50 Books on Type and Typography

From the Publisher. The Typografische Monatsblätter is one of the most important journals to successfully disseminate the phenomenon of “Swiss typography” to an international audience. With more than 70 years in existence, the journal witnessed significant moments in the history of typography and graphic design. 30 Years of Swiss Typographic Discourse in the Typografische Monatsblätter examines the years 1960–90, that correspond to a period of transition in which many factors such as technology, socio-political contexts and aesthetic ideologies profoundly affected and transformed the fields of typography and graphic design. The book includes a large number of works from well-known and lesser-known designers such as Emil Ruder, Helmut Schmid, Wolfgang Weingart, Hans-Rudolf Lutz, Jost Hochuli and many others.

Details the work and artistic development of Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger, who significantly influenced international typeface creation after 1950. Based on conversations with the designer and including illustrated examples of typefaces.

From the Publisher. The advent of the computer has spawned a remarkable proliferation of both typography and type design. American Typeplay is an intensive survey of the masterful uses of type by more than 150 designers working in a variety of media.
Over 400 images demonstrate an eclectic array of approaches, from hand lettering to custom font design to retro and vernacular appropriation to classical homage. Striking examples of annual reports, brochures, posters, book jackets, CD packages, magazine covers, typefaces, invitations, catalogs, logos, stationery, media kits, fonts and more are reproduced in full color.
A wellspring of typographic ingenuity, American Typeplay demonstrates how today's most noted graphic designers successfully stretch, bend, distort and "play" with type to achieve imaginative results. From the subtle to the outrageous, from the fresh to the bold, American Typeplay celebrates type in the digital age.

From the Publisher. The Anatomy of Type explores one hundred traditional and modern typefaces in loving detail, with a full spread devoted to each entry. The full character set from each typeface is shown, and the best letters for identification are enlarged and annotated, revealing key features, anatomical details, and the finer, often-overlooked elements of type design. Containing in-depth information on everything from the designer and foundry, the year of release, and the different weights and styles available, The Anatomy of Type is more than a reference guide to the intricacies of typeface design. It is a visual send-up of some of the world's most beloved typefaces, whimsically displayed in vibrant color.

The most comprehensive collection of Bauhaus graphic and typographic design ever assembled. Features many rare and unusual examples from Weimar, Dessau, Berlin and Chicago, including books, newspapers, postcards, posters, letterhead, and more.

From the Publisher. This book features a curated collection of nearly 600 exquisite designs, along with essays from designers in the field about the essence of creating compelling, communicative designs using typography in myriad ways.

From the Publisher. Today’s computer technologies have allowed for the creation of new spaces for typographic communication. This collection of drawings, photographs, and typefaces explores some of the ideas that might govern the logic of three-dimensional type. It presents and analyzes letterforms based on both traditional and contemporary typefaces, freely mixing historical references and futuristic aspirations. Author J. Abbott Miller considers the ways in which letters have become three-dimensional in certain genres such as signage, and discusses how typefaces have incorporated the illusion of dimensionality on the printed page. Dimensional Typography is the first title in our new series Kiosk Reports. Edited by J. Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton, this inexpensive, small-format line of books will explore current ideas on graphic design, much as our Pamphlet Architecture series does for architecture.

From the Publisher. Renowned typographer and poet Robert Bringhurst brings clarity to the art of typography with this masterful style guide. Combining the practical, theoretical, and historical, this edition is completely updated, with a thorough revision and updating of the longest chapter, “Prowling the Specimen Books,” and many other small but important updates based on things that are continually changing in the field.

From the Publisher. 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 indispensible 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 — and 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 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.

A compilation of over 32,000 type samples from 90 international type manufacturers.

