#typography

The time it takes for the phosphor to become fully activated is actually longer than the pulse representing the timing to draw a single pixel (40 nanoseconds). Meaning, if we were to attempt to display just a single pixel, the phosphor on this particular spot will never reach its full activation level resulting in a fuzzy image of varying brightnesses between dimmer, thin strokes and heavier, thick strokes. So the typography has to adjust for this, by streching the pulses to double width (80 ns), at least, in order to provide an even image and legible text and to work around the shallow flanks of the screen intensification.

"The screen mimics the sky, not the earth. It bombards the eye with light instead of waiting to repay the gift of vision. It is not simultaneously restful and lively, like a field full of flowers, or the face of a thinking human being, or a well-made typographic page. And we read the screen the way we read the sky: in quick sweeps, guessing at the weather from the changing shapes of clouds, of like astronomers, in magnified small bits, examining details. We look to it for clues and revelations more than wisdom. This makes it an attractive place for the open storage of pulverized information – names, dates, library call numbers, for instance – but not so good a place for thoughtful text."

"The word processor is a stupid and grossly inefficient tool for preparing text for communication with others. Preparing printable text using a word processor effectively forces you to conflate two tasks that are conceptually distinct and that, to ensure that people's time is used most effectively and that the final communication is most effective, ought also to be kept practically distinct. The two tasks are The composition of the text itself. TThe typesetting of the document. "

"I made tea."

"This two-sided notebook features a loving quote in Helvetica Std on one cover, then flips to reveal a darker intent."

"Rather than creating a typography with all the risks that entails, it was wiser to use the one from Spider-Man, for which Sony has the rights."

"Next time you have to explain kerning to a layman, you’ll have a live demo just a zip away."

"If, in some bizarre alternate history, chatspeak abbreviations like “LOL” had become popular long before there were computers and character sets, they might have, over time, become new symbols, like “et” became “&” and “at” became “@”