[thelist] Turning Printies into Webbies. (vice versa?)

[Ben Henick]

On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Andrea Belk wrote:

> I think that taking a webbie to a printie would be actually easier. Remove
> all of the current headaches you have with browser compatability and replace
> them with color matching and the fact that you can make NO correctionss with
> those items that have been sent to press. (spelling errors could cost you
> mucho dienero)

And that, folks, is my story.  I run away screaming from print jobs (but
it helps that I know loads of people with loads of talent & experience
when it comes to print design)... yeah, it's nice to know the size of your
canvas, but the fact that mistakes can't be sucked down the memory hole
just makes me shudder.

That, and smallbiz clients with lots of experience as site-owners tend to
have heart attacks when you tell them how much a run of 5000 marketing
glossies is actually going to cost, AFTER you've charged them for the
design work itself.

> I'ts a two sided coin - I personally like the freedom of print with the
> flexibility of the web... but who's picky! ;)

Regardless of the vector of the transcendence, the fact remains that
you're dealing with two different media.  When training for the
transition, THAT is the first point that has to be addressed.

"The old rules don't apply - but there are new ones."

The advantages a professional designer brings to the use of color
translate pretty well, but composition is handled in completely different
ways.  And while the lack of control over type on the Web will drive any
designer nuts, I don't think that a Web designer who hasn't been trained
for print will be able to handle type worth a damn in the latter medium
themselves...

And when it comes to Web composition, I've noticed that print designers
tend to create pages that fall into one of two categories:

1.  Every element of the design is controlled to the last pixel, and
    table slices are in bountiful evidence.
2.  The designer has given up any hope of controlling anything, and as a
    consequence the presentation is nothing more than a series of
    paragraphs.

"Talent" is definitely a must-have, but it DOES assume a familiarity with
how the Web works from the inside.

Thus, the second objective:  HTML and its successors are semantic, and
everything is handled on a code & markup basis meaning that the
structure dictates the process for creating presentation... as opposed to
print, where the presentation is meant entirely to lend "clues" about the
structure.

Another point to touch on would be the possibilities the Web offers in
terms of interactivity...


-- 
Ben Henick
Web Author At-Large              Managing Editor
http://www.io.com/persist1/      http://www.digital-web.com/
persist1 at io.com                  bmh at digital-web.com
--
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"I think so, Brain, but... (snort) no, no, it's too stupid."
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