Type Matters!

Let's say you have read a popular volume like the delightful _Just My Type: A Book About Fonts_ by Simon Garfield, and you have a new awareness of how important typefaces are. You didn't used to pay attention to fonts, but you'd like to know some practical information about how to use type, and how to avoid basic mistakes. If you have realized that type matters, you will do well to get the primer _Type Matters!: Simple Tips for Everyday Typography_ (Merrell Publishers) by Jim Williams. It is a handsome volume, with flexible covers, two ribbon page markers, and an elastic loop in the back so that you can hold the end pages close to the back cover. Williams was asked by a design company in Manchester, England, to give a series of talks to help its designers with day-to-day typography, a presentation that was later printed up, was popular, and is now bound as this fine-looking book. It is obvious that every page has been carefully laid out, usually with examples (good and bad) of type at work in black, and comments or instruction in red. The pages are thick and their color creamy. The fonts are labeled, but this is not a book of font specimens, although there are plenty. It is, rather, a broader view of what makes a page communicate well and what makes it look good.

_Type Matters!_ is well organized. The first part, "Background," gives a three-page history of type design, and gives some basic terminology. You may have been told to pay attention to every jot and tittle, and while jot can mean the tiniest part of writing or the least detail, a tittle in typography is specific: it is the dot above the i or j. Here is also a bright explanation of why some type faces of the same point size (basically the maximum vertical dimension of letters in a font) look bigger, although they are not. The second part is "Setting headlines and display type." There is a hilarious example of two contrasting letterheads, one for a financial advisor, and one for Rocco the Clown. They are both set in Copperplate Gothic BT and then in Jabberwub. I don't have to tell you anything but the names of the typefaces. The shapes of the letters should not imply that you would be amused by your financial advisor, nor that you would take your clown seriously. By far the longest part of the book is the third part, "Text setting," the basics for the regular readable page (rather than headings or display types). There are loads of examples here, including a particular peeve of mine, white letters on black background; this is often bad on the page and worse on a web page, but it happens all the time. Williams shows how typefaces that are nicely legible black-on-white despite (or due to) thin strokes and fine serifs can require active concentration to read when they are white-on-black. There's nothing wrong with a little white-on-black, and an example he shows using the sans serif, uniform stroke News Gothic Demi BT, is fully legible. You can learn here the considerations required in using raised or dropped capital letters in beginning paragraphs, the difference between capitals and small capitals, the use of dashes (the shorter nut dash and the longer mutton dash), different ways of indicating paragraphs, and much more.

There are two pages on those desiderata, legibility and readability. They are not the same thing. Legibility is "the clarity of individual characters and how easily they are deciphered." Readability is "the level of comprehension and visual comfort when reading typeset material." There are many examples here of both, emphasizing the great lesson that the type and its arrangement do their best work when they are quiet and do not present the reader with any distraction from the ideas in the words they form. Good type and arrangement, on the page and on the computer screen, help encourage the reader to continue reading, or at least do not discourage continuation. This book is an excellent introductory volume from which I learned a lot; those who want to learn more will do well to study its helpful bibliography and its directory of museums and other organizations that are dedicated to good typography. These may be simple tips, but they could change the way the world reads the writing you want to present.

* nice to have on your desk - give your eyes a break - read a page - go back to work
it's ok like that - each page have a 'rule' and examples of text set to or against the rule
* it would be bad if you only read it digitally - the hard copy is pleasant to hold and flip through
* it's more of a nice object - that will be nice to pick up now and again
* looks cool on your desk
* i'm happy that i've got it - but once again - it's main that it's a nice object more then a text book on the subject.

I thought this would be a much more comprehensive exposition of good typographical design, but there was very little in this book that I didn't already know, and there were quite a few handy rules of thumb that were omitted. For a total noob this would be a good resource...but frustratingly, those you most wish would read a book like this are the ones who don't even know that such an art even exists.

If you want to know about typesetting, this is the book for you. Very, very informative book. What makes this book one of the best 'what's it all about' ones I've ever read on any subject is the clarity, humor and - speaking sincerely - the elegance of the presentation.

I had originally wanted to purchase (which has not arrived yet), but in reading the reviews of Just My Type, which is an account of fonts, I encountered numerous recommendations and citations of this one, which is written by a typesetting expert. The story of how the book came to be is pretty interesting.

The book itself talks about different types of situations - say, where you want a tall, skinny swath of text and you wish to avoid what they call 'rivers' - those strips of white that develop as spaces between words as they pile up one atop the other. There's a way to tweak the font to change that. He has examples of what fonts work for what application. For example, if you have a patch of text in a fairly small size, you don't want to use something like Chilada (hint: it works well for Southwest Food-themed applications) and would do better to stick with Times New Roman or Tahoma.

Well, it was fascinating for me. But then I do some of my own graphic design and formatting, and it's just interesting to read. For example, do you know where the terms 'upper case' and 'lower case' come from? Well, the capital letters ('upper case') type (the pieces set into the press) were generally kept on a top shelf and the 'lower case' ones were kept on a lower shelf.

Mr. Williams writes well and with humor. The illustrations are very good, and even if you don't plan to set up a printing press or design books, you may very well enjoy this book and read it just for the fun of it.

It's bound like a bible, it's clearly printed, comes with two book mark ribbons. Absolutely gorgeous print and formatting. This is not the definitive guide to types, but damn close to it. If you want your website, manuals, signs, etc., to look like Apple and other high end companies, study this first.

A lot of effort was clearly put in to the production of this book. I almost feel bad reading it instead of framing it on the wall. It does look nice on the bookshelf, but I almost feel a little too pretentious bringing it out. Anyways...
Not being formally introduced to many of these basic typography concepts, it was a very informative book for me. It's a great quick-reference guide. However, I was always left wanting to learn a little more, and it doesn't teach any more than the very basics. This provides a really good start to learning typography, but may be best suited as a gift to a design student or an office employee who has no typographic sense.

Well I've never been very religious but I think I found my Bible. Wonderfully layed out with awesome examples and all the technical jargon you can handle, while still being an easy read. Can't seem to put it down and love the bookmarks. I am a young designer but will use this book the rest of my life, it's just that good.

This is a beautiful book with almost every aspect of the exercise of the typographer in his day to day. I think this is a wonderful manual to have in count if you want to improve your type skills. For most experienced typographers, this is is a reminder of what they already know. Highly recommended.

Solid little book. Designed very well and straight forward. Some design books can get a little full of themselves and so pseudo-sophisticated they lose all of their practicality. I;ve been at it for years and still recommend this book to students and professionals alike. The only sad part is the production value - the little ribbon book markers came off as did the elastic place holder. I swear I do not juggle my books.

Scholarly? Informative? Not really. This is more of a "clever" book that is for the uninformed/ignorant rather than someone with even a little understanding of typography. Perfect for that budding high schooler who wants to be a graphic designer, but that's about it.