To be a graphic designer you need to know how to draw, paint, and use the computer. We are in school to learn these things, and how to use them together to design. We learn how to look at type, and to appreciate it for more than just a letter. We see it as more. We know the difference between good and bad type. The difference between an ear, tail, what x height is, or what the base line is. But sadly as the author has said any old person who knows how to go online can buy the program to make their own type. So what makes up a piece of type means nothing to them. This is a sad fact to me. You don’t have to be trained to understand, or even learn what makes one type different from another. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone with these programs didn’t know the difference between garamond and comic sans. I have respect for creators of both. But comic sans is not a font that is good in anyway, except in very few circumstances. Buying a type program is like someone saying, “I’m going into graphic design because I like to use the computer, but I don’t like art.” You need to know the different principles and forms of art to be a designer. Just like you need to study type to create it. Just because you have a program that designs type does not mean you are a typographer, or just because you have a stethoscope doesn’t make you a doctor. All these programs are here for, is to make money. Who cares if it, as the author says “Goudy and Baskerville must be spinning in their graves.” As a sign of respect to our fathers in type, type should be respected. Not just thrown off to anyone who can use a computer. As I see it, these programs are a slap in the face to all designers, not just the ones of the past.

Group A