Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, Third Edition

Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, Third Edition

Released July 2010
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470542514

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

From principle to practice, get it all in the revised edition of the comprehensive introduction to typography.

Type Rules: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, 3rd Edition is an up-to-date, thorough introduction to the principles and practices of typography. From the fundamentals to cutting-edge applications, this edition has everything today's serious designer needs to use type effectively. Dozens of exercises reinforce authoritative coverage on such topics as how to select the appropriate type for the job, how to set type like a pro, how to avoid common mistakes, and how to design a typeface, as well as how to fully harness the power of major design packages such as InDesign? and QuarkXPress? -- with new coverage of their latest versions.

This edition includes:

  • New information on OpenType, font management utilities, font web sites, and interactive typography.

  • An expanded?history of type and an updated glossary of key terms.

  • Exercises throughout to help reinforce the concepts presented in the book.

  • A wealth of tried-and-true as well as recently developed type tips.

  • More in-depth type issues, including scaling logos.

"I've purchased and read just about every book on typography written over the last twenty-five years. Ilene Strizver's Type Rules is one of the best. It's a book that will prove its value time and again."

-- Allan Haley, Director of Words and Letters, Monotype Imaging

"Type Rules is a must-have book for students and professionals alike. I highly recommend it."

-- Prof. Ed Benguiat, world-renowned type designer and educator, School of Visual Arts

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. PREFACE
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. INTRODUCTION
  5. 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPE
    1. 1.1. SOUNDS TO SYMBOLS
    2. 1.2. GUTENBERG AND MOVABLE TYPE
    3. 1.3. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE MECHANIZATION OF TYPE
    4. 1.4. PHOTOCOMPOSITION
    5. 1.5. INTO THE DIGITAL AGE
      1. 1.5.1. EXERCISE
      2. 1.5.2. EXERCISE
      3. 1.5.3. EXERCISE
  6. 2. FROM METAL TO MAC: UNDERSTANDING FONT TECHNOLOGY
    1. 2.1. WHAT IS A FONT?
    2. 2.2. FONT FORMATS
    3. 2.3. HINTING
    4. 2.4. FONT MANAGEMENT UTILITIES
      1. 2.4.1. EXERCISE
  7. 3. WHAT MAKES A TYPEFACE LOOK THE WAY IT DOES?
    1. 3.1. PARTS OF A CHARACTER
    2. 3.2. TYPE CATEGORIES
      1. 3.2.1. EXERCISE
      2. 3.2.2. EXERCISE
      3. 3.2.3. EXERCISE
      4. 3.2.4. EXERCISE
      5. 3.2.5. EXERCISE
      6. 3.2.6. EXERCISE
  8. 4. SELECTING THE RIGHT TYPE FOR THE JOB
    1. 4.1. DESIGN GOALS
    2. 4.2. LEGIBILITY AND READABILITY
    3. 4.3. WHAT MAKES A GOOD TYPEFACE?
    4. 4.4. TEXT VS. DISPLAY
    5. 4.5. SCRIPT, CALLIGRAPHIC, AND HANDWRITING FONTS
    6. 4.6. SUPER FAMILIES AND SYSTEMS
    7. 4.7. WHEN THE BEST FONT FOR THE JOB ISN'T A FONT
    8. 4.8. TYPOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION
    9. 4.9. MIXING IT UP
    10. 4.10. DOS AND DON'TS
      1. 4.10.1. EXERCISE
      2. 4.10.2. EXERCISE
      3. 4.10.3. EXERCISE
  9. 5. FORMATTING YOUR TYPE
    1. 5.1. TYPE SIZE
    2. 5.2. LINE LENGTH
    3. 5.3. LINE SPACING (LEADING)
    4. 5.4. ALIGNMENT
    5. 5.5. INDENTS AND OTHER PARAGRAPH SEPARATORS
      1. 5.5.1. EXERCISE
      2. 5.5.2. EXERCISE
  10. 6. TECHNIQUES FOR EMPHASIS
    1. 6.1. ITALICS
    2. 6.2. BOLDFACE (OR WEIGHT CONTRAST)
    3. 6.3. UNDERSCORES
    4. 6.4. CAP VS. LOWERCASE
    5. 6.5. POINT SIZE
    6. 6.6. WIDE VS. NARROW
    7. 6.7. CHANGING TYPESTYLE
    8. 6.8. CHANGING COLOR OR SHADE
      1. 6.8.1. EXERCISE
      2. 6.8.2. EXERCISE
  11. 7. FINE-TUNING AND TWEAKING YOUR TYPE
    1. 7.1. HYPHENATION
    2. 7.2. HUNG PUNCTUATION AND OPTICAL MARGIN ALIGNMENT
    3. 7.3. VISUAL ALIGNMENT
    4. 7.4. RAGS
    5. 7.5. TRACKING
    6. 7.6. KERNING
    7. 7.7. WORD SPACING
      1. 7.7.1. EXERCISE
      2. 7.7.2. EXERCISE
  12. 8. FINESSING YOUR TYPE
    1. 8.1. FIGURES
    2. 8.2. SMALL CAPS
    3. 8.3. INITIAL LETTERS
    4. 8.4. SWASH CHARACTERS
    5. 8.5. ALTERNATE CHARACTERS
    6. 8.6. TYPE AND COLOR
      1. 8.6.1. EXERCISE
  13. 9. TYPOGRAPHIC TYPOS (AND HOW TO AVOID THEM)
    1. 9.1. WORD SPACES
    2. 9.2. QUOTATION MARKS
    3. 9.3. APOSTROPHES
    4. 9.4. PRIMES
    5. 9.5. HYPHEN, EN DASH, AND EM DASH
    6. 9.6. WIDOWS AND ORPHANS
    7. 9.7. COMPUTER-GENERATED STYLING
    8. 9.8. POORLY JUSTIFIED TYPE
    9. 9.9. FAKE SMALL CAPS
    10. 9.10. LETTERSPACING LOWERCASE
      1. 9.10.1. EXERCISE
  14. 10. FRACTIONS, SIGNS, SYMBOLS, AND DINGBATS
    1. 10.1. FRACTIONS
    2. 10.2. BULLETS
    3. 10.3. REGISTERED, TRADEMARK, AND COPYRIGHT SYMBOLS
    4. 10.4. ACCENTS AND ACCENTED CHARACTERS
    5. 10.5. PARENTHESES, BRACKETS, BRACES, AND ANGLED BRACKETS
    6. 10.6. EURO
    7. 10.7. ELLIPSES
    8. 10.8. END MARKS
    9. 10.9. DINGBATS
      1. 10.9.1. EXERCISE
      2. 10.9.2. EXERCISE
  15. 11. NONPRINT TYPOGRAPHY
    1. 11.1. TYPE ON THE WEB
    2. 11.2. TYPE IN MOTION
      1. 11.2.1. EXERCISE
      2. 11.2.2. EXERCISE
      3. 11.2.3. EXERCISE
  16. 12. DESIGNING YOUR OWN TYPEFACE
    1. 12.1. HANDWRITING FONTS: A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN
    2. 12.2. THREE APPROACHES TO DESIGNING A TYPEFACE
    3. 12.3. PROFESSIONAL GUIDELINES
      1. 12.3.1. EXERCISE
      2. 12.3.2. EXERCISE
  17. GLOSSARY
  18. BIBLIOGRAPHY
  19. PICTURE CREDITS
  20. DIGITAL FONT FOUNDRIES AND DISTRIBUTORS
  21. TYPOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
  22. COLOPHON

Product information

  • Title: Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography, Third Edition
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: July 2010
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470542514