From the Publisher. For years, the signs in the New York City subway system were a bewildering hodge-podge of lettering styles, sizes, shapes, materials, colors, and messages. The original mosaics (dating from as early as 1904), displaying a variety of serif and sans serif letters and decorative elements, were supplemented by signs in terracotta and cut stone. Over the years, enamel signs identifying stations and warning riders not to spit, smoke, or cross the tracks were added to the mix. Efforts to untangle this visual mess began in the mid-1960s, when the city transit authority hired the design firm Unimark International (co-founded by Massimo Vignelli) to create a clear and consistent sign system. We can see the results today in the white-on-black signs throughout the subway system, displaying station names, directions, and instructions in crisp Helvetica. This book tells the story of how typographic order triumphed over chaos.

From the Publisher. The sans-serif typeface Franklin Gothic was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902 and continues to be widely used in newspapers, books, billboards, and advertisements. Named in honor of iconic American printer Benjamin Franklin, the impactful, bold typeface has been spun off into a variety of related faces (Condensed, Wide, etc.) throughout the past century. Today, the New York Times uses Franklin Gothic for many of its headlines and the Museum of Modern Art in New York embraces it as the museums official typeface. It can also be spotted on movie posters for Rocky, in the Bank of America logo, on NYU materials, in the opening text crawl for all of the Star Wars films, in the Showtime network logo, and on album art for musical artists ranging from Lady Gaga to Van Morrison. In I Love Type 06: Franklin Gothic, internationally acclaimed designers including Akatre, Cypher13, Eat Sleep Work / Play, Founded, G Design Studio, Idealismo, Make Studio, Stiletto nyc, and Studio Blanco show off their finest creations incorporating the grace and style of Franklin Gothic.

From the Publisher. A delightfully inquisitive tour that explores the rich history and the subtle powers of fonts.

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product that we buy. But where do fonts come from and why do we need so many? Who is behind the businesslike subtlety of Times New Roman, the cool detachment of Arial, or the maddening lightness of Comic Sans (and the movement to ban it)? Simon Garfield embarks on a mission to answer these questions and more, and reveal what may be the very best and worst fonts in the world.

Typefaces are now 560 years old, but we barely knew their names until about twenty years ago, when the pull-down font menus on our first computers made us all the gods of type. Beginning in the early days of Gutenberg and ending with the most adventurous digital fonts, Garfield unravels our age old obsession with the way our words look. Just My Type investigates a range of modern mysteries, including how Helvetica took over the world, what inspires the seemingly ubiquitous use of Trajan on bad movie posters, and what makes a font look presidential, male or female, American, British, German, or Jewish. From the typeface of Beatlemania to the graphic vision of the Obama campaign, fonts can signal a musical revolution or the rise of an American president. This book is a must-read for the design conscious that will forever change the way you look at the printed word.

From the Publisher. A modern collection of 1,300 logotypes, monograms, and other text-base corporate marks, this book is a companion volume to the successful titles Logo and also Symbol, by Angus Hyland and Steven Bateman.

From the Publisher. Max Bill considered himself primarily an architect, yet he was also an inventive and tireless creator of type fonts and commercial logos, as well as being a designer with wonderful sense of visual humor - not exactly a common feature of Swiss graphic art, as the publisher (also Swiss) points out. This rich monograph gives Max Bill fans an extensive an inspring look at works for which he has received little attention, in the fields of typography, advertising and book design.

From the Publisher. A brisk tour through the history of Western typography, from the time (c. 1700 in France and England) when it can be said to have become "modern." A spotlight is directed at different cultures in different times, to trace the developments and shifts in modern typography. Attention is given to ideas, to social context, and to technics, thus stepping over the limited and tired tropes of stylistic analysis. This is a reprint of the second edition, which has some variations in the pictures as well as corrections and updatings in the text.

From the Publisher. Classic modern design never goes out of style: it is merely retired or subtly adapted to its given place and time. Having surveyed handwritten, new vintage, and new ornamental tendencies in type and lettering, graphic-design guru Steven Heller now turns his encyclopedic gaze on Modernism.

New Modernist Type reveals how a graphic language of simplicity and economy has impacted contemporary design. Hundreds of examples by international designers are grouped into three thematic chapters: Old Modern (when the machine age influenced graphic design), Playful Modern (wit, humor, and transformation), and Meta Modern (typography as icon and symbol).

