Typography

Typography 29
$60.00
I have nearly EVERY Annual ever published by TDC! This annual is the STANDARD for showing the GREATEST use of typography each year.

The Elements of Typographic Style
$29.95
This book is more than just the `Elements', it's a complete overview of typography including definitions, a brief but detailed history, and of course a discussion of style. HIGHLY recommended.

The Complete Manual of Typography
$55.00
The greatest compliment I can give this book is to say that I read it from cover to cover. It's true- each of its 290 pages contained useful information and- perhaps more importantly- it is written in a very approachable style. Discussions often include interesting historical explanations, leaving the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the 'why' as well as the 'how' or 'what'. The tone of the book is engaging and straightforward with moments of surprising wit. Helpful examples comparing blocks of text are used generously throughout the chapters.

A brief summary of the book:

-Part one, Typographic Basics: History of type; units of measurement; about fonts & typefaces; using typefaces; typesetting versus typewriting; setting type on a personal computer; the differences between good and bad type

-Part two, How to Set Type: Measure, point size, leading; hyphenation and justification; kerning and tracking; indentation and alignment; special characters; document structures; tables; language-specific issues; style sheets; output resolution issues

-Part three, References: includes a very thorough glossary and index


As a whole, the book is intended primarily for people wishing to learn about typeography, and more specifically, the typography of printed text (books, newspapers, and magazines, as opposed to broadcast or advertising). This book is not meant to be a guide to print in advertising, although reading it will help you set better type in your ads if that is your job. Nor is this book a compendium of typefaces; the examples show typefaces primarily used by book publishers, such as Sabon, Garamond, or Caslon. This book is not a guide on which typeface to use for every situation; the author writes most of the book with the assumption that the typesetter will have the font and style dictated by the publisher. From the introduction: "This is not a style guide, but an execution guide."

What this book intends to teach is proper typesetting: The spacing of letters within words; the spacing of words and punctuation within sentences; the spacing and arrangement among lines of text and paragraphs; functional and attractive justification; and page color.

This book would be helpful to anyone involved in printing text, whether large scale or small.

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
$21.95
After reading all the glittering reviews (and realizing that I could probably do with a little more typeface history and design knowledge), I purchased this book from Amazon. To be honest, I found the inside of the book to be laid out in a very ADD manner, with varying multi-colored, different-sized, intersecting sections of what-not COMPETING FOR ATTENTION. The information itself was good, but to be honest it was so badly laid out that it hindered me from reading any further, and had to force myself to read to the 20th page. As a Master's level Graphic Design student, I am APPALLED at the design or lack thereof of the pages of this book (with the exception of the cover), and even more shocked that this is considered one of the best typeface textbooks there is (and even more so that it was written by a PROFESSOR who is currently teaching in this field). There has to be a MUCH better and reader-friendly textbook on type out there.