Book Description

Of all the ornamental applications of Celtic art, the decorated letter is perhaps the richest. Aidan Meehan's brilliantly creative study of the great Celtic manuscripts underpins this wonderful collection of sixteen alphabets. From sixth-century birds to late medieval Celtic dragons, from early Celtic spirals to the later Tree of Life, more than four hundred drawings cover the whole spectrum of Celtic ornament in its most useful form, as well as the fascinating evolution of the letterforms themselves, from Roman to Irish Gothic. Celtic artists, designers, calligraphers, and craftspeople will find it an invaluable work of reference and inspiration. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE COLORFUL
I HAVE TWO OF MEEHAN'S BOOKS, "CELTIC ALPHABETS" AND "ILLUMINATED LETTERS" AS WITH ILLUMINATED LETTERS, I WAS DISAPPOINTED AT THE LACK OF COLLOR IN CELTIC ALPHABETS. THERE IS SOME COLOR: BLACK AND ORANGE OF ALL COLORS! ALTHOUGH IN THIS BOOK, THERE ARE 16 ALPHABETS, I WOULD HAVE BEEN PLEASED TO SEE THEM ILLUMINATED LIKE THE CELTS MEANT THEM TO BE: BEUTIFULLY AN RICHLY COLORED.

Celtic Alphabets, is right.
If you are looking for some great examples on celtic alphabets then look no further. This book contains pages of colorful, inventive celtic lettering and design. Very little history but if what you want some of the most beautiful writing in the world then this book is the one for you.

Nice, useful, but not well documented
The book is much larger than Meehan's usual Celtic Design books, and he makes good use of the space, providing sample alphabets to copy in many different styles (humans, rabbits, dogs...). However, as always, he's rather light on sources, which makes it hard to be sure he's right. A skilled artist who was looking at it with me spotted at least one point where the arrangement looked too modern; our best guess was that, where he couldn't find an example of the particular letter in the particular style he wanted, he made it up. ... Read more

Book Description

Designers and others who work with type and graphics will find this guide to be both enjoyable and useful. It explores the essence of graphic communication, explains how graphics function as a language, and suggests innovative ways for designers to combine words and pictures. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

best for beginners
Although this text is a vital first step in design education, it falls short for an experienced designer; basic juxtaposition, etc. Get it out of a library and spend your money on any of the Looking Closer series by Michael Beirut... they will infinitely expand your perceptions of what design is and explores contemporary issues facing designers today.

Another GREAT book by Philip Meggs
I have always found Philip Meggs worthy of reading and have tremendously benefitted from these readings. This book excellent and anyone who is serious about design should definitly have this book. ... Read more

Book Description

The complete and user-friendly introduction to graphic design—in a new edition

Now with information on Web site design, plus examples, exercises, and more!

Today, anyone with a good basic computer setup can produce a newsletter or a Web page—but to create effective, professional-quality pieces that stand out from the competition, you need more than a hard drive and some decent software. You need an understanding of how visual communication works and a solid grasp of the principles of design, composition, and typography. You need Graphic Design on the Desktop.

Written specifically for those who have little or no design background or experience, this accessible guide teaches you the fundamentals of sound graphic design and gives you the practical know-how to put them to work on your own projects, from initial concept through final production.

This new edition covers every key element of the design process, including format, layout and page design, typesetting, color, and illustrations—and offers clear explanations of type terminology, printing terms, and more. It guides you step-by-step through the design and production of ads, posters, brochures, and other promotional materials, as well as newsletters and magazines. A separate chapter on designing for the Web helps you make the most of home page and Web site designs.

Complete with helpful examples, exercises, hints, and checklists, plus tips on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, Graphic Design on the Desktop is the ideal design partner for projects that get attention and get results. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A good book for beginners
I just went through the book, the most important part i liked is its language which is very welcoming for a beginner. I know lots of graphic softwares very well, but unware of some basic designing fundamentals. This book showed me the way. Though the samples in the book is few and not very interesting but has lots of basic information written in compact form so that a beginner can refer back any time. The book is broken down into basic topics a designer should know and its related subtopics. I liked its exercises at end of each chapter.May not be interesting to a person who is already a professional, but its a very handy book for anybody who want to become a designer with limited knowledge about it. I think one should go through it before trying out very hi-end designing books.

