The Visual Editing of Texts

Abstract

Words mesmerize more than they inform. Any piece of writing is an image as well as a message. Hence, whether you want to mesmerize or to inform you must acquire a mastery over the proper letterforms and how to arrange them on any surface. This is more than can be taught in primary schools where all teaching begins as handwriting. Typography, as an extension of handwriting, can no longer be considered a preserve of specialized craftsmen. Therefore all teachers at any level in any branch of learning should be able to analyze, to study, and to describe any text as a constellation of alphabets and a configuration of columns and lines — that is, to perceive what is on the page and to practice the visual editing of the case one wants to defend. Adapted from a lecture given at Stanford University, May 1983.