The Education of a Typographer

Book Description

Exploring the methods for teaching and learning typography, this book features more than 40 essays from top experts and educators in typography today. These essays run the gamut from introducing the themes of type and typography to various complex and rare strategies for learning.

Customer Reviews:

not a showcase or cafe book.......2007-08-30

good theory for teachers, useful articles from other lecturers and useful type theory that works. No colorful and amazing samples on pages. It's totally theory! worth it.

did I really buy this book?.......2006-04-28

Reading this book is difficult, I don't know if I'll be able to get through it.

12 point type gets a 12 point paragraph indent, 14 point type gets a 14 point paragraph indent, this book has paragraph indents of .5 inch, which suggests the type should be 36 points

It's as if the book is trying to hypnotize a person into being a good typesetter, my eyes zigzagged back and forth, and this voice started saying, "you will be a good typesetter, you will be a good typesetter." Something about the excessive white space at the beginning of the paragraphs was putting me to sleep. So any good information about typesetting will be hard to extract.

The basics of teaching and learning typography.......2005-03-09

It's important to learn the elements of type before embarking on an exploration of graphic design: that's what makes Steven Heller's The Education Of A Typographer so important. Essays, interviews, and course syllabi explore the basics of teaching and learning typography, with writing by top designers and educators providing insights on the finer points of typography. Discussions cover everything from how to choose type among the hundreds of choices available to common elements of sloppy typographical choices, how to identify and eliminate them, and understanding typographic delivery to different audiences.

Good, for the right reader.......2005-02-21

The right reader teaches typography and wants, at minimum, to know that [s]he is not alone out there. This book offers a number of essays, Q&A with praticing educators, and a few syllabi. This book consists of 40 or so brief pieces. That's way too many for any one voice ot dominate, but certainly covers a wide range of views and practices. There are a few minor gems here, including discussions of the unique needs of Hebrew and Arabic, and about the 'voice' of a printed text. There's no organized bibliography here, but the careful reader will be rewarded with a good long list of titles, some of which are sure to be unfamiliar.

Though by no means unanimous, there was wide agreement that hand-work exercises, using physical media, are helpful or necessary for understanding what computerized systems are doing. I have to agree. If nothing else, computer users have a tendency to treat the quirks and oddities of their chosen software as laws of nature. This inflexibility stands in sharp contrast to most students' use of ink, paper, and all the rest, where their goal is to push the medium to its limit or beyond. Because they have no way to adapt the software tools to their concepts, they constrain their concepts to the tools, sometimes unknowingly. Users of physical media may at least have the vision to see beyond those limits.

The practicing typographer won't find much to relate to here, except a formal statement of what was probably done to her in the classroom. This book is about training educators, not about training the practitioners themselves, so there is very little discussion of the concrete design issues.

This book has a rather narrow intended audience: type educators. Others (like me) can still read it, and still get some measure of insight into typography and typographers.

//wiredweird

The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design (Classic Typography Series)

Average customer rating:

The essential guide to classical book design
A must read for any designer.
Interesting - but horribly old fashioned!
A masterly exposition of typographic excellence
Changed the way I look at books.

The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design (Classic Typography Series)
Jan Tschichold , and Hajo Hadeler
Manufacturer: Hartley & Marks Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

The New Typography (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism)
Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering: A Source Book of the Best Letter Forms of Past and Present for Sign Painters, Graphic Artists, Commercial Artis
Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography
The Elements of Typographic Style
On Book Design

ASIN: 0881791164

Customer Reviews:

The essential guide to classical book design.......2003-07-02

there is little to say other than the fact that this book is essential reading for all current and aspiring book designers. Tschichold's views seem limiting at first, but his knowledge is based on years of careful research into the basis of our written culture. many will choose to deviate from his instruction in small or great ways, but to practice the craft of book typography (or typography in general) without this information would be unwise.

A must read for any designer........2000-04-04

This collection of 23 essays on book design and typography should be read at least once by all typographers and students of design. Written over a period spanning 42 years, these essays cover many aspects of typography from paper color to tight typesetting to page proportions. A few of the ideas presented in the essays may indeed be outdated now (due mainly to the economic freedoms in modern digital design), but they are few and are still important from an historical persective. Folloowing the rules of design presented here will help ensure a well designed book that does not detract from the contents in any way and best serves to allow that content to speak for itself. Even if you want to always break the rules of design, isn't it better to understand why and how those rules came to be? Of interesting note is that Jan himself was in his youth a radical rulebreaker in his designs, but he learned when it was best to work inside and outside the rules to present the best effect, his design legacy shows how effective he was, and how influencial he remains to this day.

