Typography: a Very Short Introduction

Author: Paul Luna
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199211299
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
Typography, the art of designing printed words, was once the domain of an elite few artists but has become an area with which millions of people engage daily. The widespread usage of digital devices from laptops to tablets and smart phones which are used for written communications means that we are regularly asked to make decisions about the fonts, sizes, and layouts we use in our writing. This broadening engagement with the field of typography has led to a perceptible shift from debates about legibility and technicalities to conversations about which fonts best reflect the writer's personality or style. In this Very Short Introduction, Paul Luna offers a broad definition of typography as design for reading, whether in print or on screens, where a set of visual choices are taken to make a written message more accessible, more easily transmitted, more significant, or more attractive. Considering the development of letterforms and the shapes of letter we use, Luna discusses the history behind our modern day letters and fonts, before considering the issues behind key typographic decisions, and the differences between printed and on-screen typography. Presenting any piece of typography as a fundamental design choice, Luna introduces the options available today, and explores the reasons why key typographic decisions are made. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Design: A Very Short Introduction

Author: John Heskett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192854461
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
This book will transform the way you think about design by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal to the medical equipment used to save lives. John Heskett goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalise objects.

How Typography Works

Author: Fernand Baudin
Publisher: Ben Uri Gallery & Museum
ISBN:
Category : Graphic arts
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description

Reading: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Belinda Jack
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192552449
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description
Today many people take reading for granted, but we remain some way off from attaining literacy for the global human population. And whilst we think we know what reading is, it remains in many ways a mysterious process, or set of processes. The effects of reading are myriad: it can be informative, distracting, moving, erotically arousing, politically motivating, spiritual, and much, much more. At different times and in different places reading means different things. In this Very Short Introduction Belinda Jack explores the fascinating history of literacy, and the opportunities reading opens. For much of human history reading was the preserve of the elite, and most reading meant being read to. Innovations in printing, paper-making, and transport, combined with the rise of public education from the late eighteenth century on, brought a dramatic rise in literacy in many parts of the world. Established links between a nation's levels of literacy and its economy led to the promotion of reading for political ends. But, equally, reading has been associated with subversive ideas, leading to censorship through multiple channels: denying access to education, controlling publishing, destroying libraries, and even the burning of authors and their works. Indeed, the works of Voltaire were so often burned that an enterprising Parisian publisher produced a fire-proof edition, decorated with a phoenix. But, as Jack demonstrates, reading is a collaborative act between an author and a reader, and one which can never be wholly controlled. Telling the story of reading, from the ancient world to digital reading and restrictions today, Belinda Jack explores why it is such an important aspect of our society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Typography Workbook

Author: Timothy Samara
Publisher: Rockport Pub
ISBN: 9781592531905
Category : Graphic design
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
This guide offers ideas and inspiration through hundreds of successful real-life projects. It also offers advice on choosing fonts, sizes and colours, incorporating text and illustrations, and avoiding common mistakes in text usage.

Just My Type

Author: Simon Garfield
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847652921
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Just My Type is not just a font book, but a book of stories. About how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. About why Barack Obama opted for Gotham, while Amy Winehouse found her soul in 30s Art Deco. About the great originators of type, from Baskerville to Zapf, or people like Neville Brody who threw out the rulebook, or Margaret Calvert, who invented the motorway signs that are used from Watford Gap to Abu Dhabi. About the pivotal moment when fonts left the world of Letraset and were loaded onto computers ... and typefaces became something we realised we all have an opinion about. As the Sunday Times review put it, the book is 'a kind of Eats, Shoots and Leaves for letters, revealing the extent to which fonts are not only shaped by but also define the world in which we live.' This edition is available with both black and silver covers.

One Hundred Great Books on Typography

Author: Agata Toromanoff
Publisher: Uitgeverij Luster
ISBN: 9789460581854
Category : Graphic arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This book presents the reader with one hundred valuable and influential books on the subject. Thematic sections allow the reader to navigate easily, and thorough reviews explain the importance of each book. This versatile collection is the ideal library for anyone who wants to know how type works and, more importantly, how to use it. The book also contains three interviews with typography experts and authors of influential books on the subject.

Grid Systems

Author: Kimberly Elam
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1616893478
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 122

Book Description
Although grid systems are the foundation for almost all typographic design, they are often associated with rigid, formulaic solutions. However, the belief that all great design is nonetheless based on grid systems (even if only subverted ones) suggests that few designers truly understand the complexities and potential riches of grid composition.

The Ghetto: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Bryan Cheyette
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192538004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Book Description
For three hundred years the ghetto defined Jewish culture in the late medieval and early modern period in Western Europe. In the nineteenth-century it was a free-floating concept which travelled to Eastern Europe and the United States. Eastern European “ghettos”, which enabled genocide, were crudely rehabilitated by the Nazis during World War Two as if they were part of a benign medieval tradition. In the United States, the word ghetto was routinely applied to endemic black ghettoization which has lasted from 1920 until the present. Outside of America “the ghetto” has been universalized as the incarnation of class difference, or colonialism, or apartheid, and has been applied to segregated cities and countries throughout the world. In this Very Short Introduction Bryan Cheyette unpicks the extraordinarily complex layers of contrasting meanings that have accrued over five hundred years to ghettos, considering their different settings across the globe. He considers core questions of why and when urban, racial, and colonial ghettos have appeared, and who they contain. Exploring their various identities, he shows how different ghettos interrelate, or are contrasted, across time and space, or even in the same place. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Typography, Referenced

Author: Jason Tselentis
Publisher: Rockport Publishers
ISBN: 1610582055
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
Typography, Referenced is the single most comprehensive volume covering every aspect of typography that any design student, professional designer, or design aficionado needs to know today. In these pages, you'll find: —Thousands of illustrated examples of contemporary usage in design —Historical developments from Greek lapidary letters to the movie Helvetica —Landmark designs turning single letters into typefaces —Definitions of essential type-specific language, terms, ideas, principles, and processes —Ways technology has influenced and advanced type —The future of type on the web, mobile devices, tablets, and beyond In short, Typography, Referenced is the ultimate source of typographic information and inspiration, documenting and chronicling the full scope of essential typographic knowledge and design from the beginnings of moveable type to the present "golden age" of typography.