Font design

Document publishing used to reside in the realm of specialists; secretaries and scribes could certainly output memoranda and office policies, but true document publishing required a different and distinct skill set.

Desktop Publishing software applications have made DIY publishers in the same way that large box hardware stores and YouTube have made DIY craftsmen--which is to say: facsimiles were made while craft was lost.

A couple of articles on font design provide a small glimpse at font design craftsmanship. I am not a designer, but I am fascinated and appreciative that there are people in the world who are passionate and have an eye for such things. I'm also fascinated by realms where craftsmanship exists but technology, economics, or both have helped to make invisible.

The Scourge of Arial

Not that homeliness is necessarily a bad thing for a typeface. With typefaces, character and history are just as important.

A Refutation of The Elements of Typographic Style

...editorial logic precedes typography.

In the same way that typographic logic should reflect editorial logic, so too the prose style of a discussion of typography ought to emulate those better angels of typography: clarity and precision. These are after all the values that Strunk and White uphold in The Elements of Style.

A third article to add to the mix: Why Won't Helvetica Go Away?
[Added 10/27/14]

Communication is a science and doesn’t really have much to do with aesthetics, other than the reader’s comfort via familiarity.