Interesting - but horribly old fashioned!.......1999-08-15

The views are a little old fashioned for me. Mr Tschichold is very much of the old school. He expounds many "rules" of book design, but most of these are his personal taste, and are presented in a high-handed, dictatorial, and condescending tone. There is no room whatsoever for creativity in book design in his view, instead all books must follow his design.

Useful for reminding us of some of the core principles of typography and book design, but if all publishers agreed with the author's views, the book world would be a very boring place. I would like to see a debate between Jan Tschichold and David Carson!!

A masterly exposition of typographic excellence.......1999-08-14

For those who work in design, or those who just love books, Tschichold's work is a must-have. It'll cause you to re-evaluate your own work - and it will also let you look at the books your reads with a new appreciation. The book itself is well-designed, too... as one might expect!

Changed the way I look at books........1999-05-06

I'll never look at a book or booklet again without judging it against the conventions set forth by Mr. Tschichold. Book size, type style, readability, binding, paper, text block placement, aesthetics and a dozen other minor details will not escape the scrutiny of my newfound expertise.

Average customer rating:

Gran libro, un clásico. De un personaje ambiguo.
An Essay on Typography
History by the man who made it
brilliant
Typography and Other Apparently Related Issues

An Essay on Typography
Eric Gill
Manufacturer: David R Godine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

The Elements of Typographic Style
Anatomy of a Typeface
The Stroke: Theory of Writing
Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design
The Education of a Typographer

ASIN: 0879239506

Product Description

An Essay on Typography was first published in 1931, instantly recognized as a classic, and has long been unavailable. It represents Gill at his best opinionated, fustian, and consistently humane. It is his only major work on typography and remains indispensable for anyone interested in the art of letter forms and the presentation of graphic information.

This manifesto, however, is not only about letters their form, fit, and function but also about man's role in an industrial society. As Gill wrote later, it was his chief object "to describe two worlds that of industrialism and that of the human workman & to define their limits."

His thinking about type is still provocative. Here are the seeds of modern advertising unjustified lines, tight word and letter spacing, ample leading. Here, too, is vintage Gill, as polemical as he is practical, as much concerned about the soul of man as the work of man; as much obsessed by the ends as by the means.

Customer Reviews:

Gran libro, un clásico. De un personaje ambiguo........2007-07-20

Aunque Eric Gill es un personaje de grandes claroscuros, su trabajo como artista es impresionante. Este libro no solo toca el tema tipográfico, sino sus ideas del arte y la relación con la industria de su época.

Es un poco difícil separar los grandes ideales que escribe y la realidad de su vida, en algunos momentos suena falso y vacío.

Aun así es un gran libro, un clásico de la tipografía. Escrito por alguien que no logró integrar en su vida lo que decía y lo que hacia.

An Essay on Typography.......2007-02-08

This book has the details and history anyone drawn to printing and writing will savor.

History by the man who made it.......2004-03-28

This essay on typography is actually an essay on far more. It goes well with William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, in its nostalgia for the 'humane' individual craftsman over the commerce and industry. Gill comes back, again and again, to question the proper places of mass production and handwork with respect to each other. He was an idealistic, but still realized that industry was here to stay - it could not (and still can not) simply be wished away. The real goal is "an industrialism ... [with] many noble and admirable features."

Gill uses typography and printing as the vehicle for his social thoughts, and offers a good bit of advice on typography throughout. He discusses letter forms as ethetic, practical, and historical objects - especially interesting from a man who made so much typographic history himself.

