Just my type : a book about fonts / Simon Garfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garfield, Simon.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Type and type-founding.

Graphic design (Typography).

Physical Description:

356 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First trade paperback edtion.

Place of Publication:

New York : Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, [2012]

Summary:

A romp through the history of fonts and the lives of the great typographers, revealing the extent to which fonts are not only shaped by but also define the world in which we live.

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product that we buy. But where do fonts come from and why do we need so many? Who is behind the businesslike subtlety of Times New Roman, the cool detachment of Arial, or the maddening lightness of Comic Sans (and the movement to ban it)? Simon Garfield embarks on a mission to answer these questions and more, and reveal what may be the very best and worst fonts in the world. Type faces are now 560 years old, but we barely knew their names until about twenty years ago, when the pull-down font menus on our first computers made us all the gods of type. Beginning in the early days of Gutenberg and ending with the most adventurous digital fonts, Garfield unravels our age old obsession with the way our words look. This book investigates a range of modern mysteries, including how Helvetica took over the world, what inspires the seemingly ubiquitous use of Trajan on bad movie posters, and what makes a font look presidential, male or female, American, British, German, or Jewish. From the typeface of Beatlemania to the graphic vision of the Obama campaign, fonts can signal a musical revolution or the rise of an American president. This book is a must-read for the design conscious that will forever change the way you look at the printed word. -- Book Jacket.

Contents:

Foreword / by Chipp Kidd

Introduction : Love letters

We don't serve your type

Capital offence : Gill Sans

Legibility vs readability : Albertus

Can a font make me popular? : Futura v Verdana

The hands of unlettered men : Doves

The ampersand's final twist

Baskerville is dead (long live Baskerville) : Mrs. Eaves & Mr. Eaves

Tunnel visions

What is it about the Swiss? : Frutiger

Road Akzidenz

DIY

What the font?

Can a font be German, or Jewish? : Futura

American Scottish : Moderns, Egyptians, and fat faces

Gotham is go

Pirates and clones : Optima

The clamour from the past : Sabon

Breaking the rules : The interrobang

The Serif of Liverpool : Vendôme

Fox, gloves

The worst fonts in the world

Just my type.

Notes:

"First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Profile Books"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-335) and index.

ISBN:

9781592407460

1592407463

OCLC:

958161298