perhaps useful as a poor man's "for dummies" book on design
This book was required reading for a publication class taughtby Toor. In general, the book is extremely simple, even simplistic,and gives the reader only a cursory glance at desktop publishing, suggesting many obvious cliches and "tried and true" design solutions rather than training the reader's visual sense.Some of the design examples are crude and amateurish.Ironically, the book is poorly designed as well, making liberal use of overused default graphics software "effects" and muddy, low-resolution graphics.Very disappointing... I would suggest this book only to non-designers who do want to really learn anything about design, but are only looking for some easy answers. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Partly as it says¿
This is an excellent collection of 24 fonts, with printed examples and indices of the special characters for Macintosh (access to Windows special characters is described in the ReadMe file). They represent a fine collection of Baroque and Gothic lettering, but very little of the material could really be called truly Celtic. Any church could spice up its documents for special occasions with this collection. The 'sz' of German formal text appears in a variety of forms. Also present are many other accented letters used in various European languages but not always included in more current fonts. Try it! Use it! There is creative material here! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Since its initial publication in Berlin in 1928, JanTschichold'sThe New Typography has been recognized as the definitive treatise onbook andgraphic design in the machine age. At once a key theoretical document ofCentralEuropean modernism between the world wars and an invaluable source ofworkingprinciples for the practicing designer, this classic work enjoys thereputationamong book artists that Le Corbusier's Toward a New Architecture haslong heldamong architects. The book's legendary renown is certain to increase with the long-overdueappearance of this first English translation, published in a form thatreflectsTschichold's original typography and design. Ranging from theoreticaldiscussions of typography in the age of photography and mechanicalstandardization to practical considerations in the design of businessforms, TheNew Typography remains essential reading for designers, art historians,and allthose concerned with the evolution of visual communication in thetwentiethcentury. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A founding document of modern history
Typographic history, at least. This book was first published in 1928, and seems to have been the founding manifesto of the "Swiss school" of typography. This is a must-read for all serious students of type, and for a few others as well.

First, the messages for typographers. The book itself is part of that message: sanserif body text, bright white paper, and geometric red and black graphics. Tschichold uses a few conventions that I quite like. Footnotes are indicated inline and at the end of the page by a heavy black mark. At first, it looked like a blot on the gray of the body type. After seeing it a few times, though, I realized that the heavy mark was very helpful for recovering my place in the reading after my eyes moved away to read the footnote. Emphasis is shown with heavy rules in the outer margins around text, much the way I mark books myself. My only complaint about the book as a whole has to do with indistinct paragraph breaks - there is clue from indentation or line spacing, so it is actually possible to miss a pragraph break altogether.

The second half of the book shows a number of examples, good, bad, and (today) historically interesting. Almost all examples are bold red and black - the first two colors to be used up in most sets of crayons. It is easy to forget that these examples were often designed for letterpress, since photocompostion barely existed as we understand the term. Despite Tschichold's passion for modernity, the style now looks as dated as Bauhaus, streamlined locomotives, and Art Deco.

The first half of the book is for typographers, but also for any modern student of polemic. Not many people have strong feelings about typography, so the ranting can be considered by itself. Tschichold's style is based on "the spirit of our age" somehow revealed to him alone, and on Germanic philosophical absolutes. It is ironic that, during the cultural purges of pre-WWII Germany, Tschichold was among those rounded up for politically incorrect artwork - another absolute in conflict with his own.

Happily, Tschichold was able to emigrate to Switzerland before war broke out. He had a long and influential career, and later regretted the strident excesses of youth that this book captures.

This is useful as a guide to typographic style, but beginners will probably get more from modern texts. It gives a very informative view of the DIN standards for paper and business correspondence. Most of all, however, it captures a time and a mentality that no longer exist, but that guided one strong school of typographic practice for over 80 years.

Good Historical Value, But No Applicable Lessons
As other reviewers have written before me, this book surely has an historical value to it. It allows the reader to have a quick glance to a particular historical moment of typography in pre-WWII Germany, written in a Marxist tone. Also, the layout of the book is a beauty in itself, with its glossy paper and sans-serif Futura font. But that is pretty much it, unless you want to read it because you are a student in History of Typography. Do not expect to learn basic or advanced typographic elements here. If you want that, read "The Elements of Typographic Style" by Robert Bringhurst instead.