An historical introduction places today’s tendencies in context, and the reference section features a list of designers’ websites.

Steven Heller is Co-chair of the MFA Design/Designer as Author and Entrepreneur program at New York's School of Visual Arts. Gail Anderson is creative director of design at SpotCo, New York, and a former senior art director of Rolling Stone.

From the Publisher. Expressive lettering and illustrated words: here is a kaleidoscope of highly animated text and type from a broad spectrum of styles and effects. Psychedelia, Hip-Hop, Gothic, flowers, smoke, hair, electricity, and monuments are just a few of the creative allusions for the dramatic and intricate examples inspired by nature, history, and just about anything that is visually provocative.

Beginning with an historical overview of ornamental type and how it has evolved through the major creative periods from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, the book includes hundreds of contemporary examples from around the world, organized into three sections: History Lesson, Au Naturel, and Eclectic. Each includes a brief essay introducing the background, influences, and outstanding aspects of the graphic work so beautifully displayed.

New Ornamental Type is an essential reference for practitioners and students, and for anyone who appreciates the sheer delight of type as illustration. Steve Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the author of numerous books. Gail Anderson is the creative director of design at SpotCo, New York, a former art director of Rolling Stone magazine, and an American Institute of Graphic Arts medalist.

From the Publisher. A lively and lighthearted survey that looks at the role that old and classic fonts play in contemporary graphic design and typography.

From the Publisher. This book is the first since the early 1970s devoted to the extraordinary British Benedictine monk, scholar, translator, concrete poet and artist Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924–92). Edited by Nicola Simpson, with new essays by Gustavo Grandal Montero, Rick Poynor, David Toop and Charles Verey, Notes from the Cosmic Typewriter offers a broad and richly illustrated introduction to this major artistic and theological figure.

Besides many of Houédard’s "typestracts" – the concrete poems produced entirely with his Olivetti typewriter – this book also includes examples of his lesser-known "poem-objects," a selection of key texts, as well as never-before-published performance scores. In both his spiritual views and artistic output, Houédard stands out as a model of insatiable curiosity, building around him a vast network of enlightened poets, visual artists, performers, musicians, and thinkers of all faiths and walks of life.

In this essential reference, Herbert Spencer shows how new concepts in graphic design in the early decades of the twentieth century had their roots in the artistic movements of the time in painting, poetry, and architecture. Spencer examines the "heroic" period of modern design and typography, the beginning of which he traces to the publication in Le Figaro of the Italian artist Manetti's Futurist manifesto. He discusses the work of such "pioneers" as El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. He examines the artistic background of the new concepts in graphic design, and traces the influences of Futurism, Dadaism, de Stijl, Suprematism, Constructivism, and the Bauhaus. His text is profusely illustrated with examples of the new typography, shown in genres that range from posters and magazine covers to Apollinaire's "figurative poetry."

“Typographic Revolution since Stéphane Mallarmé.”

Also published in German as Ursache & Wirkung: ein typografischer Roman.

This classic book, first published in 1983 and updated in 1990, helps designers to recognize and identify typefaces seen and used on an everyday basis, and provides assistance with the process of typeface selection.

From Princeton Architectural Press. Designers often look to the past for ways to enliven their projects. Letters with relief and shadow have long been an effective way to add spectacle or intrigue to otherwise mundane words. Introduced in metal type as early as 1815, shadow typefaces were a form of early experimentation among type founders. In the late 19th century, the form was adopted in wood type for use in posters and has been embraced ever since by designers looking for ways to communicate a sense of monumentality, a feeling of confidence, or a simple impression of optimism. Shadow Type presents a broad spectrum of examples—advertising, shop signs, billboards, posters, type-specimen books—featuring the most popular, rare, and (nearly) forgotten dimensional letters from Europe and the United States. Compiled by the leading historian of graphic design Steven Heller and renowned graphic designer Louise Fili, this invaluable collection, packed full of typographic ideas, will inspire anyone aiming to give more depth to their design.

