The Elements Of Typographic Style

Long the preserve of trained specialists alone, typography is now a territory open to everyone equipped with a computer. For millions, the ability to produce effective printed documents has lately become, like effective speaking and writing, an essential professional skill and an important source of personal satisfaction. Far more than a style guide, this book is a brief history of typographic art; a compact encyclopedia of typographic symbols, concepts and traditions; and a tour of the technologies employed, old and new. In all, it is a thoughtful and insightful desktop reference for everyone who works with written words. To writers, this book offers a whole new set of skills and tools for effective expression and communication. To readers, it offers a new dimension of reading: a deeper appreciation of letters and a deeper understanding of what they mean.--From publisher description.

The fourth edition, fully revised enlarged and reset in 2012, further updated in 2017. Version 4.3 of the 4th edition (2019) includes many updates; see title page verso for a list of pages.

Explore the fundamentals of typography with this practical new guide. An instructional reader rather than historical survey, Design Elements: Typography Fundamentals uses well-founded, guiding principles to teach the language of type and how to use it capably. Designers are left with a solid ground on which to design with type. Limitless potential for meaningful and creative communication exists—this is the field guide for the journey!

"Originally released to great acclaim in 2010, Typography for Lawyers was the first guide to the essentials of typography aimed specifically at lawyers. Author Matthew Butterick, an attorney and Harvard-trained typographer, dispelled the myth that legal documents are incompatible with excellent typography. Butterick explained how to get professional results with the tools you already have quickly and easily. Revised and updated & the second edition includes: new topics such as email, footnotes, alternate figures, and OpenType features; avice for presentations, contracts, grids of numbers, and court opinions; technical tips covering the newest versions of Word and WordPerfect for Windows and OS X; new font recommendations, including two that are free; new essays on the font copyrights, screen-reading considerations, and typographic disputes that have reached the courts; a refreshed layout, featuring type features designed by the author."--from Amazon.com website.

"To the layman, all printing types look the same. But for typographers, graphic artists and others of that lunatic fringe who believe that the letters we look at daily (and take entirely for granted) are of profound importance, the question of how letters are formed, what shape they assume, and how they have evolved remains one of passionate and continuing concern. Lawson explores the vast territory of types, their development and uses, their antecedents and offspring, with precision, insight, and clarity. Written for the layman but containing exhaustive research, drawings and synopses of typefaces, this book is an essential addition to the library of anyone s typographic library. It is, as Lawson states, not written for the printer convinced that there are already too many typefaces, but rather for that curious part of the population that believes the opposite; that the subtleties of refinement as applies to roman and cursive letters have yet to be fully investigated and that the production of the perfect typeface remains a goal to be as much desired by present as by future type designers. Anyone aspiring to typographic wisdom should own and treasure this classic."--Amazon description.

An attractive, interesting layout can certainly attract and please the reader; but when the readers are not good, reading requires extra effort and any pleasure is short-lived. 'Detail in Typography' is a concise and close-up view of the subject. It considers all the elements that constitute a column of text letters, words, the line, and the space around these elements - and it discusses what is essential for the legibility of text.

Books depend on good design to communicate. This practical guide to typography explains the principles of good design, why they exist and when and how to put them into practice.

"Probably the most important work on typography and graphic design in the twentieth century."--Carl Zahn, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston