I'm with you on the Type Rob, but a good friend of mine designs type for Font Bureau, and I've seen the files that the postscript type (and now Open Type) comes from, and the level of care that goes into every joint, serif and counter - It's amazing, breath-taking even. Today's type designers do the same work Griffo and Garamond did centuries ago but with infinitely more control - even if the only thing their fingers do is push buttons. My friend often complains about the tedium of the job though - if there was punch cutting involved he'd get more physical satisfaction out of it, but he'd still be working on the one font.
I've made plates of some his type and used it in an artist's book I printed this last spring. Here's a digital shot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emletterpress/3663783747/
I'm always in love with the process of hand setting type - I only do it when teaching anymore, and my students really take to it. But for trading on my work, digital type and plates is a must, and it's not a compromise in quality either, just another way to work, and in some subtle ways, the difference is evident, but it doesn't have to be a problem. Same with film and digital.
I'm going on vacation, and I'm leaving the digital camera behind. Not because of anything, except that when I want to enjoy making photographs, my film cameras are treat for me to use. I'm lucky to have them, especially my Rolleiflex 2.8C Planar.
Cheers, Elias
I have every respect for commercial photographers - it is not an easy life. It has nothing to do with respect. It has to do with the acceptable syntax of the day. If the quality is close and it is cheaper and faster to do, why wouldn't the commercial world pick up on it? When I was producing graphic art, I didn't think every piece had to be ready for an award from Communication Arts magazine, it just had to satisfy the audience and client. Meeting deadlines can dampen the spirit in creating high art. We armchair generals of the amateur world, especially us retired ones, have the time to tut- tut, seek the "true meaning and grace" of things while looking for a perfect world outside of the commercial one. I have a 1883 Chandler & Price letterpress in my garage and maintain that solid metal type is better than photo-type or Postscript. But the only jobs that can be done in the current commercial setting on this old press are wedding invitations (Martha Steward introduced brides to letterpress). Letterpress can produce high art limited edition books bound in leather that sell for thousands, but its not the syntax of today's commercial world of high speed, direct to plate offset printing.
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