Best for those interested in pre WWII type history
I was expecting something more contemporary when bought this book. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and have been glad I bought it. It is true, the author overstates his points on what constitutes good vs. bad typography, even going so far as to make philosphical "natural law" arguments in favor of good type! The social scientist in me enjoyed the Marxist overtones to his diatribe, and the artist in me enjoyed the period type of his Weimar Republic era work. While I won't suggest that one couldn't learn a thing or two from his principals of the "new typography", to my mind this is a book for art/social historians.

Impresionante estudio historico y psicologico
Este libro introduce en el estudio de las nuevas tipografias que surgen a principio de siglo en Alemania. Si bien el traductor reconoce que el autor esta equivocado en algunas de sus apreciaciones (tengan en cuenta que se escribio a principios de siglo) no deja de ser una forma de comprender los cambios mentales que surgen de las tipografias, y como estas interactuan con la sociedad.

Get the Hardcover Version
I don't want to repeat what others have already said, so here's a word of additional advice. Avoid the paperback copy and spend a few extra dollars on the hardcover version. Part of what made "The New Typography" what it was when it was printed was not only the contents inside, but the outside of the book as well. In sharp contrast to the classical title boxes on the spine of most books, 'The New Typography' was released in black cloth with silver / metallic ink on the spine, with the sans serif title reversed. Looks rather normal now, but imagine the response in the late 1920s. I have seen both the paperback version and the hardcover, and there's no comparison. If you want the total package, outside of finding a long lost copy of the first edition, get the hardcover. It's worth it, especially for purists. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

It will change your life.
If you are someone who communicates with words and images for a living, you must do two things:

1) buy this book and re-read it every year or so, and 2) never, ever mention this book to a competitor.

Wheildon's book gives you an almost unfair advantage. The detailed information on how printing text in color prevents readability and message retention is absolutely required reading.

No other book like it
We all suspect it: designers often trample the message. But you might not know exactly HOW they sabotage the written word. Now you can. Wheildon's book covers the science of readability. This book is the world's best argument-ender, when you're going eyeball-to-eyeball with a recalcitrant designer. Learn here why reverse type reduces comprehension 500%. Learn why headlines should never have periods. Learn how the eye typically moves across a printed page (and how to take advantage of that well-trod path). I recommend this book in every communications seminar I teach -- and the students love it, because it empowers them to JUST SAY NO when a designer comes up with yet another "solution" that buries the message.

Should be on everyone's desk.
Great reference material. The book gives basic necessary information about documentation style, choosing right fonts, colors, making your document legible, easy to comprehend etc. I wish more of my co-workers would have this book on their desks. Though, I would not recommend this book to a desktop publishing professionals like myself who would like to improve his/her existing skills.

Good for Advertising, But...
Wheildon is an advertising man who was tired of guessing how typography influenced the effectiveness of print advertising. He did some research to find out, and most of what he found is no surprise. Serif type is easier to comprehend than sans serif. Copy set in all caps is difficult to read. He provides convincing data to back up these assertions - a useful contribution. The overall effect of the book however, gives one pause. Two major complaints: 1.- His results were originally distributed as a research paper, and the paper has been mercilessly padded to fill this book. 2.- The layout and type of the book itself fight his main point - that typography should enhance, not hurt, good communication. For instance, throughout the book paragraphs have both indents and extra spacing. Visually, this makes each paragraph seems like its own separate thought, unconnected to the previous idea. Add to that the varying blank space at the end of the page - is this the end of a chapter? - and you have a book whose layout inhibits communication. Not a good quality for a book entitled "Type & Layout." The examples of advertising in the book show how well his principles apply to that medium, but the layout of the book itself makes one wonder. After reading the whole book (which took about 90 minutes), I felt ripped off.

Not a good resource for technical documentation.
Was really hopeful that the book would help me with layout and design of technical documentation. But it focused more on ads and one-page design documents. It did a thorough job for those types of documents, but not for designing reference documents. ... Read more

Book Description

For almost twenty years, and over sixty issues, Emigre has been a sourcebook of ideas, fonts, images, work, products, and even music for an entire generation of designers. Now, Emigre has transitioned into a new format, a return-to-roots series of "pocketbooks," focusing on critical writing about the state of graphic design. Anyone interested in contemporary design will want to put a copy of Emigre in their pocket. ... Read more

Book Description

There are thousands of fonts out there, each one a simplified, glorified, humorized or otherwise altered take on your basic ABC's. It's how you use 'em that counts. In the spirit of the first Cool Type, this book offers an international look at how cutting-edge typefaces are used in actual designs. Cool Type 2wo features the latest free-thinking work from an all-new roster of 44 top designers. You'll see fonts that speak for themselves, whether in whispers, chuckles or screams ... some that blow you away and others that rub you the wrong way. (Hey, that's what happens on the cutting edge!) Complete with insights on how the typefaces were created or manipulated, Cool Type 2wo is guaranteed to alter--or at least seriously challenge--the way you use type. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Inspiring
I love looking through this book. There is some amazing and creative stuff in here, very cutting edge. If you are a graphic designer it will certainly spark your creative fire.

favourite book in my collection
cooltype 2wo would have to be my favourite book in my design collection, i am always refering to it, it's just full of great new ideas. tonnes of samples of print design, samples from people like 'the attik' and 'me company'. another must have.

a worthy sequel
the original COOL TYPE is a must for every graphic designer's library. this new book is a good follow-up, providing an updated overview of the profession. it showcases the latest cutting edge designers working with type. the one flaw is the book's glossing over some designers by showcasing too few of their respective pieces. however, because it condenses dozens of design talents into one volume, COOL TYPE 2WO allows the reader to see a cross-section of design styles, without his having to purchase various expensive monographs. a similar, and very good, book is RADICAL GRAPHICS/GRAPHIC RADICALS. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great for web designers who want to improve their type skill
As a web designer, I always found adding typographical elements to my layout to be the hardest part. I would create a great looking page only to ruin it with a weak looking headline or inappropriately selected font settings.

I've looked for a good book to teach me typographical basics and decided to try Type In Use, even though it is geared toward print.

I have to say I've been extremely satisfied with my choice and have noticed a great improvement in my designs. The greatest proof of the change in me is how I began to look at the design of the book itself differently, analyzing it and seeing how Alex White practices what he preaches.

In each chapter, Alex begins by explaining a different part of the printed page and then showing and analyzing real world examples. There are chapters about text, headlines, subheads, breakouts, captions, department headings and more. This may sound a bit boring (devoting an entire chapter to captions?) but Alex manages to keep it all very readable with plenty of inspiring examples.

I've found this book to also be a great source of inspiration to my work after I finished reading it and I come back to it whenever working with any kind of type, online or offline.

The only weak point I found in this book is the chapter about Web Typography. I don't know if Alex aimed this chapter at people with no web experience at all or at web designers who want to learn typography on the web but he failed either way. The entire chapter in nothing more then a series of facts (some of them plain wrong) about writing HTML, designing sites, file formats, etc. Feel free to skip this chapter, the rest is gold.

Where is the white space?
A very broad book on design, the content is insightful and thorough. The best part of this book is the timeline. I was especially inspired by the last entry. Why is the letter "i" upside down on the cover?

"The most significant book of the digital publishing age"
TYPE IN USE by Alex White transcends the trendy DTP "how-to" bookshelf with the real story on how to craft truly fine pages of typography! The first edition was the top selection for publication designers in The Designers' Bookshelf of The Design Center, but has been out of print for more than two years. Now this important work is back, and the editors at graphic-design.com agree -- Type In Use is the essential book for anyone who wants to really understand how to make typography do what it's supposed to do! . . . Alex writes: "Our job [as designers] is to compose elements to make them maximally interesting and comprehensible. 'Maximally interesting' does NOT mean 'Hey, Wow! Pop! Zoom!' It means revealing the content of the story instantly and efficiently." . . . Type In Use will train you how to accomplish that goal. You'll know where to put type on the page, and how to put it there. But unlike any other book in the past 25 years... Type In Use will tell you WHY! If your goal is persuasive, successful publishing, don't wait for this one to go out of print too... just click up there and buy it NOW. You will be very glad you did.

quite possibly the finest...
quite possibly the finest book i have ever been in the preface of

A plethora of ideas
I believe that Alex (and his father Jan) have done more to make graphic design more understandable to both the beginning desktop publisher to the professional graphic designer than anyone else. I look forward to more books by Alex. ... Read more

Book Description

Can a typeface communicate the unique character of a city? This is the question the University of Minnesota Design Institute proposed when it began the project "Typeface: Twin Cities" and commissioned six teams of talented typographers to create a custom font for Minneapolis and St. Paul. "Typeface: Twin Cities" was an experiment to further understand the relationship between typography and urban identity that sought not to brand the cities themselves but to engage the public’s awareness and appreciation of design and typography throughout the metro area.

