Matthew Carter: My life in typefaces

翻译人员: Catherine Gu 校对人员: Qingqing Mao

Type is something we consume

字体是我们

in enormous quantities.

大量使用的东西。

In much of the world,

从很大程度上，

it's completely inescapable.

字体完全不可避免。

But few consumers are concerned to know

但是很少有用户关心

where a particular typeface came from

某种字体是哪儿来的

or when or who designed it,

或什么时候、谁设计的，

if, indeed, there was any human agency involved

是否真有人力融入了字体的创造，

in its creation, if it didn't just sort of materialize

它是否只是

out of the software ether.

由软件凭空产生的。

But I do have to be concerned with those things.

但我却不得不关心这些问题。

It's my job.

这是我的工作。

I'm one of the tiny handful of people

我是这一小部分人之一，

who gets badly bent out of shape

会对T和e之间错误的间距

by the bad spacing of the T and the E

大发雷霆，

that you see there.

就像你们这里看到的。

I've got to take that slide off.

我不得不换下那张幻灯片。

I can't stand it. Nor can Chris.

我受不了，Chris也是。

There. Good.

行了。好的。

So my talk is about the connection

所以我的演讲是有关

between technology and design of type.

技术和字体设计之间的联系。

The technology has changed

自我工作以来

a number of times since I started work:

技术已变化了多次：

photo, digital, desktop, screen, web.

照排，数码，桌面，屏幕和网络。

I've had to survive those changes and try

我已不得不适应这些变化，

to understand their implications for what I do

并设法理解它们对

我的设计工作所产生的影响。

for design.

This slide is about the effect of tools on form.

这张幻灯片是有关工具对形式的影响。

The two letters, the two K's,

这两个字母，这两个K,

the one on your left, my right, is modern,

在你们的左边我的右边的，是现代的，

made on a computer.

用计算机设计出来的。

All straight lines are dead straight.

所有的直线都是笔直的。

The curves have that kind of mathematical smoothness

曲线具有用贝塞尔公式施加出来

that the Bézier formula imposes.

的数学平滑。

On the right, ancient Gothic,

右边，古老的哥特式的，

cut in the resistant material of steel by hand.

是从耐磨的钢材手工切割出来的。

None of the straight lines are actually straight.

没有一条直线实际上是直的。

The curves are kind of subtle.

曲线有点微妙。

It has that spark of life from the human hand

它具有来自人手的生命火花，

that the machine or the program

这是机器或程序

can never capture.

永远也扑捉不到的。

What a contrast.

多么鲜明的对比。

Well, I tell a lie.

好吧，我撒了个谎。

A lie at TED. I'm really sorry.

在TED撒了个谎。我真的很抱歉。

Both of these were made on a computer,

这两个都是电脑做出来的，

same software, same Bézier curves,

同样的软件，同样的贝塞尔曲线，

same font format.

同样的字体格式。

The one on your left

你们左边的这个

was made by Zuzana Licko at Emigre,

是由Emigre公司的Zuzana Licko制作的，

and I did the other one.

另一个是我制作的。

The tool is the same, yet the letters are different.

工具是一样的，但字母是不同的。

The letters are different

字母不同

because the designers are different.

是因为设计者不同。

That's all. Zuzana wanted hers to look like that.

就这些。Zuzana希望她设计的东西看起来那样。

I wanted mine to look like that. End of story.

我希望我的看起来这样。仅此而已。

Type is very adaptable.

字体有很强的适应性。

Unlike a fine art, such as sculpture or architecture,

不像雕塑或建筑这样的艺术，

type hides its methods.

字体使人看不出它的制作方法。

I think of myself as an industrial designer.

我把自己看成是工业设计师。

The thing I design is manufactured,

我设计的东西被制造，

and it has a function:

而且它有功能：

to be read, to convey meaning.

可读并表达意思。

But there is a bit more to it than that.

除此之外还有更多的含义。

There's the sort of aesthetic element.

有点儿美学的成份。

What makes these two letters different

是什么使这两个字母由于

from different interpretations by different designers?

不同的设计者有不同的解释呢？

What gives the work of some designers

是什么使某些设计者的工作

sort of characteristic personal style,

有着特有的个人风格，

as you might find in the work of a fashion designer,

像你在时装设计师

an automobile designer, whatever?

或汽车设计师的作品中发现的一样？

There have been some cases, I admit,

我承认，在有些情况下，

where I as a designer

我作为一名设计师

did feel the influence of technology.

确实感到技术的影响。

This is from the mid-'60s,

这来自六十年代中期，

the change from metal type to photo,

从铅字变成照相排版，

hot to cold.

