TYPOGRAPHY OR TOUCHOGRAPHY?
author: Rastko Ćirić
October 2006
For some time now, it has been quite common for the boxes with medicaments to have their titles besides in printed text, also written in the Braille alphabet through using a series of combined dots and designated for blind persons. These letters, designed and promoted by Louis Braille (1809–1852), were put on a paper using a special relief technique so that dots forming the letters are convex. In this alphabet the visual aspect is of no importance, but only the tactile one is. Is that typography?
TYPOGRAPHIA, according to the Small Lexicon of Printing and Graphics by Heijo Klein, is “artistic design of a printing work using type, images, surfaces, ink and paper.”
The question “if the Braille alphabet belongs to the typography”, further leads to the following questions:
1. Can the Braille alphabet be designed in an artistic way?
2. Is the text written in the Braille alphabet a printed item?
3. Is the art of typography related exclusively to visual or to tactile aspect as well?
1. Can the Braille alphabet be (re)designed in an artistic way?
The shape of a dot, being the basic building unit of the Braille alphabet, is a constant shape. In typography, the dot as a punctuation mark can be, say, a square one (as in Helvetica typeface) but in the Braille alphabet it is always in a shape of a circle, so it is NEVER an object of design. The relations between dots belong to a strictly defined geometrical scheme and are precisely defined. Every deformation, change of the dot's shape or their pattern may result with illegibility of the text. Therefore, the Braille alphabet itself is not the subject of the LETTER DESIGN and its letters always have THE SAME shape.
However, in the context of book design which includes both the design of a printed page and the printed publication itself as an object, the Braille alphabet may exist as an element equal to the other typographic elements: type, planes, lines, rasters, images (photographs, illustrations, graphic symbols…), ornaments, and of course, other relief prints.
The position of the Braille letters on a printed page, related to the other printed letters and other elements, is relative – they may be given a special place (on the mentioned medicaments packages, the relief letters are placed in the area without print), but a designer (typographer) may position them OVER the printed letters. Such a unique characteristic, originating exclusively in the tactile nature of these letters, is giving the Braille alphabet a special position among the other typographic elements.
2. Is the text written in the Braille alphabet a printed item?
There are special typewriter machines designated for the blind persons writing in the Braille alphabet. As the Braille letter consists out of particular combinations of six dots, the machine has six elongated keys (and the seventh one meant for spacing) which enable writing (in this case perforating) of all the combinations of dots by pressing the chosen keys at the same time. Such result of Braille letters written in a single copy is not a printed item. Printing involves multiplying, so special printing matrixes should be made for such purpose.
Printing uses several procedures for relief print (mechanical procedures for multiplying to be applied on a printed object).
The (industrial) RELIEF PRINTING (the term not to be mixed with the “relief graphic techniques” in manual printing) means printing the convex or concave reliefs on paper, cardboard, canvas, plastic, leather etc. The printing matrix or the separate letters are usually engraved in brass or steel, and during the printing are PUSHED INTO the printed material. Bookbinders use HOT relief printing to finalize their book covers. Such print may be blind (relief with no use of color) or colored by using a special folium (golden, silver or in color) which is put between the press and the print. Compared to other printing techniques, the relief printing demands the hardest pressure, which is why it uses special massive printing presses. In the WHITE RELIEF PRINTING, an image or text is relief-printed on a colored background, while the color printing and relief pressure can be done simultaneously or separately. The most complex is the MATRIX PRINTING using two matrixes, the positive and negative one, one of them being a bit wider, so the paper or cardboard is put in between them. Using this procedure, one can print much more emphasized reliefs than in the simple relief printing.
3. Is the art of typography related exclusively to visual or to tactile aspect as well?
Regardless of the Braille alphabet, the tactile aspect when designing a book is surely important and is related to the choice of paper (thick or thin, smooth or rough, glossy or matt, partially polished with UV-lacquer process) as well as to the choice of material for the book cover (paper, textile, leather, but also metal, plush, fur, even concrete).
The tactile component of experiencing a book is mostly neglected, as well as the aspect of its smell – the scent of a fresh printing ink, a leather bind and the bookbinder‘s glue in a new book, and also the specific scent of yellowish pages of the old books. The objects perceived by the primary senses – sight and hearing, which affect “from distance” – are mostly rationally perceived (probably because our instincts force us to recognize the danger around us) while the secondary senses – smell, taste and touch – usually provoke deeper, subconscious reactions. The book is a visual–tactile object held by hands and its pages are turned manually, so it is constantly touched during its usage. A pleasure or enjoyment during the usage of a book does not depend on visual elements only, but also on the book's weight, the ease of turning the pages, the looseness of pages while opened (which is a sign of quality in binding), softness, sound of polished papers or the reflection from glossy papers that makes the reading harder. These arguments are probably the reason why the classical shape of a book will never be overpowered by the computer versions of a book that are read on the monitor, as these, at first glance unimportant components, are missing and together with the visual aspect define the book as a beloved object.
To conclude – the relief texts written in the Braille alphabet and multiplied by printing, although rare in practice, doubtlessly belong to typography and should be the subject of its studies. As shown in this article, the relief letter elements designated for the specific target group – the blind people – are the elements that are equally involved in designing a printed item.