Do you know that scene in The Matrix, where the bald kid bends a metal spoon with nothing more than his quiet gaze? Neo (the superhero protagonist) is stymied when he attempts it, until the child shares his zen observation: “There is no spoon.”
Sometimes we are hobbled by our notion of what is real. I’m thinking of something as simple as a spoon: measuring a straight line. This task can stymie an experienced designer, because their experience tells them a straight line is a tangible and steady thing. But we live in a dynamic mediaverse.
Growing up back when a digital watch still seemed like a pretty neat idea, I learned design working with a pencil and paper. When accuracy mattered, I used a ruler to count the inches from point-A to point-B. Most of us take it for granted how powerful this is. Wielding inches, a standardized measurement, I can explain to others exactly what I need: “Move it 1 inch to the right.” That kinda power can go to your head. Yet you’ll think nothing of it.
Until one day, you find yourself powerless to do what a child can do. On the day you can no longer measure, you learn what it is to be deaf in a speaking world.
Though most designers long ago learned to ply their craft wielding computers, many of them still design things that will be printed on paper, measured in inches. This is the language they speak. Which is fine, until they are called upon to speak another dialect. Work with them designing graphics for the web or video, and you’ll discover the communications gap. You find out they still think the spoon is real.
Because when you design for electronic media, there are no inches. Not really. On the web where you’re reading this, everything is relative. And resizeable. What is the Matrix? Millions of different computers running different software configured by different users displaying on different screens at different resolutions, each showing more or less dots-per-inch than another.
So, what is real? And how do we communicate about measurements in this medium? Designing for web and video, it’s usually preferable to measure in pixels, or speak of percentages. And any serious graphics software will let your measure and edit in this language.
Because there are no inches*, only pixels.
(* With apologies to all readers using the metric system.)
