Typography as a KM Tool

The art, science and craft of typography are thousands of years old. Today, more than 550 years after Gutenberg, anybody with a PC can self-publish and anyone with a Web connection can be read by millions. But somewhere in the democratization of the displayed word, many of the traditional lessons of message and meaning have been forgotten. Documents have become digital and/or disposable things, and their authors neglect the ways that typography, layout and editing mediate what we learn from and what we do with the information and ideas that we read on a page or screen.

Based on the "Design for Learning" research and reflection that I started last spring, I just submitted an essay about the role of typographic design in knowledge work and content management for an upcoming issue of eContent magazine. Stay tuned for a link.