Teachng Digital - the Didot Project

Mary Dyson Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading 2 Earley Gate Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AU UK Internet: 1tsdyson@rdg . ac. uk

Abstract This paper briefly outlines the Didot project on teaching digital typography. One of the key issues, namely identifying the users of digital typography, is explored and related to the type of material that could be included in a curriculum for digital typography. Teaching methods and material that have been developed in ths area are outlined, with particular reference to the work at Reading.

The Didot Project and manipulating , but also users of document preparation systems. Introduction. The acronym Didot stands for "DIgit- ising and Designing of Type" and this project has Users of digital typography been funded as part of the European COMETT I1 pro- gramme. The project started in 1990 and is due to In wishmg to address all users of digital typography, finish in September 1993. The partners come from we therefore need to consider: research centres, academic institutions, commercial computer scientists and technicians, organisations and studios in France, Switzerland, graphic designers and typographers, Germany, UK, Spain, Greece and Italy. type designers, Aims. The aims of the project are to: teachers and students, and also design, implement and evaluate a curriculum amateur designers. for digital typography, designed for both This last group may not fit into either of the two computer-oriented specialists and graphc categories of computer or design specialist, but do artists and typographers; make up a large percentage of users. organise seminars and workshops for both Graphic artists and typographers. Having estab- groups; and lished the range of users, we should consider what publish and distribute information. material is relevant to each of the groups engaged in digital typography. Graphic artists and typograph- Key Issues ers use the tools of digital typography, and may have Promoting discussion. One of the main aspects of something to say about the development of such the project has been the provision of mechanisms tools, but they are not normally the developers, as for encouraging discussion between computer spe- they lack the technical skills. The contribution that cialists and design specialists. Seminars and work- designers can make to developing software was dis- shops have been set up to combine the teaching of cussed at a summer school in Lausanne. The nature both groups, but there has been a predominance of of the tools that are being produced should be influ- either one or the other group at the meetings. enced by the working procedures adopted by design- ers. For example, designers may have clear ideas as Defining digital typography. The Didot project fo- to what type of work they wish to do on paper, and cuses on , looking at methods for creat- what can best be carried out on screen. However, ing and drawing characters. However, some of the such a contribution does not necessarily'require that work at Reading has extended the scope of the pro- designers be taught the technical aspects of digital ject to include how we use in designing typography. documents. The study of digital typography is there- Computer specialists. Computer specialists may be fore relevant to, not only those involved in creating the developers of the tools of digital typography,

TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993),No. 3 -Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Meeting Mary Dyson and also users. However, they may not have the ap- Teaching Methods and Material propriate design knowledge to make best use of the The Didot project has explored a range of teaching tools. We therefore need to identify those aspects of methods and materials in relation to digital typo- design that are most relevant to their aims. We may graphy whch include: need to dstinguish between what is taught to users and what is taught to developers and implementors seminars, (cf. Brown and Utting, 1992). workshops, short courses, Amateur designers. The large group of users, clas- vacation courses, and sified as amateur designers, are likely to come from a range of disciplines, but have probably become tools. users of digital typography through an interest in Ths paper briefly describes the full programme of computers, rather than design. They may there- seminars conducted by Didot partners so far, but fore be similar to computer specialists, but may have focuses on examples of activities and teaching ma- slightly different objectives in learning about digital terial from Reading. These examples are considered typography. in terms of their relevance for the various groups of users of digital typography outlined above. Approaches to integration Programme of seminars. The nature of seminars Working together. At a Reading Didot seminar, we has varied, depending on the specialisms of the sem- discussed some of the ways in whch computer sci- inar organisers, and also the country where they entists and designers can work together. Over the have taken place. The serninar/workshop in Read- course of Didot seminars, designers have received ing explored ways of introducing people to some of information about digital techniques, and computer the issues surrounding letterform design and stud- specialists have heard about design issues. One of ied digital techmques alongside traditional methods the more obvious problems is interpreting the 'lan- of design and manufacture. The summer school in guage' of the other discipline. For example, design Lausanne provided a more thorough grounding in concepts are not expressed in the 'normal language' technical matters, combined with the cultural, his- of computer scientists. We therefore need to ques- torical and aesthetic aspects of the subject. The tion how far we should go in teaching another dis- Base1 seminar built upon the previous seminars and cipline. It may be most appropriate for computer developed and evaluated educational concepts. The scientists to use the tools (with direction from de- French seminars were aimed at graphc designers signers) as opposed to designers using the techno- and provided a means of demonstrating and work- logy themselves. ing with the new technologies. The workshops of the Didot works seminar in Hamburg again focused Curriculum development. One way to approach on digital tools, with the lectures providing a rich this diversity of needs is to design a curriculum for design context. digital typography which is sufficiently flexible to The seminars in Italy and Greece were some- cover a wide range of requirements. The nature of what different in nature as they hghlighted the irn- a generic curriculum is discussed by Dyson (1992), portant role of education withn their respective who argues that the same topics may be relevant countries. In particular, they raised awareness of to different disciplines, but the subject matter may the problems of using the tools of digital typography need to be treated differently depending on the back- without the necessary background knowledge. ground of the students. The subjects that could be included in a cur- Reading seminar. The seminar in Reading with the riculum for digital typography have been explored title 'Type design: tradition and innovation' involved by Andre and Hersch (1992) who concentrate on exercises in lettering, lectures on historical aspects the computer science aspect of the subject. They of type design, and demonstrations of malung type put forward the argument, which is fundamental by hand (punchcutting, matrixmakmg and type cast- to the Didot project, that digital typography should ing) and by maclne (IkarusM).Those who attended not be taught without teachmg classical typography. were mainly involved in type design, type produc- Withn the Didot project, ths is dealt with in terms tion or education, but there were a few computer of historical and cultural aspects of letterforms and specialists. A seminar/workshop of this nature is the fundamentals of letterforms and the design of probably most useful for those who have a little type. knowledge of type design and wish to specialise. The computer-oriented participants felt that there

330 TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993),No. 3 -Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Meeting Teaching Digital Typography - the Didot Project was insufficient innovation (i.e., technology) in the other in Italy. These courses abroad provide direct programme. This comment may have reflected their experience of the material they are learning about own personal views, or may have been a suggestion through lectures and seminars in the Department as to what would have been more appropriate for and aim to stimulate interest in the subjects they the design-oriented group. are studying. The evaluations have looked in par- Local workshops. In addition to international sem- ticular at working methods, and how useful the stu- inars, a series of local workshops in Reading have in- dents perceive these methods to be. Comparisons troduced typography to beginners through the three have also been made with other forms of teaching, areas of lettering, traditional handsetting and com- such as lectures, seminars and practical work. The puters. The main objective of the workshops was to questions have evaluated: explore the relationshp between major typograph- the type of activities engaged in on the vacation ical variables through practical experience of dif- courses; ferent techniques and tools. Lettering introduces forms of preparation; students to the influence of the tool on letterforms. sources of information; Handsetting allows students to directly manipulate methods of learning; type and space, an experience whch can then be methods of recording information; and translated into the less tangible medium of com- puter . methods of analysis and synthesis. Basic issues of legibility, dealt with in the- The results support the use of first hand experience ory classes, were re- examined. The relationships as a means of learning. The courses help with stu- between choice of , type size, interlin- dent's understanding of specific issues in theory and ear spacing, , setting, hyphenation and history, as well as providing inspiration for practical format were explored in a series of exercises using work. There does however, need to be sufficient pre- the computer to set type. The students then evalu- paration before the course and a means of consol- ated the results of their exercises through conduct- idating what has been taught afterwards, to make ing empirical tests. best use of the time spent in observation and ana- These activities were aimed at establishing ef- lysis whlst on the course. Although such courses fective design procedures for digital typography, would be excellent means of stimulating interest in and are therefore suitable for all groups of users all groups of users, they are only practical as part of except experienced designers. They would be par- a more extensive programme of teachng. ticularly appropriate for amateur designers. Tools. Within the context of the Didot project, spe- Short courses. Courses spanning two to three days cific tools have been developed as teaching mater- are regularly conducted at Reading on the subject of ial. An interactive program comprised of exercises design issues for . These cover in character-hnting techmques has been developed aspects of document design such as legibility, house at EPFL. style, heading and cueing devices, and are targeted As a student project at Reading, a video has at amateur designers. been made based on material from the seminar. The Some of those who attend are computer- video explains the process of punchcutting and type oriented and this has sometimes led to a greater manufacture to people with no knowledge of the interest in the tools themselves, rather than how to subject. design using the tools. Ths natural tendency to seek Also at Reading, a hypertext on the subject of out the areas with which we are most familiar, is one document preparation systems has been written to of the problems we need to overcome in Didot's in- support a series of lectures and is currently be- terdisciplinary teaching. It may also be a warning ing evaluated. One of the introductory screens is that we should not go too far in trying to cross dis- shown in Figure 1. This tool is useful for design ciplines. students as a source of reference material on some Vacation courses. Some of the teaching methods of the technological aspects of the subject (see Fig- used at Reading in relation to the teachng of his- ure 2). However, it could be modified to suit dif- torical and cultural aspects of letterforms have been ferent types of students, or the requirements of dif- evaluated as part of the Didot project. Students at- ferent courses. If placed with an interdisciplin- tend two vacation courses as part of the four year ary context, computer-oriented students may desire BA(Hons) in Typography & Graphic Communication. greater techmcal detail than typography students, One of these takes place in Northern Europe and the but they may also require more detailed explanation

TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993),No. 3 -Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Meeting Mary Dyson

tutorials

Funct~on Introduction

rlnP,ra A very general dlvlsion can be maae into If this IS your first use of thls elettronlc book, you rnlght text processing want some guidance as to how to use it If so, click on graphlcs How to use the Icon on the left see-tomlnn~~mem rnakeup/composltlon/typesettlng prepsrarmn Fernsinrhe computer mdmlyfor mare 11you know how it won,, you can go Straight to the general Text processing n be d~videdinto * @ introduction This provides an overview of the sublects editlng or wor8rocessing Ovrrvlev covered In detail In the tutorlais You then go on to the tutori8k Graphics packages can be for * if you wsh, you can go stralght to the tutorlais This may paintlng iutrmis take a few moments. drawlng

If you have already used some tutorlals, and wsh to continue Page makeup can be considered as with the tutorials you haven t read cllck here a desktop publishing ContlOue typesetling* CJ

Figure 1: An introductory screen of Hypercard on Figure 3: A screen from a tutorial showing that fur- the subject of document preparation systems. ther information is available on text processing. tutorlals

Tutorials on document preparation systems Brown, H. and Utting, I.A. "Teachmg EP to computer scientists", EP-ODD, 5(2), 91 - 96, 1992. Development From within computer Industry Dyson, M.C. "The curriculum as a hypertext", EP- From wlthln publlshlng Industry ODD, 5(2), 63 - 72, 1992. Components narkup systems Hardware Software Tools Writlng 0 Input Design & composition Classification Exlt HyperCard

Figure 2: Contents page showing the tutorials avail- able.

of design issues. This additional information can be included at a different level, so that users can call up the information if they wish (Figure 3). Developing tools such as these may meet the needs of a range of users of digital typography. Conclusions Digital typography encompasses a diverse range of specialisms and we must consider the balance between teaching the core of the subject and de- veloping and distributing specialist material. The requirements of specific types of users need to be clearly defined and mapped onto a range of appro- priate teaching methods and materials. References

Andre, J. and Hersch, R. "Teaching digital typo- graphy", EP-ODD, 5(2), 79 - 89, 1992.

332 TUGboat, Volume 14 (1993),No. 3 -Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Meeting