining neatly printed pages to the masses.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good points in the artilce, but much crap also. I can tell it is written by a non-typist PC junkie.
One thing not mentioned is how much easier a typewritten page is than the proportional too-small font of a PC where too many letters too close together make them hard to see. Then there is the crappy spell checkers. They check spelling for correctly spelled wrong words.
oops, I can't spell either brining! bringing.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, what a moany lot of crap. Confusing the typewriter and its primary function with the very different discipline of typography. It's not the typewriter's fault that computer graphics designers were half-asleep in the eighties! And it wasn't the computer's fault that it only had eight-bit whatsit to begin with. We don't need a world full of typewriter haters, we need a diverse world filled with the whole spectrum of writing implements. The written word is the important thing.
ReplyDeleteI found that fancy typography much more distracting to read than the typewritten version, by the way.
Shouting at the rain. ~TH~
ReplyDeleteRidiculous. You can have good typography AND typewriters. One doesn't preclude the other.
ReplyDeleteI have been so missing "discretionary ligatures" and "ellipsis glyphs" on my SM3.
ReplyDeleteWow. And here I thought the hipster ideal made typewriter writers look like wankers. This takes wankerism to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a question of empowerment, not typography. The typewriter may have limitations (some fewer than others) but it enabled generations of writers to express their ideas in print, when otherwise they would not have been able. In my teens, I had access to neither a computer nor a printing press, but there was the family typewriter. What a marvelous experience.
ReplyDeleteLater, I would purchase a Mac and discover a whole other world of expression (still later, blogging). That one medium is superior to any other sometimes ignores the practical realities of said technologies.