:Morning Light - Adobe Typography in the Age of Desktop Publishing-PPT information免费ppt模版下载-道格办公

“It was 1986, in a company called Adobe in Silicon Valley. I have a premonition that I will witness and participate in an important historical event .The era of typography and typography design on personal computers has begun. And we are right at the center of its development. It is a restless center. Technology is rapidly proliferating, and with it is a fever feeling. Every Every week brings new challenges.”^[1] then Adobe This passage from Sumner Stone (Summer Stone), Director of Type Design Department, aptly describes the atmosphere of Adobe, which was at the center of publishing technology and high-tech development at that time.

As a pioneer in electronic publishing and graphics technology, and today the largest company in the industry, Adobe Font design and promotion play an extremely important role, and its role and status in desktop publishing in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s is even more special. I've been involved with Adobe design since 1986, and was at the center of a technological revolution that shaped and transformed design publishing and communication. I was honored to be there when the dawn of this revolution dawned, Sarah. The atmosphere of Adobe in 1986 described by Muna Stone was also my personal experience when I was involved in Adobe font design work in Silicon Valley.

1. Wang Min and Adobe Designer

< span >A special experience

In 1986, Alvin Eisenman, head of the Graphic Design Department at the Yale School of Art, recommended me and Brian Wu, who was also a graduate student at Yale University, to help Adobe participate in overcoming the problem of digitizing Japanese Kanji. Although Adobe was small at the time, with only a few dozen people, its core technology, the PostScript page description language, had allowed Jobs to see its enormous capabilities and potential. Jobs applied Type 1 fonts based on PostScript technology as system characters on Apple laser printers and computers. This is a small move, but it has brought huge changes to the work of designers and the industry! Prior to this, dot matrix characters were used on computers and printers, which was far from the characters used in professional typesetting and plate making. Designers could not use personal computers to do professional typesetting. PostScript used vector graphics calculations to describe the appearance of characters and graphics. Outlines, so that fonts and graphics can be perfectly presented, bringing the technology of professional typography to everyone's desktop.

The development potential of PostScript also allowed Adobe to see the future of the Asian market. At that time, Japan was still using Phototypesetting technology, Japanese font companies have not yet mastered the technology of digitizing Chinese characters, Adobe hopes to persuade Japan Morisawa company to use PostScript to produce Japanese fonts. Brian and I were tasked with digitizing kanji in Japanese using Adobe technology. Yale University’s graphic design major has started to use Apple computers, but there are only pixel drawing and word processing software on it. I found in Adobe that Illustrator software can be used to create perfect curves and draw precise and accurate graphics without programming. It can be used to design logos, arrange pages, and the text can be enlarged, reduced, rotated, and repeated at will. It can be output by laser printing equipment, and there is no need to draw black and white drafts. The excitement at that time is indescribable. Although it is only a beta software, with few functions and no color, it gives me a glimpse of the dawn of a new era. The working mode of the design industry and the working procedures of the printing industry will change accordingly. For designers, a new era is about to begin!

2-3. Adobetechnology used in Japanese leaflets,1987

Sumner Stone described our work at the time: "They were using a trial version of Illustrator 1.0, which hadn't been released yet. Wu and Wang Min were the first to try and push this drawing software They did a great job and gave a wonderful presentation to the font experts from Morisawa Japan.The Morisawa staff were convinced that if these two graduate students could make so many Chinese characters so well , they must have been able to do a very successful job in production. Indeed, it turned out that they were right. They tackled this project to bring Adobe's infinitely expandable fonts and PostScript technology to the Japanese market very successfully."^[2]

4. Adobe Japanese font poster, 1991

This experience allowed me to be a witness to the inception of desktop publishing and to be part of it at the forefront of the revolution in publishing technology. Since then, I have been involved in Adobe's design work for more than ten years, and since then I have paid attention to the relationship between design and technology, and conducted research on font design and application.

A Typographic Utopia

Font software used to be one of Adobe's main sources of income, accounting for 40% in the 1980s %, the font department used to be an important institution of the company. Under the leadership of Sumner Stone, Adobe has tried to establish industry standards not only in technology but also in design and font quality from the beginning. For this reason, it established a font design advisory committee in 1986, with members including Yale University Graphics Dean of Design Department Alvin Eisenmann, magazine designer Roger Black, typesetting designer Jack Stauffacher, German designer Ari Erik Spiekermann et al.