What began as an attempt to discover a subtle form of civic identity evolved into the invention of a truly unique concept. The Twin font is accompanied by a software program that can link the typeface via the Internet with live databases detailing the Twin Cities’ urban conditions—wind, temperature, traffic congestion—and these variations visibly affect the type’s appearance. Metro Letters recounts the complete process behind the development of a font that aims to visually represent the diversity of the Twin Cities and inspires other designers to devise their own new ideas, innovative prototypes, and creative experiments. ... Read more

Book Description

Equipped with Mastering Adobe InDesign, you can get started right away and quickly master all that this amazing new product has to offer. Electronic publishing experts Mike Cuenca and Renee LeWinter walk you through every capability and feature, from the most basic to the most advanced. This book is filled with practical examples, helpful illustrations, and sage advice designed to help you make the transition to InDesign with complete confidence. Includes special command equivalents chart to ease the transition from QuarkXPress and PageMaker. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

used as reference all the time
Mastering along with InDesign Bible are both excellent as reference books to explain nuances and subtleties of indesign. Altho in both of them I would wish for more thorough index term listings, the content is eventually findable and sufficiently explained.

Needs to upgrade
Unfortunately, this book does me no good because it just covers version 1.0, and 1.5 has been released with many changes. It's also frustrating to see almost all the dialog box snapshots in Windows format, considering Adobe has discovered it's customer base is mostly made up of Macintosh users.

Best InDesign help yet
I work for a company that uses InDesign as a graphic engine for publishing software. In order to come up to speed on the program I read through a few other titles (InD..Classroom in a book, ..for dummies) before landing on this text another employee purchased. It steps you through the entire app from simple functions to the complex in their own sections. This allows the reader to not feel insulted by having to wade through a 5-page diatribe on "save as.." unless you need it. The advanced sections even brought some new concepts to the table that were not mentioned in the Adobe Manual, or glossed over at best. As an instructor of how to use InDesign, I now recommend this text to students who need additional outside resources for their own work --nice job! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Another entry in the Web Site Graphics series, Typography: The Best Work from the Web features Web sites that outshine others in their use of type. "Each site draws some advantage from or is designed for the Web, and takes into account the special requirements needed to render or display type in a small, scrollable, and live window."

It's not surprising that many of the typographically outstanding sites shown here are from design firms. For example, Cow.Interactive Communications (www.cow.com) is an interactive design firm whose Web site shows a creative yet spare use of a single typeface with small, interactive lines of text, simple images, and blocks of color. Studiomotiv (www.studiomotiv.com) shows off the beauty of classic letterforms even while it informs viewers of the history and anatomy of type design.

Typography also celebrates sites that run counter to accepted notions of "good typography." Typographic.com (www.typographic.com) pushes the envelope of readability with its postmodern deconstructed text and navigational scheme, almost daring the viewer to persevere through the site. Bianca (www.bianca.com), an online community, takes another "anti-typography" route by using naive handwriting for headings and a site map that looks like a child's drawing.

Typography is not a how-to book. As with the others in this series, it shows, using ample color illustrations, a few of the best in Web design, chosen by the knowledgeable and discriminating authors. It's the quickest way to find out what's on the cutting edge. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: screen captures of many Web sites showing innovative uses of typography in Web design, with captions explaining why each site was chosen and listing artistic credits; an index with the names and addresses of all design firms involved. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Lacks something
Very nice book, but it lacks content on its original proposal - typography. There's plenty of nice web layouts inside, but it just talks a bit about everything. It's like watching a presentation with 2 slides per second; you see lots of nice stuff but just can't really "get" it. There's WAY MUCH MORE involved in typography (be in on the web, be it on printing) than what this book (or this series) covers.

First Class book for Web Typography
OVERVIEW: "Typogrpahy: The Best Work from the Web" showcases 100 Web sites where typography is the dominant design element. The entire book is color on glossy paper with crisp, clean graphics. The authors added information next to each Web site--title, URL, design firm, and, where appropriate, names of designers, editors, illustrators, programmers, and so on. The authors also included a paragraph analyzing the typography for each Web site. OPINION: The two main components of Web page design are artwork and typography. This book excels at showing a rich diversity of Web pages specializing in typography as a design element. This book is not a primer listing the basics of typography, rather, it is a beautiful collection of interesting uses of typography from a rich variety of Web sites. I think this book should be in every Web designer's library as a great source for generating ideas. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Like candy
I'm glad I found this book. I have only begun to explore the fascinating world of design; but so much of what I see in Design disgusts me that I wonder if anyone agrees with my aesthetic preferences. My tastes are not perfectly reflected in this book, but it is so full of common sense and practical advice that it's a pleasure to read. The problems are real, the solutions are real, and there's no arty pretentiousness.