I never did quite work my way through all of his social arguments, however. He seems to hold "engineers" as the opponents of art and perhaps creativity. I known that many engineers then and now lack training in esthetics and visual presentation. Anyone who's seen the Brooklyn Bridge or Eiffel Tower knows, however, that engineering is also a creative act. Gill ridiculed the practice of one worker designing a font, a second preparing it for transfer to metal, another cutting the master tools for each letter, and so on. I have to agree, the assembly line mentality is not suited to all tasks, especially when each product is as unique as a letter form. Still, among all arts, printing is perhaps the one most typified by team effort and division of labor. It would be a very rare individual who could create a text worth reading, create the font in which it is presented, set the type and run the press, and carry out all the other tasks needed to create a bound book. The question is not whether parts of a job should be handed to different specialists, but which jobs should be subdivided - a question I never saw answered.

This is a wonderful work by a man whose livelihood, art, and spiritual life all worked closely together. I recommend it to anyone who works in the arts, not just those with an interest in type.

brilliant.......2001-08-14

I noticed few reviews for this book, so it had to be said. At once a historical view of typography as well as universal ideals still applicable to modern design. Eric Gill was a genius, and his timeless typefaces were the only window I knew him through before I read this book. This is the sort of book that you finish and then go look for more books like it; my favorite kind.

Typography and Other Apparently Related Issues.......1997-01-18

This multi-faceted book is a gem. It was written in a period when Industrialism was increasingly establishing itself over Craftsmanship. Gill starts by analyzing the clash between these two worlds, then goes on to situate typography in this melee. Most of the book concerns Gill's views on correct typography, some of which seem quirky. Gill is unique: his forward style and searing insight are inspiring and refreshing, even after six decades. The last section of the book is Gill's proposal to convert written English into phonetic writing, avoiding spelling/pronunciation inconsistencies and increasing efficiency. It makes great sense - typical Gill

Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography

Average customer rating:

Interesting book for those into typography
don't judge a book by its cover, design, or content
Heller Is Prolific

Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography

Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Desktop Publishing | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Education of a Typographer
Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Looking Closer)
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
The Elements of Typographic Style
Looking Closer 3, Vol. 3: Classic Writings on Graphic Design (Looking Closer)

ASIN: 1581150822

Book Description

When Transforming Words Into Print Becomes a Passion

Color'em, distort'em, move'em: changing fonts on a computer screen is almost as easy and fun as playing with a set of rubber stamps. And yet, creating and choosing type is an art that not only requires artistic skills, but a deep understanding of the many ways type is rooted in the communication patterns of our times. In "Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography," acclaimed design authors Steven Heller and Philip B. Meggs open a window into the secret universe of present and past typography.

"Texts on Type" is an unprecedented opportunity to discover some of the most brilliant and sparkling minds of 20th century type design and typography. In fifty thought-provoking essays, readers encounter the evangelists and critics of a craft whose aesthetic frontiers have always been negotiated with unsurpassed fervor, from W.A. Dwiggins, Herman Zapf, and Paul Rand to the front-runners of contemporary typography. Practitioners of type and typophiles will perceive this craft with new eyes as they learn about the groundbreaking technological, aesthetic, and cultural changes that have propelled typography from a rarified, secluded craft into a dynamic activity practiced by millions.

The fifty essays cover topics such as

* Principals of designing and choosing the right typeface
* The Modernism versus Tradition debate
* The relationship between type form and expression
* The anatomy of typefaces across the 20th century
* Aesthetical reflections from classics to electronic and dynamic typography

Customer Reviews:

Interesting book for those into typography.......2007-06-13

On first examination, this book looks very dry. There aren't any pictures or examples to go with the articles, and overall the book just isn't "designed" to any extent. That being said, the articles themselves are very entertaining and interesting for those in the typographic field.

don't judge a book by its cover, design, or content.......2005-03-26

This hilarious mess manages to belie almost every principle of design espoused within its pages, with its frankly ugly, workmanlike design, errors in proofreading, and strange choices in content. The layout is slapdash and the printing quality is dodgy-anyone wanting typography to match the content of the book should be looking at Robert Bringhurst's essential Elements of Typographic Style, or any other Hartley&Marks book on typography, instead. If typography is the art of overweening attention to minute details, this book is certainly a betrayal of that art.

Keeping that in mind, several of the essays contained within are classic (anything Beatrice Warde or Stanley Morison has to say about type is essential reading), and Heller has done his usual job of hitting the high points, without going into any great depth. His own contribution to the volume is typical of the limited attention span he brings to a lot of his editing projects: a thinly-researched polemic on blackletter type and fascism that manages to omit some key details that would totally change the thrust of his argument were they to be acknowledged. I have, and like, other Heller books, and he's a charismatic public speaker, but this is not his finest effort.

