The Fundamentals of Typography

As a design teacher and typeface designer Ive come across many great books on Typography. The Fundamentals of Typography is definitely among them, but it takes a step beyond. It covers in one book what Id typically need many for. It has all the essential content for a basic type course while offering a wealth of information for advanced learners. It is rich in history and spans many cultures and alphabets. Learners can connect with the subject and gain contextual awareness through case studies, examples, and exercises with well-structured methods. Im thrilled to find comprehensive information on optical, technical, and ethical dimensions all in one place. Its a must-have for any student and designer's bookshelf -- Donald Tarallo, Graphic Designer for Tarallo Design and Associate Professor at Fitchburg State University, USA The Fundamentals of Typography approaches the subject in such a way that the book can be used for a student just getting introduced to the idea of typography, yet has enough depth for the more advanced student. The unique typographic examples, combined with exercises at the end of the chapter that I actually want to assign to my students, makes this book my choice for the classroom. The new edition's updated interview-based case studies present contemporary cases that are inspiration for class projects. -- Brytton Bjorngaard, Director of Visual Arts and Associate Professor of Digital Media, University of Illinois Springfield, USA It is exciting to see examples of type that often do not appear in books on typography. -- Joe Gilmore, Teaching Fellow in Graphic Design, University of Leeds, UK

Gavin Ambrose teaches at Brighton University, UK, and is a practicing graphic designer. He is the author of many highly regarded books for students covering all areas of design including The Layout Book (Bloomsbury, 2015), The Production Manual (Bloomsbury, 2016), and Format for Graphic Designers (Bloomsbury, 2019) among others. Paul Harris is a freelance writer and editor based in Chile.

Introduction 1 Type and Language The alphabet/Early printing/1800s/The Arts and Crafts movement/The early 20th century/1950s/ 1960s/ 1970s/1980s/1990s/2000s/graphic design today/Case study/Typography task 2 A Few Basics Typefaces and fonts/Typeface anatomy/Relative and absolute measurements/X-height/Basic terminology/Majuscule and minuscule/Set width/The baseline grid/The golden section/The Fibonacci sequence/ Dividing the page/Standard paper sizes/The page--how we read/Case study/Typography task 3 Letterforms Type families/Typeweight variations/Frutiger's grid/Types of serif/Fractions/Superscript and subscript/Numerals/ Diacritical marks/Punctuation/Drop and standing capitals/Dashes/Character spacing/Expert sets and special characters/Small capitals/Ligatures, diphthongs and sans serif logotypes/Italic and oblique/ Type classification systems/newspaper text faces/Hand-drawn type/Case study/Typography task 4 Words and Paragraphs Calculating line lengths/Kerning/Automated kerning tables/Alignment/Word spacing, hyphenation and justification/ Type detailing/Leading/Indents/Indexes/Case study/Typography task 5 Using Type Hierarchy/Color/Surprint, overprint, knockout and reverse/Printing and type realization/Grids and fonts/Generating type/Legibility and readability/Texture/Type as image/Concrete poetry, typograms, trompe l'oeil and calligrams/Humor/Vernacular/Appropriation/Ownership/Case study/Typography task 6 Digital Type Vectors and rasters/Type on screen/Kinetic typography/Environmental typography/Case study/Typography task Glossary Contacts Index