Comparing conventional printing with “Internet printing”—some physical and conceptual differences

The World Wide Web is different visually.

Hypertext markup language (HTML) code, which specifies the primary underlying visual structure for Web applications, is like a primitive typesetting system. The user, by changing default settings in his or her browser, controls many of the aesthetic features, including typefaces, font sizes, background color and whether or not to display images.
      Images, because they must sometimes be transmitted over phone lines via slow modems, are limited in size and, therefore, in quality. The screen resolution of today’s computers also limits quality. When using illustrations on the Web the goal is to produce the most attractive graphics possible but in the smallest size (in bytes).

It costs much less than conventional printing.

The Web levels the playing field—companies and organizations of any size can reach thousands of potential clients at very low cost, unlike advertising in media such as television, national publications or direct mail.
      Also, e-mail via the Internet is much less expensive than “snail mail.”

It allows more frequent updating of information

If necessary, information can be updated on a minute-by-minute basis. You do not have to wait for budget approval of the next press run to deliver timely information.

It allows limited, but increasing, interactivity.

Everyone knows about hyperlinks, which allow you to jump to another website, or to different places within one website. This is not real (two-way) interactivity, however. Limited interactivity is possible through the use of HTML forms. Online forms can be filled out by the browser (client) and sent back to the host (server). The server can then send another HTML document back to the client, based on the form data received. This process is used to take orders or to present the client with customized information. Many people are reluctant to put their credit card numbers on the Internet, which is why many companies are working on secure methods to handle financial transactions over the Internet.
      One Chicago software training company presents their course catalog online. The client clicks on the subjects in which he or she is interested and an HTML page is returned that describes each of the classes in which they’ve expressed an interest. After reading the pages, the user can see a schedule of the classes and even reserve space. (The next step is to make the scheduling of the classes client-driven.)
      Interactivity is limited in part because it is time-consuming to send HTML pages back and forth, and also because the technical limitations of HTML form code make it difficult to do the sort of error-checking and other procedures that are a normal part of the design of client-server software.
      Interactivity has become more powerful and pervasive since scripting languages, such as Java from Sun Microsystems, have become supported in the major browsers. Error checking can now be done at the client end.
      Java, Microsoft's ActiveX, and other tools make it possible to send small applications to a client’s computer which will operate interactively with the server software to provide specialized applications.
      An increase in Internet bandwidth would also change the type and amount of information that can be presented and worked with interactively.

It is a medium for the delivery of new types of information products

Many people keep up with stock investments or do their banking online. Some newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, allow you to receive daily, customized, versions of their products online. It’s not hard to imagine that a firm that sells specialized information might want to set up a website, accessible only to its customers, to deliver menu-driven individual packages of information online.
      A website could provide a means for delivering individualized information to the customer’s doorstep. A company that produces high-quality four-color catalogs that are mass-mailed to potential customers could reach a more targeted audience by setting up a website that would allow the printing (using technologies such as the Indigo printer) and mailing of small, individual four-color customized catalogs. The potential customer would determine the catalog’s content through a menu-driven Web interface.

It is causing organizations to rethink internal “behind the firewall” information systems.

Six months ago Netscape claimed that 70% of the new sales of their browsers is for internal systems. HTML is becoming the basis for the exchange of information within some organizations. Cross-platform browsers and scripting languages solve many compatibility problems. Web tools and servers are relatively inexpensive. For companies that are worldwide, and for people who travel, local access to the Internet may be easier than access to a corporate network.
      “Behind the firewall” management information systems based on Web tools can provide inexpensive platforms for the rapid, widespread, exchange of information and discussion. Today, you can assume that if you come up with a good idea, at least four or five other bright people have the same idea at the same time. Being able to act on that idea faster than those other people has become as important, or more important, than the original thought.
      Authoring tools for the Internet could do to programming what desktop publishing has done to the graphic arts industry.
      Thinking about a “Behind the firewall Intranet” site? Click here to read some criteria in selecting good Intranet projects

It requires the development of new skills and new ways of thinking.

New technologies start by imitating old ones. Guttenberg’s printing with movable type started by imitating the handlettering of the monasteries. TV started by broadcasting what, essentially, were radio programs. Applications on the Web have started by imitating printing. No one knows where we are going or how quickly we will get there. That’s part of what makes it interesting. All we know is that, in the information age, we have tended to underestimate, rather than overestimate, the rate at which things will change.

Where do we fit in?

PBTWEB can help you think through visual and logical design questions and help you develop an understanding of the potential of the new medium.
      Together with Micro-Management, Inc., a midwest-based database programming organization, we tackle projects which require interaction with backend databases. To read developer Todd Reifenrath's impressions of the most recent Microsoft Developer's Conference, which focused on the Internet.

Our history

Since 1981, Paul Baker Typography has been supplying high quality typography and design services to the publishing world. We provide traditional graphic arts services and also create original typefaces, such as Eusebius, Alphabet 26, and Exposition. Our work has won major awards from design organizations such as the AIGA, the Chicago Book Clinic, the British Book Publishers’ Association and the American Center for Design (see below).
      We became interested in new electronic media—reading journals, attending conferences, talking with peers, etc.—about six years ago. Until recently, few of our customers saw the value of a presence on the Internet. That has changed rapidly, of course, and within the last six months we have developed the sites that you can visit from our client list (below), have several others that will go online this fall, and have created several “behind the firewall” Intranet applications.
      Earlier this year our own website was chosen by America Online to be listed on their list of Sizzlin Hot Biz Sites. In March 1996 Jim Battey’s Infoworld Hot Sites column linked to three of our Web pages. One or more of our Web pages is linked into just about every major design and typography-related website, including Microsoft’s Typography page.
      We hope that you will want to contact us to see what we can do for you. Call, e-mail, write or visit. We’ll keep the virtual kettle on.