🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep4.131308.8368@linus.mitre.org>, fkuhl@snare.mitre.org (F. S. Kuhl) writes:
> I want a basic intro to typography--can anybody recommend a book?
> I have enough fonts to be dangerous & would like to do them well.
> I don't expect to duplicate an education in graphic design, I'd 
> just like to learn the principles.  (There _are_ principles, yes?)

Well, as a beginner's book, _Looking Good In Print_ isn't bad. I
can't say that I agree with the author's tastes all the time, but
he at least gives some good examples. Also there are some nice
_Publish_-style makeovers.

What else is good for the beginner? Here are a couple of older
items from my annotated bibliography. Pardon my LaTeX. This is
the whole of what I've bothered to key in from the general
typography section.

-dh

Don Hosek                  
dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu  
Quixote Digital Typography 
714-621-1291



\item Martin, Douglas. {\em Book Design: A Practical
Introduction.\/} Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York: 1989. 206pp.
Along with Jan White's book (see below), this provides a fairly
complete guide to book design. Martin's book is somewhat more
conservative in outlook and also reflects his UK background.

\item Rubinstein, Richard. {\em Digital Typography: An
Introduction to Type and Composition for Computer System
Design.\/} Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts: 1988. 340pp.
An interesting, technological approach to typography which is
worth reading although not necessarily always worth believing. A
not insubstantial portion of the text is dedicated to
representing type on a CRT display and Rubinstein devotes some
time to expressing characteristics of typography numerically.

\item White, Jan V. {\em Graphic Design for the Electronic
Age.\/} Watson-Guptill Publications, New York: 1988. 212pp. A
good handbook for document design. In a well-organized approach,
White covers the principles for laying out most of the
typographics features of a technical document. White is a bit
overeager to embrace sans-serif types and in places his layout
ideas seem a bit garish, but it's still a quite worthwhile book.

\item {\em Xerox Publishing Standards: A Manual of Style and
Design.\/} Watson-Guptill Publications, New York: 1988. 400pp.
Overall, a disappointing book. It is divided into four sections
of widely varying intent: ``Publishing Process,'' ``Document
Organization,'' ``Writing and Style'' and ``Visual Design.''
None of them is really adequate for the task and all are highly
centered on the Xerox method for publishing. As a guide to
Xerox' process, it succeeds, but as a manual for general use, it
falls far short. In print.