Renowned typographer and poet Robert Bringhurst brings clarity to the art of typography with this masterful style guide. Combining the practical, theoretical, and historical, this edition is completely updated, with a thorough exploration of the newest innovations in intelligent font technology, and is a must-have for graphic artists, editors, or anyone working with the printed page using digital or traditional methods.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
164 of 180 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Elements of Typographic Style (version 3.1) is certainly a very well written book that contains not only a great deal of useful information but also interesting insights of a more subjective nature. However, it is not as perfect as practically every other review posted here suggests, and I would like to point out a few aspects in which it could be improved.
Little more than half of the 382-page book is filled with what I would call the actual "core" of the work. The other half is dedicated to analyses of the author's favourite typefaces (about 80 pages) and several appendices. There is nothing inherently bad about this distribution, but unfortunately some of the core parts were only given a cursory mention, when in my opinion they deserved more in-depth discussions.
So, for example:
(a) In chapter 8, Shaping the Page, the author lists countless page and textblock proportions and provides a large number of geometric figures representing page formats, but does little more than give each proportion a name ("Full Cross Octagon page", "Turned Hexagon" etc). He then gives a few examples, but not nearly enough, and leaves the reader wanting for more details on which proportions or formats would, in the author's analysis, be more appropriate for this or that type of text. And most of the numbers and diagrams merely take up space in the book, since just knowing about their existence does not help much.
(b) Two diagrams on page 6 (just before the table of contents) are supposed to show the reader how the author came up with the proportions for the book's pages and textblocks. Unfortunately, the hexagons, circles and intersecting lines are not accompanied by any kind of explanation (and reading chapter 8 is not enough to decipher them), so instead of serving as a useful practical example they do little more than decorate the front matter.
(c) In chapter 10, Grooming the Font, Bringhurst advises readers to mend defective glyphs and make glyphs that are missing from a font, but does not suggest ways in which these tasks might be accomplished. One can more or less guess how he went about making the corrections to Photina shown as an example, but it would be useful to be given a little more detailed information. Someone who needs to be told to fix a font certainly needs to be told how to fix it.
(d) On pages 204 and 205, the author shows "part of a text file designed to test for missing or dislocated glyphs". Why not give the reader the full file, as an appendix perhaps? Why not save the reader the trouble of trying to reproduce the full test text (after googling in vain for it), which probably will not be nearly as good as the one Bringhurst, a master typographer, has produced over the years?
(e) The author's suggestions for further reading are not annotated in any way, and many, if not most, of the books mentioned are out of print. The reader will seldom find information about the contents of the out-of-print books (which are often not made clear by the title) on Amazon.com, so comments by the author would have been extremely useful.
Another slightly disappointing feature of a book that has a section on page design is the fact that, at least in my humble opinion, the textblock is a little too close to the spine for comfortable reading - but maybe there wasn't much the author could have done to anticipate the way the binding would work.
In the end, anyone serious about typography will want to get this book anyway: not only because it is probably the best in its class, but also because Bringhurst is a master from whom a lot can be learned. Having said that, until the issues mentioned above are addressed (perhaps in a future edition?), I would not consider this book worthy of "bible status".
----
I wrote the above review several years ago and originally gave the book four stars. In a recent comment on my review, fellow reader Steve McFarland wrote: "I only wanted to say, half-seriously: the Bible has a lot more flaws than this, but it's still the Bible - I say Bringhurst wrote the definitive text, warts and all!" And he's right: expecting absolute perfection is unrealistic and unreasonable. Five stars it is.
Little more than half of the 382-page book is filled with what I would call the actual "core" of the work. The other half is dedicated to analyses of the author's favourite typefaces (about 80 pages) and several appendices. There is nothing inherently bad about this distribution, but unfortunately some of the core parts were only given a cursory mention, when in my opinion they deserved more in-depth discussions.
