On the state of typography
Wonderful tutorials on web type techniques aren’t so wonderful if they might be out of date. Thoughts about typography’s online aesthetic, without context, can make authors once abreast of web type culture seem like digital hermits in the eyes of a new visitor.
And all manner of disappointment strikes when visitors who have invested time in an apparently valid resource later realize that it no longer applies. Timestamps on blog posts and bookmarks are a start, but what good is a point in time without context?
Messages that say, “this no longer applies” do help visitors avoid sinking effort into aged practices, but these messages immediately devalue the content upon which they have settled. Visitors most often leave with a sigh to begin their searches anew. Respect for the old technique erodes with the memory of professionals who knew about it “when it mattered.” It still matters, of course.
We lack a means of orienting ourselves in the broad context of our art and craft at any given moment. Something to which we pin our posts for posterity. Something to which we might bring a dusty old URL to have it appraised and plotted on a chart of milestones.
A quick reference against which our thoughts, writings, and tools might be measured, and by which visitors are encouraged to feel reverence toward our history and accomplishments.
What resolutions, operating systems, and browsers did visitors use? How much code, and what kind, was used to get type the way a designer wanted? How were web standards coming along? Which typefaces didn’t yet exist? And on.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had such context?
Really touching post Tim. I believe such context would be wonderful. Typography is like the liver of a design if not the heart :)
I wish there would be a day, when you look at it, nothing is out of date. Where everything fits perfectly in spot. But i guess it’s close to impossible with the everchanging world :)