Type: The Secret History of Letters

A great deal of new informatipn

A good book of type history, but limited to England and Northern Europe, missing the fundamental Italian and French designers.

A fascinating history of type and it's designers right up to the present digital era. I couldn't put it down.

Beguiling and well informed, Loxley treats us to a review of the major personalities in typography over the past half-millenium. It's a fun tour, but I can't help but think that the book isn't as successful as it could have been. I wish Loxley had shown a bit more ambition and tried to develop a general history of type -- rather than a series of potted biographies (engaging as they are) of individual typographers. Here's hoping that his next book aims for a true historical, not biographical, approach.The design of the book itself is also a bit disappointing. The footnotes are weirdly placed to the side of the text, and the examples of type that accompany his story are too limited and often not placed alongside the developments they describe.

Even though I'm not a typographer or type-designer, when I began engaging in desktop publishing a decade ago and sought out guidance for the decisions I suddenly had to make, I became interested in the history and minutiae of fonts and letterforms for their own sake. Also, in pursuit of a master's degree in library science more than thirty years ago, I took an elective in the "History of Books and Printing," so the background knowledge was already there. Loxley has produced a thoroughly fascinating social and philosophical history of the development of type, beginning with Gutenberg (who may or may not have been the inventor of moveable type) and following the development of words-in-print down through the centuries to the Nazi affection for Blackletter and the present-day democratization of the field via the personal computer. The author is very knowledgeable, especially about biographical details and personalities among western type designers. Illustrations and quotations are frequent and the book itself, naturally, is very nicely designed with footnotes and cut-lines set off in a one-third-size outside column. Though this is Loxley's first book, I hope it won't be his last.

I bought this book, thinking it would educate me about the different kinds of type and how the edesign of type evolved. This is an interesting book, but it's mostly a history book about the people who designed type and does not focus on their innovations. I'd recommend a book more focused on design "Elements of Typographic Style" if you are looking for a book about type itself.I'd retitle it to "The Secret History of the people behind Letters"

This is an enjoyable book of the stories, controversies and even gossip surrounding the people who populate the history of books and typography. I would recommend it if you enjoy a certain chatty type of history writing and are interested in design or the history of print. I would not recommend it if you are looking purely for a technical book about typography - especially if you are a design student looking for a comprehensive overview of typography. There are several excellent books on that topic that cover what this book does not. This is a good read for design or history geeks. I loved it, but its focus will not suit everyone.

Ouvrage qui vous permettra de survoler l'univers de la production typographique du XVe au XXe siècle avec, cependant, quelques petites erreurs iconographiques non négligeables.

Great stories, well told. What more can you ask for in a book?

A very good book on Fonts & their history, It should have included history of many more fonts or should have brought out another vol. by the same author.

First of all I have to admit to being a bit of an (amateur) typophile, which might explain why I enjoyed this book more than anything I've read for a long long time.Written in an very engaging style, Type is a whirlwind tour though the entire history of typesetting from Gutenberg to the launch of the Apple Mac, Pagemaker and the birth of digital type.Along the way it touches on the evolution of new technologies and fashions in typefaces, providing an education as well as lots of anecdotes - the history of type is littered with larger than life characters.A very well written and engaging book, beautifully typeset and printed in itself, it should appeal to a much wider audience as well as those with a professional interest in type.

This was a really good read. What you might expect to be a dull subject proved very interesting, and the author did well to make what might have been a dry subject, interesting.