从热到凉。

This brought some benefits

这既带来益处

but also one particular drawback:

但也有一个特别的缺点：

a spacing system that only provided

它的间距体系只提供了

18 discrete units for letters

18个离散的单元

来容纳字母。

to be accommodated on.

I was asked at this time to design

当时我被要求设计

a series of condensed sans serif types

一系列紧凑的无衬线字体，

with as many different variants as possible

在18个单元之内

within this 18-unit box.

带有尽可能多的字体变化。

Quickly looking at the arithmetic,

快速地看了一下算术，

I realized I could only actually make three

我意识到实际只能进行三个相关设计。

of related design. Here you see them.

这里你们看到了，

In Helvetica Compressed, Extra Compressed,

Helvetica压缩，额外压缩，和超压缩三种字体。

and Ultra Compressed, this rigid 18-unit system

这种严格的18 单元系统

really boxed me in.

真把我限制住了。

It kind of determined the proportions

它某种程度上决定了

of the design.

设计的比例。

Here are the typefaces, at least the lower cases.

这里是这些字体的小写部分。

So do you look at these and say,

所以你是否会看着这些说，

"Poor Matthew, he had to submit to a problem,

“可怜的马修不得不屈从于这一难题，

and by God it shows in the results."

天哪，结果显而易见。”

I hope not.

我希望不是这样。

If I were doing this same job today,

如果我今天还做同样的工作，

instead of having 18 spacing units,

我会有1000个间距单元，

I would have 1,000.

而不是有18个单元。

Clearly I could make more variants,

显然我能制出更多的字体变化，

but would these three members of the family be better?

但这一系列的三种字体会更好吗？

It's hard to say without actually doing it,

没有实际做过很难说，

but they would not be better in the proportion

但我可以告诉你们

of 1,000 to 18, I can tell you that.

不会有1000比18倍这么好。

My instinct tells you that any improvement

我的直觉是，

任何改进都会是很轻微的，

would be rather slight, because they were designed

因为它们是根据系统的需要而设计的功能，

as functions of the system they were designed to fit,

and as I said, type is very adaptable.

像我说的那样，字体适应性很强。

It does hide its methods.

确实让人看不出它的设计方法。

All industrial designers work within constraints.

所有工业设计师的工作都有局限性。

This is not fine art.

这不是艺术。

The question is, does a constraint

问题是，是否局限性

force a compromise?

会迫使妥协？

By accepting a constraint,

接受局限性

are you working to a lower standard?

你就降低工作标准了吗？

I don't believe so, and I've always been encouraged

我不相信，而且我总是被

by something that Charles Eames said.

Charles Eames所说的话激励着。

He said he was conscious of working

他说他意识到

within constraints,

工作有局限性，

but not of making compromises.

但不是进行妥协。

The distinction between a constraint

局限性和妥协之间的区别

and a compromise is obviously very subtle,

显然是很微妙的，

but it's very central to my attitude to work.

但对我的工作态度确实是很重要的。

Remember this reading experience?

记得这种阅读体验吧？

The phone book. I'll hold the slide

电话簿。我留住这张幻灯片，

so you can enjoy the nostalgia.

你们可以怀旧一下。

This is from the mid-'70s early trials

这来自70年代中期

of Bell Centennial typeface I designed

我为美国电话簿设计的

Bell Centennial字体的早期尝试，

for the U.S. phone books,

and it was my first experience of digital type,

这也是我第一次用数码字体，

and quite a baptism.

相当于一次洗礼。

Designed for the phone books, as I said,

像我所说的那样，为电话簿而设计，

to be printed at tiny size on newsprint

以极小的尺寸打印在新闻纸上，

on very high-speed rotary presses

用的是非常高速的轮转印刷机，

with ink that was kerosene and lampblack.

以及煤油和灯黑制成的油墨。

This is not a hospitable environment

对字体设计师来说

for a typographic designer.

这不是一个好的环境。

So the challenge for me was to design type

所以对我的挑战是

that performed as well as possible

在这些非常不利的条件下，

in these very adverse production conditions.

尽可能地把字体设计好。

As I say, we were in the infancy of digital type.

如我所说，我们处在数码字体的婴儿期。

I had to draw every character by hand

我不得不在方格坐标图纸上

on quadrille graph paper --

手工绘制每一个字符。

there were four weights of Bell Centennial —

Bell Centennial字体有四种粗细。

pixel by pixel, then encode them raster line by raster line

先一个像素一个像素地绘制，

再用键盘对其逐行编码。

for the keyboard.

