admit it. I'm a sucker for typography. Page makeup,
desktop publishing, logo design, even making
templates in MS Word...if you can do it with type,
I want to do it.
Here I'd like to share my favorite resources.
This is the reference on typography that I have always wanted: If you work with type and you only want one reference book, this should be it.
Cavanaugh writes about type both as a designer and as a technician: he starts with the basics - TrueType vs. PostScript, Mac fonts vs. PC fonts, scaling and hinting and the difference between quadratic B-splines and Bezier curves. From there, it's on to character sets and ligatures, with an emphasis on the things that will trip you up - like characters that are not shared between the Mac and PC character sets. And then design issues: some of the most useful tips, tricks, and guidelines I've seen (for example, try substituting an italic ampersand for a roman one, and drop the font size a point or two). He gives us the history of type and type classification, and fills several chapters with lovely examples of well-chosen type. The CD-ROM includes 200 fonts, Adobe Type Manager, and lots of cool goodies. [pkm]
Larry N. Hammer writes: As a work-related reference, I picked up [this] off the remainder rack at the local indie ... and found that it's a wonderful reference on just about every aspect of book design: the mechanicals of typography, choosing typefaces, page layout, etc. Maybe the glowing blurb from Hermann Zapf ("I wish to see this book become the Typographers' Bible") should have tipped me off.
It also told me, finally, the name for the paragraph (backwards P thingy) symbol ... it's a pilcrow.
The Art of Calligraphy is one of those wonderful Dorling Kindersley books, chock full (as always) of photos and original art. This one covers calligraphic styles in historical order, with photos of manuscripts illustrating the styles (with callouts pointing out unusal or interesting forms). There are also very clear close-ups showing how the styles were drawn. Type nuts (who, moi?) will be fascinated by how the hand-drawn styles directly influenced early typefounders.
For instance, the uncial page shows how the "blob and indent" serif on the uncial T is created by twisting the pen ... now what's fascinating is that this hand-drawn serif was reproduced on early typefaces; this exact same blob-and-index serif appears in Palatino and many other "oldstyle" types.
And the hand-drawn Imperial Capitals bear a striking resemblance to Matthew Carter's Galliard typeface.
This is also the only book I've ever seen that tells you *how* to drawn an Elizabethan Secretary hand. [pkm]
Written just before the digital publishing explosion, Albert Lawson's history of typography uses the conceit of organization by type family to illustrate the fads and fashions in typesetting, and to firmly anchor them to both the constraints of the presses of the day and the overall aesthetic of the time.
If nothing else, this book will explain why Times Roman is such a monstrosity: designed with great artifice to avoid the ink-trapping inherent in high-speed printing and condensed to reduce hyphenation in narrow columns, it is extremely unsuitable for single column desktop publishing or on-screen reading. [And if you are reading this page in your browser's default Time New Roman, go ye and change it now.]
One of the things I like best about Anatomy of a Typeface is that it tells me why a certain font combination looks like 1830, or 1930, or 1920. So that, instead of just a gut reaction on seeing it, I can generate something that will cause the same response. [pkm]
The subtitle for this magazine is How to Design Cool Stuff, and they nailed it. Simply put, Before & After is essential. A skinny bimonthly, sixteen pages, no advertising, and every full-color page packed with design and typography tips that really work. 916·784·3880. Call them now, or check out their new website. [pkm]