So, for example:
(a) In chapter 8, Shaping the Page, the author lists countless page and textblock proportions and provides a large number of geometric figures representing page formats, but does little more than give each proportion a name ("Full Cross Octagon page", "Turned Hexagon" etc). He then gives a few examples, but not nearly enough, and leaves the reader wanting for more details on which proportions or formats would, in the author's analysis, be more appropriate for this or that type of text. And most of the numbers and diagrams merely take up space in the book, since just knowing about their existence does not help much.
(b) Two diagrams on page 6 (just before the table of contents) are supposed to show the reader how the author came up with the proportions for the book's pages and textblocks. Unfortunately, the hexagons, circles and intersecting lines are not accompanied by any kind of explanation (and reading chapter 8 is not enough to decipher them), so instead of serving as a useful practical example they do little more than decorate the front matter.
(c) In chapter 10, Grooming the Font, Bringhurst advises readers to mend defective glyphs and make glyphs that are missing from a font, but does not suggest ways in which these tasks might be accomplished. One can more or less guess how he went about making the corrections to Photina shown as an example, but it would be useful to be given a little more detailed information. Someone who needs to be told to fix a font certainly needs to be told how to fix it.
(d) On pages 204 and 205, the author shows "part of a text file designed to test for missing or dislocated glyphs". Why not give the reader the full file, as an appendix perhaps? Why not save the reader the trouble of trying to reproduce the full test text (after googling in vain for it), which probably will not be nearly as good as the one Bringhurst, a master typographer, has produced over the years?
(e) The author's suggestions for further reading are not annotated in any way, and many, if not most, of the books mentioned are out of print. The reader will seldom find information about the contents of the out-of-print books (which are often not made clear by the title) on Amazon.com, so comments by the author would have been extremely useful.
Another slightly disappointing feature of a book that has a section on page design is the fact that, at least in my humble opinion, the textblock is a little too close to the spine for comfortable reading - but maybe there wasn't much the author could have done to anticipate the way the binding would work.
In the end, anyone serious about typography will want to get this book anyway: not only because it is probably the best in its class, but also because Bringhurst is a master from whom a lot can be learned. Having said that, until the issues mentioned above are addressed (perhaps in a future edition?), I would not consider this book worthy of "bible status".
----
I wrote the above review several years ago and originally gave the book four stars. In a recent comment on my review, fellow reader Steve McFarland wrote: "I only wanted to say, half-seriously: the Bible has a lot more flaws than this, but it's still the Bible - I say Bringhurst wrote the definitive text, warts and all!" And he's right: expecting absolute perfection is unrealistic and unreasonable. Five stars it is.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is the Ferrari of typography books. Anyone seriously into typography should read it.
It is less useful, however, for beginners and self publishers, to whom it is often recommended. They will be less conscious that some of Bringhurst's advice is simply his opinion -- not an absolute rule or even standard practice.
Certainly read Bringhurst for advanced study. But if you're just learning about typography, there are better introductions. (My own favorite is James Felici's The Complete Manual of Typography).
It is less useful, however, for beginners and self publishers, to whom it is often recommended. They will be less conscious that some of Bringhurst's advice is simply his opinion -- not an absolute rule or even standard practice.
Certainly read Bringhurst for advanced study. But if you're just learning about typography, there are better introductions. (My own favorite is James Felici's The Complete Manual of Typography).
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is excellent, but Amazon is selling an old edition; v 3.0, 2004. The latest edition is v 3.2 published in 2008. I was only able to order it by contacting the publisher directly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Buy the hardback version
So much has been said about this excellent book, but I wanted to comment on the difference between the hardback and paperback versions. Read more
Published 14 days ago by moi surtout
China!
I was on click away from purchasing this book. I full information I was looking for to help in my study of typography. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Aaron D. Poscovsky
Where Serious Designers Learn Typography
Serious designers who are beginning their trade, or old hats who might need to be refreshed in typography can benefit from Robert Bringhurst's "The Elements of Typographic... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com
A Poet's Typography
In his Foreword Bringhurst declares his admiration for Strunk and White's
rightly acclaimed guide to good writing, whose title differs by just one
word from this book's. Read more
rightly acclaimed guide to good writing, whose title differs by just one
word from this book's. Read more
Published 10 months ago by B. Williams
Not what I expected...