It took two years, but I learned a lot.

我花了两年时间，但学了很多。

These letters look as though they've been chewed

这些字母看上去像

by the dog or something or other,

被狗或别的什么东西嚼过，

but the missing pixels at the intersections

但在笔画的交点处或岔口处

of strokes or in the crotches

缺失的像素，

are the result of my studying the effects

是我研究了

油墨在廉价纸上扩散和反应的效果，

of ink spread on cheap paper

and reacting, revising the font accordingly.

从而相应修改字体的结果。

These strange artifacts are designed to compensate

这些奇怪的人为的缺陷被设计于用来弥补

for the undesirable effects of scale

大规模生产过程中所带来的

and production process.

不良影响。

At the outset, AT&T had wanted

起初，AT&T公司想

to set the phone books in Helvetica,

在电话簿中用Helvetica字体，

but as my friend Erik Spiekermann said

但正如我朋友Erik Spiekermann

in the Helvetica movie, if you've seen that,

在电影《传奇字体》中所说，如果你看过的话，

the letters in Helvetica were designed to be

Helvetica字体的字母被设计得

as similar to one another as possible.

彼此尽可能相似。

This is not the recipe for legibility at small size.

这不是看清小尺寸字体的良方。

It looks very elegant up on a slide.

它在幻灯片上看起来非常优雅。

I had to disambiguate these forms

我必须尽可能拆开

of the figures as much as possible in Bell Centennial

Bell Centennial字体的形状

by sort of opening the shapes up, as you can see

来给这些数字形式消除歧义，

in the bottom part of that slide.

就像你在这张幻灯片底部看到的那样。

So now we're on to the mid-'80s,

现在我们看到的是80年代中期，

the early days of digital outline fonts,

数码轮廓字体的初期，

vector technology.

矢量技术。

There was an issue at that time

当时的一个问题在于

with the size of the fonts,

字体的大小，

the amount of data that was required to find

在计算机内存中搜寻和存储一种字体

and store a font in computer memory.

所需的数据量。

It limited the number of fonts you could get

这个问题限制了

on your typesetting system at any one time.

排版系统同时可用的字体数量。

I did an analysis of the data,

我进行了数据分析，

and found that a typical serif face

发现一种典型的衬线字体，

you see on the left

如你们左边看到的，

needed nearly twice as much data

比中间的无衬线字体

as a sans serif in the middle

要多近两倍的数据，

because of all the points required

因为需要很多的点才能

to define the elegantly curved serif brackets.

给出衬线与主体之间优雅而弯曲的过渡。

The numbers at the bottom of the slide, by the way,

顺便提一下，幻灯片底部的数字

they represent the amount of data

代表存储每一种字体

needed to store each of the fonts.

所需的数据量。

So the sans serif, in the middle,

因此中间的无衬线字体

sans the serifs, was much more economical,

是更经济的，

81 to 151.

81相比于151。

"Aha," I thought. "The engineers have a problem.

我想，“哈，工程师们有麻烦了。

Designer to the rescue."

设计师来救援。”

I made a serif type, you can see it on the right,

我设计了一种衬线字体，你们可以在右边看到，

without curved serifs.

没有弯曲的衬线。

I made them polygonal, out of straight line segments,

我把它们用直线段制成多角形的

chamfered brackets.

斜切的过渡。

And look, as economical in data as a sans serif.

看，数据量上和无衬线字体一样经济。

We call it Charter, on the right.

我们把右边的命名为Charter字体。

So I went to the head of engineering

所以我带着我的数字找到工程部主管，

with my numbers, and I said proudly,

自豪地说：

"I have solved your problem."

“我解决了你们的问题。”

"Oh," he said. "What problem?"

“噢？” 他说， “什么问题？”

And I said, "Well, you know, the problem

我说：“你知道，

of the huge data you require for serif fonts and so on."

衬线字体等要求大量数据的问题。“

"Oh," he said. "We solved that problem last week.

“噢，” 他说，”我们上周解决了那个问题。

We wrote a compaction routine that reduces

我们写了一个压缩程序

the size of all fonts by an order of magnitude.

把所有字体的大小都缩小了一个数量级。

You can have as many fonts on your system

你想要多少字体，

as you like."

你的系统就可以有多少。“

"Well, thank you for letting me know," I said.

我说：“谢谢你告诉我。“

Foiled again.

再次受打击。

I was left with a design solution

留给我的是

为了一个不存在的技术问题而设计的一个解决方案。

for a nonexistent technical problem.

But here is where the story sort of gets interesting for me.

