Type faces - pixel Palette

Arts & Activities, March, 2004 by Irv Osterer

Today's typography is much more expressive than it was even 10 years ago. The digital revolution has made experimenting with type quite fashionable.

Desktop publishing software such as QuarkXPress, Pagemaker and InDesign permit type to be manipulated by graphic designers in a variety of ways. PostScript typefaces can easily be enlarged, reduced, stretched or condensed by a series of simple keystrokes. Changing fonts takes no time at all and quality fonts made by mainstream companies like Adobe, Emigre and the FontShop can be ordered online quickly and economically.

To give senior graphic-design students a project that would allow them to experiment with the typographic controls on Quark, they were asked to create a series of typographical portraits on 8 1/2" x 11" documents that would convey a number of emotions. The class was permitted to use any typeface loaded on the computer's hard drive as well as any character in any font.

Students quickly learned that in Quark, it was also possible to create text boxes and move individual letters on the page quite easily. They could then rotate letters 360 degrees, and also make their text boxes transparent to allow the overlap of letter forms. It was also possible to group letters and also save these hybrid groups as postscript files within Quark for further enlarging, reducing or distortion. Although the students were asked to restrict their designs to black, they quickly learned how to change the color and value of their type. All designs were saved to the art department's server and printed on colored stock using a 600 dpi laser printer.

Number 7 and 3, and the letters U and J became noses, while C's, D's and the parenthesis mark proved popular for the mouth. Students were encouraged to play and attempt humorous solutions to this problem--and since there really was no one right answer, the creative spirit prevailed in the classroom with a wonderful series of prints that entertained all viewers at the annual art show.

Irv Osterer is Department Head of Fine Arts, Library and Technology at Merivale High School in Nepean, Ontario, Canada.