From the Publisher (3rd edition). After two decades as one of the world’s best-selling books on designing with type — including editions in Korean, German, Russian, Portuguese, and Polish — Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works continues to educate, entertain, and enlighten design students and type lovers around the globe.

In this third edition, acclaimed type designer Erik Spiekermann brings his type classic fully up to date on mobile and web typography. He also includes scores of new visual examples on how to effectively communicate with type and a full selection of new typefaces that are used and referenced throughout the book.

If you use type — and these days, almost everyone does — Spiekermann’s engaging, common-sense style will help you understand how to look at type, work with type, choose the best typeface for your message, and express yourself more effectively through design. Compact, yet rich with anecdotes and visual examples, the handbook’s multilayered design not only makes for a fun, fast read; it also invites exploration, ensuring you learn something new each and every time you open it up.

From Pointed Leaf Press. Accompanying the revolutionary spirit taking hold of American culture in the mid-1960s and 1970s, American graphic designer Alan Peckolick heralded a movement in graphic design, known as expressive typography. Along with his mentor and icon Herb Lubalin, Peckolick called for a new caliber of design: Dreaming up and hand-drawing letterforms that had never existed before, with type, which once exclusively played a supporting role to the graphic image, now taking center stage. Calling for conceptual typography over a standardized format, Peckolick gave letterforms a presence on the page, and also an attitude: His designs will talk back, and always speak up. Teaching Type to Talk is the first-ever compendium to span the typographer’s career. Peckolick’s work is equal parts witty, shrewd, and impeccable, and is accompanied by original anecdotes as insightful and tongue-in-cheek as his designs.

From the Publisher. A humorous and incisive analysis of the basic tenets of typography and how to turn them on their heads, this book will appeal to the conformist and the non-conformist in everyone – not just the newcomer to design. One side of this sharp-witted, cleverly designed guide presents the ten main rules, or 'commandments’, of type design, addressing such aspects of typographic doctrine as legibility, alignment and capitalization; the other shows how type can successfully subvert these rules, presenting ’sacrilegious’ visual alternatives. In support of the commandments Felton includes a list of twelve 'disciples’, those internationally renowned graphic designers whom he identifies as abiding by the rules, including such figures as Eric Gill, Jan Tschichold and Erik Spiekermann. Confronting these are his 'fallen angels’, which include such experimental typographers as David Carson, Jeffery Keedy, Phil Baines and Jonathan Barnbrook.

From the Publisher. The definitive guide to using typography in visual communication, from the printed page to the computer screen. This revised edition includes 48 pages of new content, including the latest information on style sheets for print and the web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, the use of small caps and enlarged capitals, as well as information on captions, font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering. Throughout the book, visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typographic form—what the rules are and how to break them. Thinking with Type is a type book for everyone: designers, writers, editors, students, and anyone else who works with words.

From the Publisher. Type, Form & Function dissects the mechanics of typography, giving designers the information to communicate their message more effectively through type.

From the Publisher. This exuberant selection of typographic fonts and styles traces the modern evolution of the printed letter, reproducing pages from exquisitely designed catalogs showing type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad fonts. Also included are borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations, and many spectacular examples of their use. Victorian fonts, spectacular in their complexity, are accorded a prominent place. In addition, examples from lithography and letters by inscription carvers and calligraphers are also included and described.

Featuring works by type designers William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, and Adrian Frutiger.

To accommodate the vast amount of material, we have divided the subject into two volumes. This, the first volume, covers pre–20th-century typeface specimens, with texts by editor Cees de Jong and collector Jan Tholenaar.

Includes exclusive access with TASCHEN keycard to online image library: over 1,000 high-resolution scans of type specimens downloadable for unrestricted use.