但这里是这个故事让我感兴趣的地方。

I didn't just throw my design away

我并没有赌气

in a fit of pique.

扔掉我的设计。

I persevered.

我继续坚持做下去。

What had started as a technical exercise

作为技术练习开始的作品，

became an aesthetic exercise, really.

变成了美学练习，真的。

In other words, I had come to like this typeface.

换句话说，我渐渐开始喜欢这种字体。

Forget its origins. Screw that.

忘掉初衷。别管它。

I liked the design for its own sake.

我喜欢这个设计本身。

The simplified forms of Charter

Charter字体的简化的形式

gave it a sort of plain-spoken quality

使它具有某种直言不讳的质量，

and unfussy spareness

简洁而开阔，

that sort of pleased me.

这有点令我高兴。

You know, at times of technical innovation,

要知道，在技术创新的时代，

designers want to be influenced

设计师们希望受到

by what's in the air.

当时环境的影响。

We want to respond. We want to be pushed

我们想要回应。

我们想要被迫去探索新的东西。

into exploring something new.

So Charter is a sort of parable for me, really.

因此Charter字体对我来说真有点象个寓言。

In the end, there was no hard and fast causal link

最后，在技术和Charter字体的设计之间

between the technology and the design of Charter.

没有硬性的因果联系。

I had really misunderstood the technology.

我确实是误解了技术。

The technology did suggest something to me,

技术确实向我提出了些什么，

but it did not force my hand,

但并没有强迫我，

and I think this happens very often.

我想这种情况时常发生。

You know, engineers are very smart,

要知道，工程师们非常聪明，

and despite occasional frustrations

尽管偶尔受挫折，

because I'm less smart,

因为我不够聪明，

I've always enjoyed working with them

我总喜欢和他们一起工作

and learning from them.

并向他们学习。

Apropos, in the mid-'90s,

恰好在90年代中期，

I started talking to Microsoft

我开始向微软

about screen fonts.

谈起屏幕字体。

Up to that point, all the fonts on screen

当时，屏幕上的所有字体

had been adapted from previously existing

都由先前已有的印刷字体

printing fonts, of course.

改编而来。

But Microsoft foresaw correctly

但微软正确地预见到了

the movement, the stampede

这个潮流，

towards electronic communication,

电子通信的热潮，

to reading and writing onscreen

在屏幕上进行读写的趋势，

with the printed output as being sort of secondary

而打印输出成为了次要的。

in importance.

So the priorities were just tipping at that point.

这种优先级当时才露端倪。

They wanted a small core set of fonts

他们想要的是一小组核心字体，

that were not adapted but designed for the screen

不是改编而来的，

而是专门针对屏幕的问题而设计的，

to face up to the problems of screen,

which were their coarse resolution displays.

就是那些低分辨率的显示器。

I said to Microsoft, a typeface designed

我对微软说，

为某种特定的技术而设计的字体

for a particular technology

is a self-obsoleting typeface.

是自我淘汰的字体。

I've designed too many faces in the past

过去我设计过太多字体

that were intended to mitigate technical problems.

意在减轻技术问题。

Thanks to the engineers, the technical problems went away.

多亏了工程师们，技术问题不存在了。

So did my typeface.

我的字体也不存在了。

It was only a stopgap.

这只是个临时措施。

Microsoft came back to say that

微软回过来说

affordable computer monitors

价格实惠的有着更好的分辨率的

with better resolutions

电脑显示器

were at least a decade away.

至少还要等十年。

So I thought, well, a decade, that's not bad,

所以，我想， 好吧，十年，不太坏，

that's more than a stopgap.

不能算是个临时措施。

So I was persuaded, I was convinced,

所以我被说服了，

and we went to work on what became Verdana

我们着手工作，

做出了Verdana字体和Georgia字体，

and Georgia,

for the first time working not on paper

第一次不是在纸上工作

but directly onto the screen from the pixel up.

而是直接从像素到屏幕。

At that time, screens were binary.

当时，屏幕是二进制的。

The pixel was either on or it was off.

像素或亮或灭。

Here you see the outline of a letter,

这里你们看到字母的轮廓，

the cap H,

大写的H，

which is the thin black line, the contour,

细黑线是它的轮廓，

which is how it is stored in memory,

这也是它在存储器里的样子，

superimposed on the bitmap,

叠加在点阵字体上，

which is the grey area,

即灰色区域，

which is how it's displayed on the screen.

这就是它在屏幕上显示的样子。

The bitmap is rasterized from the outline.