After quickly scanning the reviews of this book, I was under quite a different assumption about what this book would explain and teach. Read more
Published 11 months ago by A. Lee
Doesn't Exist
Amazon doesn't carry this anymore, so don't order it here. Just to let everyone know so you don't wait for months with no notice whatsoever from Amazon. Ridiculous.
Published 14 months ago by Joseph Turner
Lots of information, but somewhat full of itself
This book is very heavy on detailed information about typefaces, their history, and their usage. I appreciated that the author took the time to make such a detailed treatise. Read more
Published 14 months ago by P. Hull
Typographic pornography
From the introduction: "Typography [is] not a set of dead conventions but the tribal customs of the magic forest, where ancient voices speak from all directions and new ones move... Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. Maytag
Aesthetic Guide to Typography and Language
This is one of the books I used to create a typography workshop--the best one. It's an elegant treatise on typography and the expressiveness of language through type.
Published 16 months ago by Barbara
Know the rules to break them
This is by far the best book on *traditional* typography ever written. More cleary, I think the rules stated in this book are meant for two kind of people: those who intend to do... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Frederico Lopes
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy - like anything that lends its grace to language - typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rationalist axis, unserifed forms, titling figures, serifed roman, humanist axis, sloped roman, great solely because the individuals, broadnib pen, octagon page, titling face, modulated stroke, italic slopes, foundry version, analphabetic symbols, hexagon page, head serifs, normal word space, kerning table, foundry face, pentagon page, modular scale, chancery italic, typographic page, italic cut, roman lower case Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hermann Zapf, Francesco Griffo, Nicolas Jenson, Stempel Foundry, New York, Claude Garamond, Frederic Goudy, Adrian Frutiger, Gill Sans, Jan van Krimpen, North American, Van Dijck, New Hellenic, Berthold Foundry, José Mendoza, Eric Gill, Shaping the Page, Stanley Morison, Robert Slimbach, Adobe Jenson, Carol Twombly, John Baskerville, Frank Blokland, Romulus Sans, Lucida Sans New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy - like anything that lends its grace to language - typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
rationalist axis, unserifed forms, titling figures, serifed roman, humanist axis, sloped roman, great solely because the individuals, broadnib pen, octagon page, titling face, modulated stroke, italic slopes, foundry version, analphabetic symbols, hexagon page, head serifs, normal word space, kerning table, foundry face, pentagon page, modular scale, chancery italic, typographic page, italic cut, roman lower case Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hermann Zapf, Francesco Griffo, Nicolas Jenson, Stempel Foundry, New York, Claude Garamond, Frederic Goudy, Adrian Frutiger, Gill Sans, Jan van Krimpen, North American, Van Dijck, New Hellenic, Berthold Foundry, José Mendoza, Eric Gill, Shaping the Page, Stanley Morison, Robert Slimbach, Adobe Jenson, Carol Twombly, John Baskerville, Frank Blokland, Romulus Sans, Lucida Sans New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 80
books:
See all 80 books this book cites
53
books
cite this book:
See all 53 books citing this book
- The Art of Graphic Design by Bradbury Thompson on page 61, and Back Matter
- A Short History of the Printed Word by Warren Chappell in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design (Classic Typography Series) by Jan Tschichold on page 173, and Back Matter
- Phonetic Symbol Guide by Geoffrey K. Pullum in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Oxford Guide to Style by R. M. Ritter on page 43, and Back Matter
See all 80 books this book cites
- Math Into LaTeX by George Grätzer on 4 pages
- Macromedia Flash MX Developer's Guide by P. S. Woods on page 123, page 139, and Back Matter
- The English Writing System (Arnold Publication) by Vivian Cook on page 105, page 120, and Back Matter
- The Swifts: Printers in the Age of Typesetting Races by Walker Rumble in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography by Ilene Strizver on page 150, and page 151
See all 53 books citing this book
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