I don't know why I carried on with A level maths because at 15 or so, I intended to be a designer. Lucky really because I wouldn't find it an easy path to be a designer, typesetter or illustrator without maths. And in the late 80s we were trained before Macs appeared.
So if were to typeset a novel I'd need the word count, the page extent, page size, margins, text width, leading and font - all to be resolved numerically. If it were text/image integration you'd have to work out the surface area for the pictures too. If you screwed that up, you'd be standing at the drawing board with a scalpel, forever tryout to sort it out.
Of course Macs make everything easier but you still need to work out everything first. You don't want to finish your complicated encyclopaedia then realise after 120 hours of work you've got 20 blank pages to fill. You have to do your maths.
Even for fine art I need to know my numbers. I transfer my illustrations from mac to canvas with a projector and a pencil and it's all about percentages. I've just finished doing Terry Hall by the way. 50cm x 70cm acrylic. Anybody wanna buy it? Jeff Beck next week. Pelé is in the pipeline.
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