The Non-Designer's Design Book, 4th Edition

Chapter 9. The Essentials of Typography

There are some essential typographic rules you must know to prevent your work from appearing amateurish. Many of these guidelines are standard techniques that professional typesetters have used for centuries, but we on our computers are not taught professional typographic techniques—we are simply taught keyboarding skills. Many of us were either taught to type on a typewriter, were taught by those who learned on typewriters, or have just inherited the non-professional techniques that are based on the typewriter. Well, you have surely noticed we don’t use typewriters anymore. In fact, entire generations have never seen one in person.

A typewriter uses monospaced lettering in which each character takes up ...