The emergence of professional fonts is one of the most critical turning points for computers to occupy the designer's desktop. Today's designers no longer pay attention to the technical issues of fonts. Typesetting and phototypesetting have become a distant past, but this was still the norm in the 1980s. European and American designers use phototypesetting companies to provide typefaces and then paste them on the layout. In China, most of them use hand-painted black and white drafts, including drawing Chinese characters and Latin letters that appear on the layout. Books are typesetting by typesetting masters with typesetting. (Of course, it should be pointed out that China's newspaper industry had already entered the era of electronic typesetting at that time). Adobe Systems in Silicon Valley has PostScript technology, Apple Computer has launched the computer Macintosh, a laser printer with PostScript language Apple LaserWriter, Seattle's Aldus Corporation has PageMaker typesetting software, three Together, the companies started what was then called the "desktop publishing" revolution in 1985, and then merged into a broader global information revolution. Desktop publishing technology brought almost professional typesetting and printing to the desktop of designers. Apple Although LaserWriter has only 300 dpi printing accuracy, it has been considered close to the level of professional typesetting. Although expensive at $6,995, it was already very attractive compared to other devices at the time. Designers can typeset without typesetting machines, and can output text and pictures together. The high-precision typesetting output equipment launched by Linotype further ensures the professional output requirements. The industry specializing in typesetting disappeared almost overnight.

At the dawn of a new era, there is an excitement in the air at Adobe at its heart. breath. At dinner tables and parties outside of work, people's topics are often about the possibilities of new technologies, future trends, new software, and new hardware. Among them, designers and engineers related to fonts are even more obsessed with the possibility of font design and font layout brought by new technologies, and their obsession is as obsessed as followers of mysterious religions. A topic about kerning can last all night, and you can forget to eat and sleep in front of the computer for the perfect presentation of words. There, at that time, was like a paradise of font design, a utopia, everyone was deeply infected, and everyone devoted themselves to it.

Perhaps in order to confirm the existence of this utopian spirit, Adobe’s original font at that time was Titled: Utopia, I also designed brochures and posters for this word by Robert Slimbach. Adobe type designer Robert Slingbach still retains the utopian spirit of the time. From the day I met him, every time we met, we only talked about font design. The room is dark, and huge character graphics are displayed on the computer screen. A person is concentrating on modifying the lines. This is a permanent landscape in his office. Design fonts every day, do this one thing all your life, and only focus on this one thing. Another Adobe font designer I liked in the early days was Carol Twombly (Carol Twombly). She has designed 9 sets of fonts such as Trajan, Lithos, and Myriad, and has excellent aesthetic quality , Keep improving the font shape. She and Cleo Huggins, who designed the Sonata musical notation, both graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design before attending the Charles Bigelow ) experimental digital typography master's class at Stanford University, where he studied computer technology and typography. Unfortunately, this interdisciplinary project of early digital technology and typography did not last long.

Adobe also published a catalog on fonts and applications during that time-the magazine is called Font & Function, in addition to regularly displaying new fonts, also publishes articles on typographic design, which is an important document on fonts and applications in that period.

5-6. Font & Functionpage,1991

When it comes to Adobe’s font design, Sumner Stone cannot be ignored. He is a famous designer leading Adobe’s font design direction and the first A designer who designed a new font family on the computer. The Stone font family he designed in 1987 includes three sets of fonts: serif, sans-serif, and informal. The same style and font characteristics span different font designs. Easy to use for designers. In the summer of 1987, I did a lot of experimental exploration and design of promotional materials on it, and became familiar with every letter in it. Sumner Stone is still active in the font design industry. He is a visionary designer and design manager whom I admire very much.

7. StoneFont Family Promotionpage,1987

At that time, dealing with type designers and engineers every day, text design became the main body of life, and the pursuit of high-quality text design began here. Sumner Stone commented on the design of promotional materials I made for Adobe's new typeface at that time, "This is a milestone in the history of Adobe typeface and design, and it provided a model for the later published Adobe typeface design samples." ^[3] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, typesetting software was not what it is today With so many functions, many effects need to be specially crafted. Especially the kerning, because there was not much automatic kerning data in the font at that time, and it was often necessary to manually make fine spacing adjustments.

