Type Matters!

If you want to know about typesetting, this is the book for you. Very, very informative book. What makes this book one of the best 'what's it all about' ones I've ever read on any subject is the clarity, humor and - speaking sincerely - the elegance of the presentation.I had originally wanted to purchase <Just My Type: A Book About Fonts ...> (which has not arrived yet), but in reading the reviews of Just My Type, which is an account of fonts, I encountered numerous recommendations and citations of this one, which is written by a typesetting expert. The story of how the book came to be is pretty interesting.The book itself talks about different types of situations - say, where you want a tall, skinny swath of text and you wish to avoid what they call 'rivers' - those strips of white that develop as spaces between words as they pile up one atop the other. There's a way to tweak the font to change that. He has examples of what fonts work for what application. For example, if you have a patch of text in a fairly small size, you don't want to use something like Chilada (hint: it works well for Southwest Food-themed applications) and would do better to stick with Times New Roman or Tahoma.Well, it was fascinating for me. But then I do some of my own graphic design and formatting, and it's just interesting to read. For example, do you know where the terms 'upper case' and 'lower case' come from? Well, the capital letters ('upper case') type (the pieces set into the press) were generally kept on a top shelf and the 'lower case' ones were kept on a lower shelf.Mr. Williams writes well and with humor. The illustrations are very good, and even if you don't plan to set up a printing press or design books, you may very well enjoy this book and read it just for the fun of it.

My Graphic Design 1 class was largely a typography class, this was exactly what we covered and more. The way that the information is presented is very nice and easy to read through. I have read it cover to cover several times now and have it by my computer for reference. Good book. Would recommend to people who need to learn this, or people who just like to know how type is laid out for curiosity sake.

This is a book that every graphic designer needs to have on their book shelves! It is wonderfully laid out and produced - the cover is made so well - I just like everything about this book - and it is a great resource! If you care about design - and production, along with being a Type-geek - this book is a must have!

A lot of effort was clearly put in to the production of this book. I almost feel bad reading it instead of framing it on the wall. It does look nice on the bookshelf, but I almost feel a little too pretentious bringing it out. Anyways...Not being formally introduced to many of these basic typography concepts, it was a very informative book for me. It's a great quick-reference guide. However, I was always left wanting to learn a little more, and it doesn't teach any more than the very basics. This provides a really good start to learning typography, but may be best suited as a gift to a design student or an office employee who has no typographic sense.

This is a beautiful book with almost every aspect of the exercise of the typographer in his day to day. I think this is a wonderful manual to have in count if you want to improve your type skills. For most experienced typographers, this is is a reminder of what they already know. Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful book explaining the basics of typography. It's easy to read and beautiful to look at. The paperback cover almost has a faux leathery feel to it and the elastic band makes it feel like my own private typography diary. If you love the FEEL of a book in hand and the subject of typography, this is a great little gem.

* nice to have on your desk - give your eyes a break - read a page - go back to workit's ok like that - each page have a 'rule' and examples of text set to or against the rule* it would be bad if you only read it digitally - the hard copy is pleasant to hold and flip through* it's more of a nice object - that will be nice to pick up now and again* looks cool on your desk* i'm happy that i've got it - but once again - it's main that it's a nice object more then a text book on the subject.

This is the best quick guide on typography out there. I finished the book quickly and gained a lot from it. Only thing that was missing were tips on how to beautifully layout a page with text.

Un carnet d'une qualité folle ! Un de mes ouvrage préféré sur la typo ! Dommage qu'il n'existe pas en Français, sinon je l'aurais racheté :)

O livro é muito objetivo, sem explicações longas mas com muitos exemplos, o que facilita muito o entendimento. Recomendo muito!

Wow

Why would I care about a book like Type Matters? Back at the beginning of the PC era; Apple sought to differentiate itself through its understanding of design. Steve Jobs had the Macintosh team apply the knowledge he’d gained dropping into a college course on typography. Fonts and kerning became important.Type MattersJobs also drove his team to distraction. The original Macintosh operating system had a 2D graphics library called QuickDraw that was a core part of the system. It could create primitive objects such as lines, rectangles, polygons and arcs. Jobs berated his developers. They didn’t have an oval or a rounded rectangle in its capabilities. He took them outside looked around the real world and pointed these shapes out to them.Decades later, we care about the principles of UX; but don’t pay quite the same attention to typography. Books are often designed to be to be read on screen and then a paper version is printed from the same layout. Often the sole consideration that will be given to typography will be by the digital designer who will be wondering what web font will be used. Spacing and kerning won’t have that much attention paid to it. Instead we accept ‘good enough’ in the way that the word appears on the web or in an app.Which is where I think Type Matters comes in. Jim Williams brings decades of experience of graphic design to the book. The book is a thin Moleskine sized volume that provides a good guide to fonts and their use. It’s a book that is easy to read cover-to-cover, or dip in and out of as you feel like it.It combines good design practice with a history lesson on the elements and consideration of putting words on a page: whether its made of velum, paper or pixels. Williams’ writing is accessible for the non-designer. It provides a better understanding about readability and legibility considerations.

Llego antes de tiempo. Libro excelente, con diseño editorial muy bueno.Super recomendable para todos los amantes de la tipografía y diseñadores gráficos.