Inside/Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design, Second Edition

Letterforms and Typography

Every letter is not necessarily beautiful when judged as a single unit. Each letter is companion to twenty-five others; some are symmetrical, others asymmetrical. The beauty of a letter is revealed by how it meshes with companion parts of a total typographic system, how it works in combination with its fellows.

Single letterforms combine to form words, which form sentences, which form paragraphs, and so on, up to books and beyond. Each typeface has its own texture and tone. Students of typography begin their studio course by studying the makeup of single letterforms, examining their inner parts.

There are no hard and fast rules for typography any more than there are such rules for painting pictures. Sensible students ...