Typography Essentials
100 Design Principles for Working with Type
Published on 1. November 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-59253-740-2 (ISBN)
Description
A deep understanding of letterforms and knowledge of their effective use can only be obtained with constant observation and experimentation; it evolves over a lifetime of design practice and study. This comprehensive guide is intended to advance the progress of designers seeking to deepen their typographic expertise. Typography Essentials is a practical, hands-on resource to distill, organize, and compartmentalize-but not to oversimplify-the many complex issues surrounding the effective use of typography. It is for designers of every medium in which type plays a major role, and is organized and designed to make the process enjoyable and entertaining, as well as instructional.
New in paperback, this book is divided into four easy-to-use sections: The Letter, The Word, The Paragraph, and The Page. Each of the 100 principles has an explanation and examples representing the principle in action.
New in paperback, this book is divided into four easy-to-use sections: The Letter, The Word, The Paragraph, and The Page. Each of the 100 principles has an explanation and examples representing the principle in action.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
300
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
787 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59253-740-2 (9781592537402)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ina Saltz is an art director, designer, writer, photographer, and professor (at The City College of New York) whose areas of expertise are typography and editorial publication design. She has written more than 50 articles on design and typography, contributed to 5 books by Steven Heller, and authored 15 essays for Phaidon's Archive of Graphic Design. She currently teaches classes on the business website Lynda.com. Ina served as the Design Director at Time magazine (International Editions), Worth magazine, Golf magazine, and others. Ina frequently lectures on topics related to magazine design and typography and has chaired, co-chaired, and judged numerous design and typography competitions. She is a two-term board member of the Type Directors Club. Ina is the author of the Body Type series of books on typographic tattoos, as well as Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type. She is a co-author of Typography Referenced: A Comprehensive Visual Guide to the Language, History and Practice of Typography, named one of the best reference books of 2012 across all subject matter by the American Library Association.
Content
INTRODUCTION
THE LETTER
1 Using letter as form
2 Using counter spaces as form
3 Letterform details
4 Emotional content implied by the text
5 Historical connotation
6 Considering the medium
7 Honoring dignity
8 The handmade solution
9 Being expressive
10 Staying neutral
11 Considering background contrast
12 Emphasis using weight
13 Emphasis using contrasting weights
14 Emphasis using size
15 Emphasis using contrasting sizes
16 Proper smart quotes
17 The hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash
18 High contrast in reverse
19 Extreme scaling
20 Heavy flourishes
21 Thinking like a typesetter
22 Using display versions
23 Using numbers
24 Dingbats and pictograms
25 Theory of Relativity I
THE WORD
26 A "bad" typeface?
27 Typographic abominations
28 Hierarchy using position
29 Hierarchy using size
30 Hierarchy using weight
31 Hierarchy using color
32 Hierarchy using contrast
33 Hierarchy using orientation
34 Hierarchy using special effects
35 To kern or not to kern
36 Type as image
37 Three-dimensional type
38 Repetition
39 Deconstructed type
40 Vertical stacking
41 See the shape
42 Using cases
43 The rule of three typefaces
44 Mixing many typefaces
45 Mixing type using contrast, weight, or color
46 Mixing typefaces using historical compatibility
47 Familiarity breeds legibility
48 Properly weighted small caps and fractions
49 Using the right type
50 Theory of Relativity II
THE PARAGRAPH
51 Invisible typography
52 Highly evident typography
53 Less is more
54 More is more
55 Letter spacing and word spacing
56 Hyphenation and justification
57 Tracking guidelines
58 The "color" of the text type
59 Considering typographic mass
60 Pattern, gradation, and texture
61 Basic leading principles
62 Optimum line lengths
63 Increasing leading
64 Tightly stacked lines
65 Indicating paragraphs
66 Initial caps and drop caps
67 Opening paragraphs
68 Orphans and widows
69 "Rivers" of space
70 Eschew decorative type
71 Celebrate decorative type
72 Text overlapping images
73 Text overlapping text
74 The text block effect
75 Theory of Relativity III
THE PAGE
76 Legibility, legibility, legibility
77 Legibility taking a back seat
78 Limiting typefaces
79 One type family
80 Six necessary typefaces
81 A need for every typeface
82 Text typefaces versus display typefaces
83 Organized entry points
84 Systematizing hierarchy
85 Using justified type
86 Using flush-left, rag-right type
87 Using centered, asymmetrical, and flush-right type
88 The multicolumn text grid
89 The uneven text grid
90 Typographic "furniture"
91 Decks, callouts, and pull quotes
92 The "birth and death" of the text
93 Chaos versus order
94 Commentary, marginalia, and alternate languages
95 Tables and charts
96 Navigational devices
97 Margins and gutters
98 Framing the text
99 Floating in space
100 Theory of Relativity IV
CONTRIBUTORS INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE LETTER
1 Using letter as form
2 Using counter spaces as form
3 Letterform details
4 Emotional content implied by the text
5 Historical connotation
6 Considering the medium
7 Honoring dignity
8 The handmade solution
9 Being expressive
10 Staying neutral
11 Considering background contrast
12 Emphasis using weight
13 Emphasis using contrasting weights
14 Emphasis using size
15 Emphasis using contrasting sizes
16 Proper smart quotes
17 The hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash
18 High contrast in reverse
19 Extreme scaling
20 Heavy flourishes
21 Thinking like a typesetter
22 Using display versions
23 Using numbers
24 Dingbats and pictograms
25 Theory of Relativity I
THE WORD
26 A "bad" typeface?
27 Typographic abominations
28 Hierarchy using position
29 Hierarchy using size
30 Hierarchy using weight
31 Hierarchy using color
32 Hierarchy using contrast
33 Hierarchy using orientation
34 Hierarchy using special effects
35 To kern or not to kern
36 Type as image
37 Three-dimensional type
38 Repetition
39 Deconstructed type
40 Vertical stacking
41 See the shape
42 Using cases
43 The rule of three typefaces
44 Mixing many typefaces
45 Mixing type using contrast, weight, or color
46 Mixing typefaces using historical compatibility
47 Familiarity breeds legibility
48 Properly weighted small caps and fractions
49 Using the right type
50 Theory of Relativity II
THE PARAGRAPH
51 Invisible typography
52 Highly evident typography
53 Less is more
54 More is more
55 Letter spacing and word spacing
56 Hyphenation and justification
57 Tracking guidelines
58 The "color" of the text type
59 Considering typographic mass
60 Pattern, gradation, and texture
61 Basic leading principles
62 Optimum line lengths
63 Increasing leading
64 Tightly stacked lines
65 Indicating paragraphs
66 Initial caps and drop caps
67 Opening paragraphs
68 Orphans and widows
69 "Rivers" of space
70 Eschew decorative type
71 Celebrate decorative type
72 Text overlapping images
73 Text overlapping text
74 The text block effect
75 Theory of Relativity III
THE PAGE
76 Legibility, legibility, legibility
77 Legibility taking a back seat
78 Limiting typefaces
79 One type family
80 Six necessary typefaces
81 A need for every typeface
82 Text typefaces versus display typefaces
83 Organized entry points
84 Systematizing hierarchy
85 Using justified type
86 Using flush-left, rag-right type
87 Using centered, asymmetrical, and flush-right type
88 The multicolumn text grid
89 The uneven text grid
90 Typographic "furniture"
91 Decks, callouts, and pull quotes
92 The "birth and death" of the text
93 Chaos versus order
94 Commentary, marginalia, and alternate languages
95 Tables and charts
96 Navigational devices
97 Margins and gutters
98 Framing the text
99 Floating in space
100 Theory of Relativity IV
CONTRIBUTORS INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS