DESIGN JOURNAL 10

     Adobe Systems invented the PostScript programming language underlying page-layout software and electronically generated typography. In 1992, they released its first multiple-master typefaces. Two or more master designs combined to generate an extensive sequence of fonts. The master designs determined the range of fonts that could be generated through changes in a design axis. The design axis controlled weight, determined by stroke thick- ness and the resulting ratio of black form to white background; width, determined by making the letters wider (expanded) or narrower (condensed); style, in which visual attributes, ranging from no serifs to large serifs or wedge-shaped serifs to slab ser- ifs, were altered; and optical size, involving subtle adjustments in proportion, weight, spacing, and contrast between thick and thin elements, optimizing legibility and design. The optical size axis was an important consideration. Myriad, a two-axis sans serif, was one of the first multiple master fonts. An early type family developed for its PostScript page description language was Stone, designed by Sumner Stone. Large type vendors were joined by independent type foundries set up by studios and individual designers. Adobe Systems became a prolific and influential. Below is an example of multiple-master typefaces. 

       Phototype is one of the early graphic design solutions in the twenty-first century. The prevalent means of typesetting in the 1960s known as phototype required photographic negatives made from paste-ups, art, and photographs. Typographic technology has evolved from metal type to digital type. After it  became prevalent during the 1960s, it took a team of skilled specialists to create and print graphic communications. These specialists included graphic designers who created page layouts, typesetters who operated text and display typesetting equipment, production artists who pasted all of the elements into position on boards, camera operators who made photographic negatives of the pasteups, art, and photographs, strippers who assembled these negatives together, platemakers who prepared the printing plates, and the press operators who ran the printing presses. During that time, one set of master characters was drawn for use in all sizes, even though small text characters needed sturdier serifs and heavier thin strokes than large display type sizes. Graphic designer April Greiman created a 1987 issue of Design Quarterly magazine for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis as a 12-by-6-foot single-sheet digital collage executed entirely on the Macintosh computer. Images were captured from video and digitized, and words and pictures were integrated into a single computer file. 

     The interactive media,the Internet and the World Wide Web are important graphic design solutions. The interactive media delivers information different from traditional printed communications. It is a combination of audio, visual, and cinematic communications, connected to form a coherent body of information. Clement Mok is an important graphic designer who push the development of interactive media. He believed that designs should be defined not as an isolated entity, but as an integral part of an organization's overall vision and strategy. Below is an example of an interactive website designed by Clement Mok and Brian Forst for the iQVC in 1995. 

     The Internet and the World Wide Web are different. Internet is a vast network of linked computers. World Wide Web provides a means to easily organize and access the vast and ever-increasing digital content of text, images, sound, animation, and video, was first developed in 1990 by physicist Tim Berners-Lee. There are three main building blocks of the web, which are HTTP, HTML and URL. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. Hypertext Makeup Language (HTML) is a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) a reference (address) to a resource on the Internet. Graphic designer April Greiman recognized the potential of the Inernet as a new creative medium. She explored and developed new technologies in pursuit of a visual vocabulary that would enliven the virtual canvas. 

     Although the ability to manipulate imagery with digital technology provides great graphic design solutions, it impacts the photos reliability. The seamless image manipulation can be achieved with the use of electronic imaging software. Photos could be faked, but still look real. The boundaries between photography, illustration, and fine art began to crumble along with those separating designer, illustrator, and photographer. By the 1990s, digital technology enabled one person operating a desktop computer to control most of these functions. New photooptical printing machines used computer-controlled lasers to photosensitize printing drums, making short-run and even individualized full-color press sheets possible.