Virtual Typography

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Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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of classifi cation is much more diffi cult than when we are

looking at a written language with which we are familiar.

Chinese script, for example, is scanned in a different way

to the Roman alphabet. Images are generally scanned

in a much more random way than plain texts. So before

being able to read we need to determine the appropriate

code by testing different possible scanning patterns.

Virtual typography turns this process of classifi cation

into a perceptual challenge in which readers can be

forced to repeatedly readjust their scanning pattern.

They can never be certain what kind of information,

text or image, will follow later on during the time-based

information display.

Decoding

Once aware of the presence of information, as well as

of its classifi cation, the information recipient can begin

decoding or – in the case of text – deciphering the

information. Considering that multimedia is a hybrid of

various conventional media such as cinematography,

animation, graphic design and typography, we need

to acknowledge that typography is more or less a

hybrid of text and image. From a design perspective a

typographic message is composed rather than written.

The arrangement of words, sentences and blocks lends

the text an image-like quality. Due to its metalinguistic

architectural characteristics, typography is scanned as

well as read. Barely legible typography forces the reader

to scan a piece of text repeatedly.

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), a communications

theorist and a philosopher from Canada, coined various

well-known expressions such as ‘the medium is the

message’ and ‘global village’. Most of his theories

were aimed at pre-electronic media such as radio

and television. His arguments, which were at times

considered to be controversial, could easily be applied

to computer technologies and McLuhan’s writing has

infl uenced many contemporary media philosophers.

‘Information pours upon us,

instantaneously and constantly.’

Marshall McLuhan

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