Wally I'm not sure if she reads this list, but please forward you comments to Barb at the Home Office. Barbara at ptg.org, That's where any changes in the print will have to come from. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Wally Scherer <afinetune at yahoo.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Thu, Aug 12, 2010 4:29 pm Subject: [pianotech] shades of gray My wife and I got home from a meeting tonight at 9:20 PM. She wanted to watch er favorite TV program, so I, seeing my Piano Technicians Journal sitting nopened on the coffee table, decided to take a few minutes to catch up on the atest PT news and information. I eagerly ripped open the wrapper and opened it o the first, then the second page. On seeing Ed Sutton's "Editorial erspective" I became immediately discouraged. I turned up the lamp one step righter, but it was no use. I first started to notice a few years ago that I was not reading the Journal as uch as I did in the late 1990's after I had first joined the PTG. I reasoned hat perhaps I had learned so much in the first few years that the reading was ot as interesting any more. But whenever I did take the time to sit down and ead through an issue, I found it extremely interesting and useful. Or maybe it was that I was so busy with work and life in general that I just idn't have the time to read the Journal. But I had time to watch TV shows, so hat was not the reason. Then one day I picked up a journal from another field of endeavor and found out hat it was easier to read than the PT Journal. Why? As I examined the latest ournal I began to notice that since mid 2000, the type had changed. Before, the rint was a dark black ink against a white paper. Now, the Journal was using arying shades of gray, making the print harder to read. I went to the public ibrary and picked up journals from several professions. In each case the print as a dark black against a white paper. None of them used shades of gray! WHY DO THEY FORCE ME TO STRUGGLE TO READ THEIR INTERESTING ARTICLES? This is now the tenth year since the Journal articles and other useful nformation has been printed with shades of gray ink, rather than black ink. ust look at Ed Sutton's article on page 2 of the August 2010 issue and compare t to the Randy Potter advertisement on page 3. Which is easier to read? Flip through the Journal and look at just about ANY advertisement - page 7, page , page 35, and page 38. Now compare the readability of the ads with the text of rticles. Why is it that the ads are easier to read. Is it only the advertisers ho want their printed material to be read with ease? Why can't the articles be asy to read also? I discussed this briefly with a former Journal editor and a PTG President last ear at a convention. Their answers were a bit vague and unsatisfying. It can't be that I am the only person out of over 3000 members who would benefit rom a return to black print! Why can't someone do a survey among those who till have copies of the Journal dating from before July 2000 and ask them if he Journal articles of today are easier, the same, or harder to read? Perhaps my near age 65 vision is part of the problem. Yes, I realize that I now ave to use my glasses ALL the time to read. But that's no excuse for making it ard on me and many other PTG members in my age group. Actually, I still have elatively good vision. I'm all for innovation and use of modern graphic design ideas, but not at the xpense of readability! Wally Scherer ------------------ FINE TUNE - Piano Tuning & Repairs allace T. Scherer, piano technician, music educator 020 Canal Drive, Lake Worth, Florida, 33463-8014 elephone: 561-432-4121 eb page: http://aftune.angelfire.com acebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-FINE-TUNE-PIANO-TUNING-REPAIRS/129845010366185 ----------------------------------------------- REE TICKETS: http://aftune.angelfire.com/freetics.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100812/73b3b778/attachment.htm>
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