From the Publisher. Once upon a time, only typesetters needed to know about kerning, leading, ligatures, and hanging punctuation. Today, however, most of us work on computers, with access to hundreds of fonts, and we’d all like our letters, reports and other documents to look as good—and be as readable—as possible. But what does all the confusing terminology about ink traps, letter spacing and visual centering mean, and what are the rules for good typography? Type Matters! is a book of tips for everyday use, for all users of typography, from students and professionals to anyone who does any layout design on a computer. The book is arranged into three chapters: an introduction to the basics of typography; headline and display type; and setting text. Within each chapter there are sections devoted to particular principles or problems, such as selecting the right typeface, leading and the treatment of numbers. Examples show precisely what makes good typography—and, crucially, what doesn’t. Authoritatively written and designed by a practitioner and teacher of typography, Type Matters! has a beautifully clear layout that reinforces the principles discussed throughout.

From the Publisher. Type Only celebrates a current trend in typography: type unsupported by illustration or photography. In other words, typography and letterforms on their own—solus. Through the work of around 100 graphic designers from around the world, Type Only explores the communicative and emotive power of type when used in isolation.

The book identifies the use of type “in isolation” as a growing and influential contemporary trend, but it also looks at the historical antecedents of this sort of work. In an introductory essay, Mark Sinclair, deputy editor of Creative Review, provides an overview of how typography has evolved from the early “type only” experiments of the Dadaists and Futurists, via Modernism and Post-Modernism, to today’s radical typographic trends, digitally made and shared instantly on the internet.

With the mass arrival of the personal computer in the early 1990s, typography made a quantum leap. What once took hours of manual labor, could now be done on the screen in real time. At the same time, designers also realized that many of the old typographic conventions and preferences could be bypassed. The result is a 21st-century typographic landscape with a multiplicity of styles and gestures: today, anything goes in typography—everything is permitted, nothing is forbidden. But among this stylistic explosion, one trend seems to stand out as uniquely of the moment. It is best expressed by the now defunct British design group 8vo, who said: “We believed that typography, the key building block of printed communication, could be the core ingredient of a graphic solution (unsupported by illustration or photography…).” In the pages of Type Only, we see what happens when designers from all over the world adhere to 8vo’s brave assertion. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is rude and shouty—but it all relies on the naked power of type and type only.

Features work from: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the United States.

A well-curated and beautifully designed selection of recent type from Switzerland.

Jérôme Peignot (b, 1926), a French poet, novelist, and typography authority and the grandson of Georges Peignot, who headed the type foundry Deberny & Peignot, in this book explores concrete or visual poetry formed by the design of words and other typographic symbols, which he calls “Typoésie” (Typoetry), in the work of Piet Zwart, Herb Lubalin, and others.

From the Publisher. Illustrated study of the magazine Typrographica—brainchild of the founder, editor, designer, and typographer Herbert Spencer—which had a total run of only of 32 issues, published between 1949 and 1967. But its influence stretched—and stretches—far beyond its modest distribution and print runs of the time. Indeed, for many graphic designers, Typographica is something of an obsession, to be collected if and when found, savored, and poured over for designs, and techinques not seen since. Remarkably, Spencer never intended to turn a profit, so no expenses were spared in the making of the magazine. Different papers, letterpress, tip-ins, and more were all employed in the presentation of an eclectic range of subject matter: Braille, locomotive lettering, sex and typography, typewriter faces, street lettering, matches, and avant-garde poetry all found their way into the magazine.

From the Publisher. The Typographic Desk Reference (aka TDR) is comprised of a thousand facts on the form of Latin-based writing systems. The book includes the following four main sections: Terms—Definitions of format, measurements, practice, standards, tools, and industry lingo; Glyphs—The list of standard ISO and extended Latin characters, symbols, diacritics, marks, and various forms of typographic furniture; Anatomy & Form—Letter stroke parts and the variations of impression and space used in Latin-based writing systems; and Classification & Specimens—An historical line with examples of form from blackletter to contemporary sans serif types. Designed for quick consultation, entries are concise and factual, making it handy for the desk. The foreword is written by Ellen Lupton.