Taking a font manual as an example, only adjusting the kerning is often It takes two weeks. Back then, I used to go to the San Francisco studio of the famous designer Jack Stauffik. Jack typed it himself, and had a good eye. He would sit down with me and ponder over the kerning and font size in the font brochure I designed, and the two of them would sit there and adjust a little bit of kerning, which would be very incomprehensible to outsiders. The fun given by words is endless, and it is really enjoyable to walk among the characters every day. As the famous American designer Bradbury Thompson (Bradbury Thompson) said, "Typesetting can be a tool, a toy, a teacher, it can be used as a means of earning a living, a means of relaxation, knowledge and intellectual stimulant, and a kind of spiritual satisfaction.”

8-9. StoneFont Family Promotion,1987

10. Adobe font packaging, 1990

A nostalgic thought

The 1980s was the initial stage of digitization of font design, and technology was paramount. In many companies involved in font hardware and software, it was engineers who decided on fonts and font usage, rather than professional designers. Because engineers focus on the technical issues of fonts, while business operators are more concerned about getting products to the market quickly, many factors of traditional classic typography are not considered or technically difficult to achieve, and the aesthetic factors of fonts and typography are often So neglected that computer typesetting was despised by many professional designers in the early days of desktop publishing. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many professional designers questioned the level and quality of computer text layout in the face of the almost flood of low-quality text layout and low-level printing effect formed by desktop publishing, and faced with limited font choices. Even to the point of disgust. To use a computer or not to use a computer is often a topic of debate at design meetings. At this time, love and nostalgia for manual typesetting, typesetting and printed matter appeared, just like today's urbanites' nostalgia and yearning for rural scenery.

Almost in the early days of desktop publishing, Adobe designers began to try to use new technical means to simulate the working mode and aesthetic characteristics of traditional tools in order to erase the traces of computerization. Just like the arts and crafts movement more than a hundred years ago, in the face of the industrial revolution, especially the tasteless and ugly products brought about by mass production, Morris and others pursued the combination of arts and crafts, erased the influence of industrialization, and reconstructed crafts the value of. Adobe designers' respect for traditional font crafts and their emphasis on professional design norms before desktop publishing have ensured to some extent that Adobe is always in a leading position in a rapidly developing and rapidly obsolete high-tech field.

The pursuit of classic quality has prompted Adobe to correspond to traditional typesetting specifications in font design, font technology and typesetting software. The best example is perfecting characters. Most of the early computer fonts only had standard uppercase and lowercase letters, including 35 sets of PostScript fonts in Apple laser printers. Adobe began to add "professional character groups" to some original fonts in 1989. Such as lowercase numbers, or old-fashioned numbers, combined characters, and small capital letters. Remember the initial we were so excited to see these characters appear in Adobe fonts, and then it was almost a religious commandment to ensure the use of these professional characters in all designs . Under the technical conditions at that time, it was very laborious and often had to be replaced by hand. Now, typesetting software can automatically replace these professional characters. Later, as a senior art director and design manager, I have to check this aspect every time I review manuscripts. Using "professional characters" has become an important criterion for judging whether the design is from a professional designer.

11. Adobe GaramondBrochure

For Classic The appeal of quality is also reflected in Adobe's efforts to revive tradition. The introduction of Adobe Garamond represents the reinterpretation of classic fonts with new technology. Garamond was redesigned by Robert Slimbach, based on French typewriter Claude Garamond's regular and Robert Grandjon's italics. In 1988, it was the heyday of desktop electronic publishing. Robert visited the Plantin-Moretus Museum (Musée Plantin-Moretus) in Antwerp, Belgium, and carefully studied the Garamond typefaces collected there. I still remember Robert and Fred Brady, who went with him, looked excited after returning from his trip to ancient times. Robert faithfully restored the elegance and beauty of Garamond in the 16th century, and endowed the accuracy and practicality of today's digital fonts, properly balancing the relationship between traditional aesthetics and modern technology. It is for this reason that I later adopted it as the Western standard font for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

12-13. Adobe GaramondDesign Process Legend

In 1989, I made a publicity design for this typeface. It was also a trip to ancient times, a trip to explore the classics of Western typography design, and a rare learning opportunity. Most of my understanding and grasp of western typography rules, aesthetics, and inheritance came from that time.