The books speaks to a pre personal-computer magazine art director, but even as a novice thoroughly committed to the computer revolution I found the book helpful and stimulating.

The concepts advanced in this book are solidly basic. There's nothing revolutionary or shockingly inventive, but it's a real comfort to read through. Like having a piece of your favorite candy.

Very interesting and enjoyable.
A wonderful book targeted at magazine editing, but great backgroundreading for web designers. Somewhat dated, but still relevant in manyareas. ... Read more

Book Description

This text is an innovative book for beginning design and journalism students. It focuses on teaching basic design concepts and skills through solid theory, practical design tips, projects, and creativity sections. It conveys complete information needed to produce effective print communication, from design principles to printing processes. Integrated coverage of desktop publishing material stresses the importance of computers in the graphic arts industry. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This book is an excellent choice for anyone aspiring to become a successful desktop-publishing professional. In fact, it's the guide, long respected in the desktop-publishing community, and this fourth edition has more examples of good and bad designs than ever.

Parker and Berry first discuss essential design concepts such as relevance, proportion, consistency, contrast, restraint, and attention to detail. Next the authors teach you about basic tools for organizing layouts: grids, columns, gutters, headlines, kickers, captions, bullet lists, and pull quotes, to name a few. They delve into the intricacies of typography and font families, highlighting such concepts as type size, alignment, and leading and kerning. Next you learn about the use of white space and about rulers and accents such as borders, boxes, drop shadows, and bleeds. The authors discuss illustrations, clip art, backgrounds, charts, diagrams, tables, and maps and advise you on positioning those elements on a page. There's also a lot of information on selecting, resizing, and placing photographs. A full-color chapter illustrates how to choose color and use spot color, full color, and duotones.

At this point the authors move from theory to hands-on projects--you apply the design concepts that they have already put forth. You learn about the appropriate design, graphic, and text elements for newsletters, ads, catalogs, and other business correspondence. Each chapter in this section offers plenty of illustrations and ends with a checklist of reminders that you can refer to as you design.

Especially useful are chapter 12, which features common design mistakes along with illustrations and explanations of what's wrong, and chapter 13, which highlights redesigns of poorly produced publications. The latter is a before-and-after glimpse of designs of almost all types of publications, from newsletter to survey. These two chapters drive home succinctly and with great visual impact every point of design that the authors have previously discussed. Finally, the appendix offers extra tips on printing in color, and choosing image databases, paper, and service bureaus.

The authors don't refer to the Windows or Macintosh operating systems or to any software programs. The understanding is that you will learn how to use your software tools elsewhere and consult the book for elements of design. That's a reasonable goal, as the authors maintain a clear, concise tone and offer many tips that are tangential but still relevant to the subject matter. For example, the chapter on type has a short sidebar on the difference between kerning and tracking and a longer sidebar on font substitution. All in all, this book functions well as both a how-to manual for beginning designers and as a design reference for more advanced designers. --Kathleen Caster ... Read more

Reviews (7)

An apt title for a very serious book.
If you find yourself smack-dab in the middle of a job requiring that you produce professional-looking documents, especially with a real professional printer (not just a laserjet), and you have no education or experience, this book is for you. It explains clearly--and at length--the process of creating and producing printed materials. It gives you the vocabulary for different kinds of graphic elements and typography, helps explain the mechanics of printing presses and inks, and gives lots of good suggestions for attractive layouts. I found the section on working with photographs particularly helpful.

There's a lot of overlap with Robin Williams's "non-designer" series (because they're both about solid graphic design), but this one goes a bit further in some respects, even it it's a bit heavier and not as much fun as hers.

I liked the Non-Designer books better, but this one's great, too. All in all, a very fine addition to your library if you're trying to teach yourself graphic design quickly, and you don't have people standing around just waiting to answer your questions.

