kleine@iraul1.ira.uka.de (Karl Kleine) (04/19/88)
there have been a couple of questions for literature references on in recent postings, so here we go with a limited list: 1. textbooks on typography Ruari McLean The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography Thames and Hudson, London 1980, isbn 0-500-68022-1 [part of a series of textbooks on art production; concise treatment of the whole subject. if you just look for one source, or want to explain the subject to an interested party, here you find a good and thorough cross section of the field. british advise to the interested student - i like it] Erhardt D Siebner, Walter Leonhard Bruckmann's Handbuch der Schrift 3rd edition, Bruckmann Verlag, Muenchen, 1985, isbn 3-7654-1940-0 [the german counterpart, but more touching on this and that, not a `how to' book] James Craig Designing with Type rev. ed., watson-Guptil Publications, NY, 1980, isbn 0-8230-1321-9 [a straight American textbook for art students, classical and phototype composition, somewhat dated, but showing the essentials in clear manner. i like the length to which Craig goes to show the effects of leading and effect on various typefaces. there is also a collection of fontsamples] 2. type the following two references may be hard to get by, but they are really worth the trouble, particularly the Zapf book. Sebastian Carter Twentieth Century Type Designers Trefoil Publications Ltd, London, 1987, isbn 0-86294-076 [a beautiful book with biographies of the great men of this century together with many samples of their designs.] Hermann Zapf and his design philosophy Society of Typographic Arts Chicago, 1987, isbn 0-941447-00-6 [selected essays by H. Zapf, lists of typefaces, reproductions of book designs. a beauty] 3. typeface catalogues Christopher Perfect and Gordon Rookledge Rookledge International Typefinder Sarema Press, London 1983 isbn 0-85331-4683 casebound, 0-85331-4691 paperback [earmark tables for type identification and disambiguitation of similar ones] Berthold Types Berthold and Callwey, 1985 [a thick two-volume bible of type specimen from the German manufacturer of phototypesetting equipment] and other manufacturer's catalogues, often in short form and extended collection of specimen sheets, e.g. LinoTypeCollection Jan Tschihold Meisterbuch der Schrift [the US title is about `treasure of alphabets', but i'm not sure] 4. type and layout here i want to draw attention to two books by Jan Tschichold, which reappeared on the market in reprints, both [unfortunately for most of you] in German. Tschichold plays an important role (in my opinion) in setting the pace for publications in the 20th century in Europe, as he belonged to the Bauhaus movement, but was the only real printer with a printer - not an painter - background in that bunch. in 1928 he published Die neue Typograpghie Ein Handbuch fuer zeitgemaess Schaffende [reprint 1987 by Verlag Brinckmann und Bose, Berlin] but later in his life he looked at typography in a different way, and that booklet belongs on the desk of all book designers: Ausgewaehlte Aufsaetze ueber Fragen der Gestalt des Buches und der Typographie Birkhaeuser Verlag Basel, 1975, 1987, isbn 3-7643-1946-1 let me close with a dual language book on publication design: Josef Mueller-Brockmann Grid Systems in Graphic Design Rastersysteme fuer die graphische Gestaltung 2nd ed. 1985 Visual Communication Books, Hastings House Publ., NY, isbn 0-838-2711-3 Verlag Arthur Niggli, Niederteufen, Switzerland, isbn 3-72120-145-0 [the title says it. layout by breaking the page into boxes and the power of white space] Karl Kleine