Heller Is Prolific.......2001-08-14

Steven Heller puts the "Good Graphics Seal of Approval" on any graphic design book, in my opinion. The essays in "Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography" is no exception. Together with Philip B. Meggs, Heller pulls together over fifty essays on the history, aesthetics and practice of type design and typography. You'll find essays in this anthology penned by the likes of Goudy, Zapf, Rand, Ogilvy, and other huge names in the arena of graphic design. This is just another Heller book to have to back up the rest of your everyday knowledge. After all, if you know more than the next guy, you'll get the job. My only complaint is that - for such an excellent book on typography - the typeface in the body copy is smaller than the norm. If you're over 40, pull out the reading glasses.

The Solid Form Of Language: An Essay On Writing And Meaning

Average customer rating:

A new way of thinking typeforms
Poetry and Typography

The Solid Form Of Language: An Essay On Writing And Meaning
Robert Bringhurst
Manufacturer: Gaspereau Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Alphabet | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Stroke: Theory of Writing
Letterletter
The Tree of Meaning: Thirteen Lectures
While You're Reading
The Elements of Typographic Style

ASIN: 1894031881

Book Description

"Drop a word in the ocean of meaning and concentric ripples form. To define a single word means to try to catch those ripples. No one’s hands are fast enough." With this concise and broadly informative essay, renowned poet, typographer and linguist Robert Bringhurst presents a brief history of writing and a new way of classifying and understanding the relationship between script and meaning.

Beginning with the original relationship between a language and its written script, Bringhurst takes us on a history of reading and writing that begins with the interpretation of animal tracks and fast-forwards up to the typographical abundance of more recent times. The first four sections of the essay describe the earliest creation of scripts, their movement across the globe and the typographic developments within and across languages.

In the fifth and final section of the essay, Bringhurst introduces his system of classifying scripts. Placing four established categories of written language – semographic, syllabic, alphabetic and prosodic – on a wheel adjacent to one another, he uses the location, size and shape of points on the wheel to show the degree to which individual world languages incorporate these aspects of recorded meaning. Bringhurst’s system is based on an appreciation that indeed no one’s hands are fast enough and that no single script adheres to or can be understood within the confines of a single method of transcription.

Readers will find this combination of anthropology, typography, literature, mathematics, music and linguistics surprisingly accessible and thought provoking. The text is accompanied by diagrams and typographic examples that make for an experiential study of the relationship between writing and meaning.

This book is a Smyth-sewn paperback with a letterpress printed jacket. The book was designed by Robert Bringhurst and Andrew Steeves, and printed on Zephyr Laid paper. The cover was hand-printed letterpress on St. Armand handmade paper.

Customer Reviews:

A new way of thinking typeforms.......2005-11-09

The Solid Form of Language, helps me to know about how connected is the way we write with the way we think. How connected are the social, religious and political issues with the graphic way of our language. Typography is not only the visible form of our words, but the way "someone" decided how we have to articulate the sound of our thoughts and desires.
It is an excellent research of the history of the graphic form of language of almost the entire world.
I think every type-educator, type researcher or type fan has to read it.

Poetry and Typography.......2005-09-03

Typographically beautiful, lovely letterpress wrapper, Robert Bringhurst fans will definitely want to acquire this underpriced gem. Also highly recommended for fans of poetry, language and languages/linguistics.

Art of the Printed Book, 1455-1955: Masterpieces of Typography Through Five Centuries from the Collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York ; With an Essay by Joseph Blumenthal

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Art of the Printed Book, 1455-1955: Masterpieces of Typography Through Five Centuries from the Collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York ; With an Essay by Joseph Blumenthal
Joseph Blumenthal
Manufacturer: David R. Godine Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History

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Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History
Robin Kinross
Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Printing | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
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Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on Typography
The Stroke: Theory of Writing
The Elements of Typographic Style
Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design
Designing Books: Practice and Theory

ASIN: 0907259057

Book Description

In Tracing the history of typography from 1700 to the present, Robin?Kinross proposes a new understanding of modern typography, one based on something larger than a simple modernism of style. Modern Typography focuses on the type of a number of countries and contexts, and provides numerous visual examples and a fully annotated bibliography.