If You Only Have One
On the cover of this fine book is a blurb from the NY Times saying "If you have only enough money for one DTP book, buy this one," paraphrased, of course. The emphasis should be if you only have ONE. If you have any of Robin Williams' books or a Classroom in a Book, Parker's book will only be a re-hash of that. So, if you don't have a good DTP book, this is the book for you. If you have anyother reasonably good DTP book, this will just be the same stuff.

Beginner's Material
There is little depth to this text. However, It might be a fine introductory selection for someone who knows little to nothing about the subject. For those better versed, skip it.

One annoying thing about the book is: The design in the book itself is lame. It also deals with sample design solution that are, you guessed it, lame.

This book is the ideal choice of a local newsletter layout-master.

Great Ideas
I consider myself a specialist in wordprocessing, presentations, and spreadsheets; but this book has given me a lot of wonderful pointers. In time, anyone can run out of ideas. I have gained 3 new ideas since purchasing this book; needless-to-say, my ideas were well received. Book has been worth every penny spent.

The best crash course in desktop publishing available.
As a freelance writer who dabbles in desktop publishing, I've been searching for months for a concise, well-written, easy-to-grasp "how-to" book on DTP. I've consulted with graphic artists, posted messages online, and asked everyone I know for just such a book. I can't believe no one ever suggested "Looking Good in Print!" I stumbled across this book here on Amazon.com and decided to give it a whirl, and I couldn't be happier. This guide provides practical, step-by-step advice on conceptualizing your design, mastering the tools and techniques, and putting it all together to create great looking publications. With sections on illustrations and photos, printing techniques, and dealing with service bureaus, this book covers all the bases. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Book Description

This Book is what it says - a remix of Lewis Blackwell's critically acclaimed Twentieth-Century Type. Analysing, editing and augmenting his own text and choice of images, Blackwell provides a radically new assessment of the cutting-edge culture of typographic-led design in the late twentieth century.

This book challenges the concept of how typographic communication works today, but in doing so strengthen its ties with the traditions of the past. An introductory essay shows how current creative trends are simply part of the continuum of change that can be plotted from the turn of the last century to the turn of the next. Strong illustrated intersection dividers, specially commissioned from leading designers, set the scene for each chapter, or decade, and the space devoted to the 1990s has been substantially expanded.

Twentieth Century Type Remix is essential reference for anyone actively involved in the graphic design process. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Book That Remixes Itself
I thought only music could flow like silk until I read this soon to be genex classic. Words like rythym propelled me to finish this page turner the night (actually the morning after) I started it. Intense read. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Another piece of typographic history
Walter Tracy was successor to Stanley Morison, at least in advising the London Times and in opinionated personality. In this volume, he bridges much of the gap from Morison's writings on typography up to today's practice.

There's a lot of good technical content here, almost all of it regarding nuances of letterforms and design of type faces. He offers some interesting history, as well, from the turn of the century up to about the 1950s.

Among other type designers, he describes Rudolf Koch, best known for Kabel. As presented here, Koch was the first type designer to bridge the gap between the blackletter German alphabets and the Latin letters used elsewhere in Europe, to the advantage of both traditions. Tracy also spends a fair bit of time on Frederick Goudy. Goudy is certainly worth study, for both his succcesses and his less graceful work. Tracy seems to focus on the latter - his description of Goudy reads like a left-handed compliment in essay form.

Tracy was active from the hot-lead days, through photo typesetting, and into the early electronic era. He notes the advantages and weaknesses in each technology, as of when the book was written. Digital technology has progressed since then. Scanning has almost granted his wish that ".. vectorising is an automatic process ... [so] designers' work can be reproduced directly and with complete fidelity." Electronic design has also somewhat invalidated his claim that "the method of manufacture has [little] influence on the design of type." Frere-Jones' Reactor font is one among those that could never have appeared in metal. Also, the punchcutter's craft acted as an engraved metal barrier to entry into type design. With that barrier gone, amateur type design has come into its own (for better or worse).

The personality, the history, and the commentary on type design all make this a worthwhile book. It won't help the beginner much, and deals only with typographic issues at the level of letterforms and letter spacing. Still, it's a view worth seeing.

A classic book on letterform construction
Walter Tracy's "Letters of Credit" is a classic book on the construction of letterforms and typefaces. It includes historical information on each of the type families and designers it examines. The chapter that discusses the correct spacing of letters is a classic. Highly recommended to anyone with a strong interest in typeface design (along with Alexander Lawson's "Anatomy of a Typeface"). ... Read more