14. Text design

Technology changes our working methods, lifestyles, and even thinking patterns, but our original experience and pursuit of beauty makes technology finally return to the track of human nature. In the process of continuous technological innovation of human beings, the cultural accumulation of the ancestors will always show a charming brilliance through the shell of new technology.

An original font

In 1989, under the leadership of Sumner Stone, Adobe's font department, in order to improve the level of font design, establish new technical and aesthetic standards, and at the same time combine its own original designed fonts with Adobe's production and distribution. Other fonts were distinguished, and a new original font library was started, which was named Adobe Originals. Adobe Garamond, Utopia, and Minion designed by Robert Slingbach, Trajan and Lithos designed by Carlo Twainbury, and Myriad jointly designed by the two became the first batch of Adobe Originals fonts. Since then, it has continued to expand. So far, there are hundreds of fonts in the font library, and a font I designed is also included.

15. Adobe Originals logo, 1990

16. Adobe Originalsposter, 1990

The various fonts of Adobe Originals have changed the industry's understanding of digital fonts, raised font design to a new professional standard, and used new technologies to enter levels that many traditional font workshops cannot achieve, such as The Multi Master font from 1992. For Adobe type designer Carlo Twainbree, "We don't want fonts to be derived from what has been in the past, but should be novel designs that adapt to current technology." ^[4]

17-18. From:Inside the Publishing Revolution: The Adobe Story

Famous Fonts Designer Matthew Carter (Matthew Carter) said: "Looking back at most of the history of typeface design, the design of typefaces and the production of typefaces are the same person, the typecaster. Since 1860, because of the type foundry, the two have been separated. PostScript brings them together again. I think this recombination is very important."^[5]< /span> Adobe's technology integrates font design, production, and output. Other companies have also begun to provide similar font production technologies. Design fonts on the computer. Adobe has become an important original font designer while promoting font technology and making fonts, and Adobe Originals font library has become a representative of high-quality fonts.

With the development of technology and the expansion of Adobe, the importance of font business has gradually declined. Sumner, Fred, Carlo, Cleo and others all left one after another. At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the utopia of font design has become a memory, but its impact on the development of font design will be far-reaching.

When the morning light first appeared, there was hope in the haze and confusion. I participated in the design process of Chinese character fonts in the early days of Adobe font design, and my wish at that time was to be able to participate in and promote the design of Chinese character fonts one day. The Text Design Research Center was established in the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts many years ago, hoping to lay the foundation for Chinese text design and cultivate talents from the academic level. In recent years, a group of doctoral students have completed in-depth research on the history of Chinese font design, black typeface, artistic characters, bilingual text design, new media text design, and public space text recognition testing. It may be said that it started in 1986. Let’s take a look at the wish brought about by Adobe’s experience in digitizing Chinese characters.

[1] [2] [3]: Wei Lai, "Twenty Years of Wang Min's Graphic Design", Heilongjiang Science and Technology Press, 2003. (20-21)

[4] [5]: Pamela Pfiffner, Inside the Publishing Revolution: The Adobe Story, San Jose, California, Adobe Press, 2002. (56) (61)

* This article was originally published in the fifth issue of "Decoration" magazine in 2013. The design illustrations in this article are all designed by Wang Min except 12-13.

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About BIPS

The full name of BIPS is Brand, Identity and Public Space. It is affiliated to the DeTao School of Visual Design (sd for short) of Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, and belongs to the major of Visual Communication. It is a four-year undergraduate teaching project led by Wang Minboen Studio.

In BIPS, we try to explore more connotations of brand, identity and public space in the new era. They no longer just represent product logos, visual images, advertisements or marketing, but spread to values, needs, lifestyles, personality, expressiveness and self-confidence. We believe that branding covers everything from personal needs to the public domain. The brand itself is a reflection of our lifestyle and self-definition or expectation.

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