Wherein our two prepress gurus explain that surfing doesn't require a wet suit.
Bob Schaffel and Chuck Weger
OK, WE ADMIT IT. We are the very last computer columnists in America to write an article about the wacky, wild, and wonderful World Wide Web. So keep this page -- it may be historic someday. Perhaps by tomorrow.
Why haven't we jumped on the bandwagon before now? After all, you can't wrap a piece of dead fish without seeing something in print about the Web. And one of us is employed by a large printing company that makes a good living printing books about (among other topics) the Internet and the Web.
And that's the rub. Is Print Dead? That's the question we're asked by our designer friends in the graphic arts. But how could it be dead, if we're devoting so much paper pulp to produce explanations about how it shortly won't exist?
Try clicking your ballpoint on the word right here. Anything happen? Didn't think so. Kind of slow and clunky, isn't it? On the other hand, turn right now to page 20 and then come back here immediately. How long did that take you? Try the same thing on a Web link.
Sure, you can say that we're just grousing about the frontier days of a new technology. There's a lot to be said for the hypertext-based scheme on which the Web is modeled, but until performance for the average Web-ster gets much better, HTML links will sometimes do more to interrupt a train of thought than to help evolve it.
There's no doubt that the Web will improve and be much better than it is today; for one thing, there's too much money being poured into it to allow it to stay the CB-radio phenomenon it is now. So rather than reject the Web, designers had better embrace it.
But how?
In addition to reading the tons of things written about the nuts and bolts of Web publishing (check out "From the Web Press to the Web," October '95, page 117, and "A Do-It-Yourself Web Page," November '95, page 111), here are a few things we recommend that you do if you're in the traditional graphic arts:
1. Get on the Web immediately. If you have to, access the
Web through one of the major online services, but you'll see
better speed with a direct modem link to a good Internet service
provider (ISP). Once you're on, use up all of your free
introductory time (you did get some of that, right?) by surfing
sites that are designed or hosted by your current and potential
clients -- and by your competitors.
2. Learn what makes a good Web site. It's easy to get
misled by confusing "cool" sites (often those with garish
fourth-grade graphics) with "good" sites -- sites that (like all
other good communications) inform and entertain without being
noisy. (Remember those basic design principles you knew so well?
You know, clarity, contrast, and the like? They haven't
changed.)
3. Get a bit of hands-on experience designing Web pages.
It doesn't matter if they never see the light of a server. The
simplest way to do this right now is to get a program such as
Adobe PageMill and just play; you can't hurt anything, and
you'll learn a lot. Find out what happens when you've got
limited screen real estate, limited font flexibility, and
limited viewer attention span. Don't bother learning HTML codes
-- they'll be about as useful as Linotype 202 codes in a few
more months (well, maybe not that soon, but HTML must evolve or
die).
4. Learn to design beyond three dimensions. With the Web,
you've got the two-dimensional screen plus the third dimension
of color. Then there's a fourth dimension of page links within a
site and a fifth dimension of links to other sites. Learn to
think of incorporating design elements that are neither text nor
graphics but are instead Web-enabled objects (QuickTime movies,
QuickDraw 3D scenes, sounds, and the like). This is where the
Web really starts to outdo print.
5. For publishing that requires branding through specific
design, check out Adobe Acrobat. By the time you read this,
Acrobat should be more tightly integrated with Web browsers and
may be the delivery vehicle of choice for high-fidelity Web
documents.
So do we think the electron-driven Web will replace paper-driven webs? In some instances, for some markets, with some kinds of products, for certain audiences -- absolutely. Enough qualifiers for you?
We're practical guys. The Web is obviously here to stay -- not in its current form for long, of course -- and it's having an impact on what we do for a living. We don't want to come across like some aging Luddite curmudgeons (not yet, anyway), so we won't complain anymore. But thanks for surfing our page.
Bob Schaffel is emerging-technologies consultant for R. R. Donnelley & Sons. Chuck Weger is a consultant and the conference chair for CONCEPPTS 96, a prepublishing conference that will have a bevy of Web-related sessions this April.