Average customer rating:

Letterletter
Gerrit Noordzij
Manufacturer: Hartley and Marks Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Desktop Publishing | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
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The Stroke: Theory of Writing
Designing Type
The Solid Form Of Language: An Essay On Writing And Meaning
The Elements of Typographic Style
Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design

ASIN: 088179175X

Book Description

This iconoclastic collection of essays on typography, writing and life is the work of Gerrit Noordzij, a master calligrapher and teacher of lettering and type design at The Hague. Letterletter opens up whole new perspectives on not just the world of letterforms but on the world and the written word, in general. Occasionally cranky, always well-written and insightful, Letterletter is an invaluable design tool and, more importantly, a pure pleasure to read. As Noordzij notes, "Its lack of dignity, authority and tolerance could not prevent Letterletter from becoming a collectors item."

How to Start a Home-Based Desktop Publishing Business (Home-Based Business Series)

Average customer rating:

Great!
Very Thorough Is Lacking in Only One Area
Excellent so far!
Very effective resource
A Great Resource!

How to Start a Home-Based Desktop Publishing Business (Home-Based Business Series)
Louise Kursmark
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Desktop Publishing | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
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Start and Run a Desktop Publishing Business (Start & Run a)
Teach Yourself Desktop Publishing
Desktop Publisher's Idea Book, The: Second Edition
Desktop Publishing StyleGuide
Desktop Publishing & Design for Dummies

ASIN: 1564408582

Book Description

A step-by-step guide to starting one's own desktop publishing business with a minimum investment. Helps readers estimate start-up costs, manage cash flow, and stay profitable once in business.

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2006-11-10

Well written and packed full of information! Very helpful, I wish I would have bought this before leaving my full time job to start my own business. So many things that I wish I would have had set up before hand. I am implementing much of it now. I have bought several books regarding running a design business from home, I recommend this one over all the others!

Very Thorough Is Lacking in Only One Area.......2005-09-04

As the previous reviewers have written, this book covers day-to-day information you need to run a DTP (or graphic design) business.

Have you thought about creating a policies & guidelines sheet for your customers? If you don't, you'll be sorry after a client blames you because they didn't proofread their job before it went to the printer. If you had the P&G to review with them, you would be able to bring it up BEFORE it becomes a crisis.

This book is loaded with examples like this; not just the ancedotes, but the forms that help your business run smoothly. As I mentioned, this book was lacking in only one area--financial recordkeeping was a mere two pages in this book. That subject could be a 200 page book in and of itself. Kursmark is so clever at writing about this subject in a friendly and conversational manner, I found myself disappointed not to get her help on recordkeeping.

That said, this book is highly recommended based on what it does cover, and I'm off to find a book to explain how to track expenses and the like.

Excellent so far!.......2002-01-26

I have only had time to read about 15 pages of this book, but so far it is fantastic! When I read more pages I will rate again, but like I said, this book is great. From what I have read so far, I would highly recommend this book. The author is very straightforward and her writing style is wonderful - easy to understand and down to earth.

Very effective resource.......2001-03-26

As a pro DTP & graphic artist, I didn't think there would be much more to learn to eliminate my employer and sell the services I did already directly to customers. In fact, thinking I was an expert of graphic design & all of the software made me mistakenly believe I was ready to pass out biz cards and start selling my services and wondered how this book could possibly be 200 pages for something so simple. I was quite wrong, however, and I'm so glad I read this book and got aware of how much more successful I could be by following the author's plan. There is a lot of lessons learned the hard way the author shared which would save anyone a lot of money and a lot of trouble, not to mention lost business. There is a lot of planning that needs to happen before one passes out there first bizcard and I would not have had a clue were it not for this book.

A Great Resource!.......2000-12-22

The author of this book has done an excellent job in providing the 'would-be desktop publisher' with lots of great information on how to get started in this business. The book is very clear and concise, with a sense of humor. It provides information step-by-step so it's very easy to follow.

The crystal goblet: Sixteen essays on typography

Average customer rating:

The crystal goblet: Sixteen essays on typography
Beatrice Warde
Manufacturer: World Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Publishing & Books | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006AUQCQ

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