Books: On Details, Essentials, Principles and Practice in Typography. Part 4

This is the last part of our series on books about typography. In today’s medley selection we put together books published in different decades, and some that are not directly related to typography. However, rest assured that we’ll keep an eye on new books too. You’ll be the first to know about them.

Typographie: A Manual of Design

Here it is, the timeless textbook from which generations of typographers and graphic designers have learned their fundamentals. For those new to the trade, Emil Ruder, one of the great twentieth-century typographers, was a pioneer who abandoned the conventional rules of his discipline and replaced them with new rules that satisfied the requirements of his new typography. Ruder explains his philosophy in 19 chapters, showing a multitude of ways to evolve in typography. This is the sixth edition. You’ll find over 500 examples. You can even choose the language to read it: English, German or French. Enjoy!

Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type

This is a book for designers of every medium in which type plays a major role. It’s a practical, hands-on resource to distill, organize, and compartmentalize the many complex issues surrounding the effective use of typography. The 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. Organized and designed to make the design process enjoyable and entertaining, this is also highly instructional.

Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice

This revised book was first published in… 1965, and it’s a classic guide for motion media students/teachers and graphic designers alike.  Elements of image and form are analyzed and examined with regard to their inherent laws. The lessons of methodical design are used today in computer monitor design as well. The desktop publishing technique requires very clear conceptual and methodical working processes. This book, which is divided into computer-system-friendly sections, will thus serve this new circle of users as a valuable introduction, but not necessarily for beginners. It’s also not for those who are 100% focused on fonts only.

Detail In Typography 

In less than 100 pages, Detail in Typography manages to cover the basics of in-paragraph formatting by answering a couple of important questions such as: How is it that text can be set perfectly and yet look insufferably dull? How do you achieve perfect congruence between the type itself and its meaning? In this book, Jost Hochuli, master book designer and author of the seminal Designing Books, addresses the finer points of setting text. He begins with a consideration of how human beings read, moving on incrementally to considerations of letter, word, and line as well as word-space and line-space. He examines whole paragraphs and how they carry meaning, thus creating a book that embodies critical thinking and articulate design in its own physical form. Great material!