From the Publisher. Full-color throughout and be supported by a companion website and instructor ancillaries, Typographic Design has been a consistent knowledge source on the ins and outs of working with type. The new Fifth Edition is updated throughout, including many new images and case studies. It also contains new information on visual metaphor, analogy, metonymy, multi-modal typography, and new cultural developments in type. Other new additions include a chapter on typography on the screen, as well as up-to-date information on typographic technology.

From the Publisher. Even non-graphic designers know that type is everywhere: fonts and typefaces fill everything we consume or inhabit. They communicate, inform, sell, explain …and yet finding serendipitous letterforms in the least likely locations can also excite and inspire. Once experienced, it is impossible not to see letters in anything from forests to housing projects, from leaves to brickwork. The eye becomes accustomed to seeing a world built of letters.

Unlike most books on typography that present the “best” and most refined examples, the object here is to reveal the “lost” or “unseen” typographies in nature and our cities. From machine-made and sculptural forms to flora and fauna, from the fading ghost types on buildings from a pre-digital age to the subterranean forms found beneath our urban centers, from crowd-sourced creations to the popular vernacular, there is a universe of letterforms all around us.

International survey of experimental typography tracing the innovations (as of 1991) in letterforms, including the work of Edward Fella, 8VO, and Barry Deck, Zuzana Licko’s Emigre fonts,  and projects from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

From the Publisher. This is the ultimate source of typographic information and inspiration, documenting and chronicling the full scope of essential typographic knowledge and design from the beinnings of moveable type to the present golden age of typography.

— Co-authored by graphic designer and design writer Steven Heller:

Gets into the minds of designers who create typefaces, word images, and logos through their private sketchbooks.

From the Publisher. Letters and words are the most efficient way to talk. The great demand for quick and effective communication has challenged designers’ to create innovative expressions in words, phrases, and letterforms.

From digital type to three-dimensional installations, Typoholic is a thorough review of modern type-making that go to the core of communication itself. In two separate sections, the book introduces more than 40 new illustrative and animated type families that come in a narrative package of alphabets, numbers, and punctuation symbols, followed by 200 colorful pages of ad-hoc projects featuring custom type designs such as logo marks, campaign installations, and editorial art. The book highlights how meanings of words and phrases multiply when typography meets design, handwork, photography, performance art, and illustrations that individually convert the process of reading into a unique experience that one can embrace, encounter, touch, and explore.

From the Publisher. Building types and individual parts of buildings and their possibilities that have the potential to generate and transform are shown in this book with an effort to convey solution-orientated information for residential architecture. The design of buildings, of the outdoor spaces that surround them or are woven into them, of the systems of access and circulation, and of the spatial configurations of the apartments themselves are the typological categories to which over a hundred multistory residential buildings have been examined. Typology + offers knowledge and inspiration for the synthesis of the living spaces, the outdoor spaces and their access and possibilities for communication: The design of the building volume in its entirety, as it speaks to its surrounding, becomes a part of the city that it shapes at the same time.

From the Publisher. Early in this century, Futurist and Dada artists developed brilliantly innovative uses of typography that blurred the boundaries between visual art and literature. In The Visible Word, Johanna Drucker shows how later art criticism has distorted our understanding of such works. She argues that Futurist, Dadaist, and Cubist artists emphasized materiality as the heart of their experimental approach to both visual and poetic forms of representation; by mid-century, however, the tenets of New Criticism and High Modernism had polarized the visual and the literary. Drucker suggests a methodology closer to the actual practices of the early avant-garde artists, based on a rereading of their critical and theoretical writings. After reviewing theories of signification, the production of meaning, and materiality, she analyzes the work of four poets active in the typographic experimentation of the 1910s and 1920s: Ilia Zdanevich, Filippo Marinetti, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Tristan Tzara. Few studies of avant-garde art and literature in the early 20th century have acknowledged the degree to which typographic activity furthered debates about the very nature and function of the avant-garde. The Visible Word enriches our understanding of the processes of change in artistic production and reception in the 20th century.