点阵字体是从轮廓点阵化而来的。

Here in a cap H, which is all straight lines,

在大写的H里，全部都是直线，

the two are in almost perfect sync

在直角坐标网格上

on the Cartesian grid.

两者近乎完美同步。

Not so with an O.

O可就不是这样啦。

This looks more like bricklaying than type design,

这个看起来更像是砌砖而不是字体设计，

but believe me, this is a good bitmap O,

但相信我，这是一个好的点阵字体O，

for the simple reason that it's symmetrical

原因很简单，

in both x and y axes.

在X轴和Y轴上都是对称的。

In a binary bitmap, you actually can't ask

在二进制的点阵字体里，

for more than that.

你实际上不能要求更多了。

I would sometimes make, I don't know,

我有时会为一个难字母

three or four different versions of a difficult letter

设计三个或四个版本，

like a lowercase A,

像小写的a，

and then stand back to choose which was the best.

再退回去选出最好的一个。

Well, there was no best,

其实没有最好的。

so the designer's judgment comes in

所以这里需要设计师的判断，

in trying to decide

来设法决定

which is the least bad.

哪个是最不坏的。

Is that a compromise?

这是一种妥协吗？

Not to me, if you are working

对我来说不是，

at the highest standard the technology will allow,

如果你是按技术所允许的最高标准来工作，

although that standard may be

尽管这个标准

well short of the ideal.

可能不够理想。

You may be able to see on this slide

你或许能看到这张幻灯片上

two different bitmap fonts there.

有两个不同的点阵字体。

The "a" in the upper one, I think,

我觉得上方的“a”

is better than the "a" in the lower one,

比下方的“a”要好，

but it still ain't great.

但仍不够优秀。

You can maybe see the effect better

如果缩小它，你们或许能更好地看出这种效果。

if it's reduced. Well, maybe not.

也许看不出来。

So I'm a pragmatist, not an idealist,

所以，我是一个出于需要的实用主义者，

out of necessity.

而不是一个理想主义者。

For a certain kind of temperament,

有些事情无法完美

there is a certain kind of satisfaction

但尽你所能仍可完成，

in doing something that cannot be perfect

就某种气质而言，

but can still be done to the best of your ability.

做这些事情时存在一种满足感。

Here's the lowercase H from Georgia Italic.

这是用Georgia斜体的小写h。

The bitmap looks jagged and rough.

这个点阵看起来参差不齐，还粗糙。

It is jagged and rough.

它的确参差不齐和粗糙。

But I discovered, by experiment,

但我通过实验发现，

that there is an optimum slant

屏幕上的斜体

for an italic on a screen

有一个最佳倾斜

so the strokes break well

以致笔画刚好

at the pixel boundaries.

在像素边界断开。

Look in this example how, rough as it is,

看这个例子，多粗糙，

how the left and right legs

左腿和右腿

actually break at the same level.

实际上怎样在同一水平分开。

That's a victory. That's good, right there.

那是个胜利。那很好，就是那儿。

And of course, at the lower depths,

当然在更低深度，

you don't get much choice.

你就没有多少选择了。

This is an S, in case you were wondering.

这是S，万一你想知道。

Well, it's been 18 years now

那么， 自从Verdana和Georgia字体发行以来，

since Verdana and Georgia were released.

现在已经18年了。

Microsoft were absolutely right,

微软完全是对的，

it took a good 10 years,

花了整整10年，

but screen displays now do have

但屏幕显示现在确实

improved spatial resolution,

改进了空间分辨率，

and very much improved photometric resolution

也大大改进了光度分辨率，

thanks to anti-aliasing and so on.

多亏了反锯齿等技术。

So now that their mission is accomplished,

所以现在它们的使命完成了，

has that meant the demise

是不是意味着

of the screen fonts that I designed

那时我为较粗糙的显示器所设计的

for coarser displays back then?

屏幕字体就消亡了呢？

Will they outlive the now-obsolete screens

它们的寿命会超过现已过时的屏幕

and the flood of new web fonts

和大量涌向市场的

coming on to the market?

新网页字体吗？

Or have they established their own

还是他们已经建立了自己的

sort of evolutionary niche

某种不依赖技术的

that is independent of technology?

进化生态位呢？

In other words, have they been absorbed

换句话说，是否它们已被并入了

into the typographic mainstream?

排版的主流了呢？

I'm not sure, but they've had a good run so far.

我不确定，但到目前为止运行良好。

Hey, 18 is a good age for anything

嘿，以现今的淘汰率来看，

with present-day rates of attrition,

18对于任何东西都是个不错的年纪了，

so I'm not complaining.

所以我不抱怨。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）