Thread by @gravislizard

the phenomenon of inexpert computer users at businesses plastering the walls with 8.5x11 sheets of stark white paper blemished only by Arial Bold 72pt reading
PLEASE WAIT
HERE FOR
REGISTRATION
is interesting to contemplate because of the history of desktop publishing

we went from 1980: if you didn't go to art school you aren't printing anything except a mimeograph
to 1985: if you want to print something you just need a Laserwriter
to 2000: every computer can create a complete newsletter - just add staples - with a $30 accessory

because businesses created a tremendous demand for printing letters, printers were designed to make letters, so the entire desktop publishing industry ended up standardizing on support for the devices that every single business had for printing letters,

and while the software and hardware for printing letters vs. magazines in 1995 were very different, by 2000 they had almost completely merged, leaving little reason for any computer to not be able to do the second thing

consequently: every receptionist in every hospital waiting room in the entire country, by 2000, suddenly found themselves in front of an entire printing press and absolutely no training on how to use it or what it could do

and this, i think, is the crux of my point: the windows defaults set them up for failure in that scenario. wordpad *could* have included some like, default borders or something. *anything.* instead it's basically identical to 1987 mac DTP software

unlike a printing press, wordpad / write - even in 1995, but particularly in 2001 - could have offered a little handful of templates, or at least offer to print in landscape by default. anything to guide the absolutely uninitiated towards reasonable settings

it doesn't really help any that actual Word is extremely user hostile. it's not good! like, for an expert it's fairly dope in some ways but the whole "drags thing one pixel, entire 3pg document is blasted across 30 pages and entirely right-justified" is terrifying