Customer Reviews

A Typographic Workbook: A Primer to History, Techniques, and Artistry

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is an excellent starting place for any newbie designer/typographer (despite the shortcomings of occasional poor typography as mentioned in other reviews). It's very difficult to find a book that covers the breadth and depth of this one, yet still manages to deal with fundamental issues in a very readable and accessible way. You won't find another book as comprehensive and practical as this one!

The beauty of the book lies in its ability to reveal ALL the tools and skills you require, in a no-nonsense style, to create legible and artistic type. Your work won't win awards after reading it, but you will be armed with all the practical concepts you need to work with type in a competent and creative manner. I get the impression from the tone of the text that it's written for a young audience, maybe first-year college students, so the writing can sometimes belabor seemingly straight-forward concepts.

The numerous exercises are designed to impart the nuts-and-bolts techniques of how to use type in a practical yet expressive way. Most of the projects are concerned with the mechanics of legibility and information hierarchy, as well as kerning, tracking, leading and ligatures etc. The history sections are also very informative and outline the expansion of writing systems and technologies throughout human social development.

After reading this and completing the exercises, the reader could comfortably move onto a more advanced treatises on type like "The Elements of Typographic Style" by Bringhurst or "Type in Use" by White, equipped with a well-grounded foundation to absorb more technical/conceptual information.

This is a 370-page college-level textbook about the use of printed letterforms, or what is more widely and commonly known as Òtypography.Ó It is surprisingly ambitious, in the sense that it makes an attempt to discuss an enormous range of issues, large and small, related to the history, theory, and practice of typographic design. The result, which interweaves an astonishing amount of text with hundreds (maybe thousands) of black-and-white illustrations (of mixed quality), is easily enough to fill two or three volumes. The first 270 pages consist of 20 chapters with such general headings as ÒReadability and Legibility,Ó ÒTypographic Hierarchy,Ó and ÒThe Grid Structure.Ó Within each chapter, there are a dozen or more subsections on such topics as ÒDesigning with Two Families of Type,Ó ÒLetterspacing and Its Effect on Readability,Ó and ÒColor Symbolism Through Time.Ó Intended to function also as a type specimen book, it ends with 75 pages of type samples, while, throughout the volume, the texts on the pages are purposely set in varying type styles, with annotations about typeface, size, and leading. How admirable to have put all this information under one cover. Yet, sadly, it suffers the critical flaw that, too often, the typography and layout of the book contradict its own principles. For example, nearly all the text is set in 8.5 point type with 12 point leading, regardless of typeface. While convenient for type comparisons, the effect of this is devastating for the reader, since some type styles can survive dense paragraphs at that setting, while others cannot. In the bookÕs opening pages, the boldface, small cap headings for ÒdedicationÓ and ÒacknowledgementsÓ are so small and tightly letterspaced that they are all but unreadable. These strange errors, of which there are many throughout the book, are not quibbles. The relationship between what one says (content) and how one speaks (form) is essential in design, which is largely about form and function, and, in the end, the book undermines its own credibility. It is, after all, an arrangement of type about type, a book about book design. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 2, Winter 1998-99)

The reviews posted here reflect comments made regarding the 1st edition of this book. The second edition takes into account the many concerns indicated here as well as by other professionals, and provides a more streamlined approach in language that is easier to read.

Please take a look at this verion of "A Typographic Workbook" 2ed to reflect on the changes. Post a new review if you have had a chance to look at it as well!

The author does a good job taking on such a overwhelming breadth of material regarding the topic. (& taking on the subject opens her up to every nitpicker in the field who expect constant typographical brilliance in every line.) The book is by no means flawless, but should not be besmirched too harshly for a first run. It is still completely worth buying. Historical sections in the book give a good context for better understanding the topic. Ms. Clair's knowledge of the material is noteworthy. A good teaching tool, with helpful workbook sections and review areas. The book covers many important design issues normally overlooked by textbooks. Minor mistakes, and some readablity problems will no doubt be corrected in following editions. Excellent resource for students, educators, designers, and those in the print industry. The book stands out as more thorough and inclusive than any other textbook currently available on the subject.

I agree with many of the previous reviewers who have remarked on the poor writing style throughout this book! The historical sections are particularly awkward, as though the author did some research and simply tried to rephrase the content (usually unsuccessfully!). Though I was quite put-off by the writing style (or lack thereof), I did press on. What I found was a plethora of good information, useful side bar examples, and creative exercises. There is good content here, but it can be a lot of work to find and absorb it.

I would love to see a new edition of this book, where the author could work more closely with an editor to develop a clear, stronger voice, resulting in a useable teaching tool. If such an edition were to be written, I would suggest a few improvements:

1. Reorganize the sections. The book doesn't flow well from chapter to chapter, and the reader feels directionless while proceeding through the book. Although the history is fascinating, it opens the book and goes on for quite some time. I found myself wanting to skip ahead. Also, it would make more sense to me to discuss the Five Historic Families of Type immediately after the Parts of a Character, rather than throwing the topics of 20th c. Typography and Changes in Printing Technology in the middle.

2. Consider eliminating the technique of switching typefaces every few pages. Yes, the reader does get a sense of which typefaces are more easily read than others at that size/leading, but is it really a good idea to tire and frustrate the reader while attempting to instruct?

3. Eliminate or re-work the introductions. If it is neccesary to give an outline of upcoming topics, perhaps present it as a list rather than writing it out in as a paragraph? The current introductions are glaring examples of what I was taught NOT to do in English classes!

4. Keep a consistent tone. The author swaps rapidly between informal and formal tones, which is disconcerting.

5. Reduce redundancy. It would be better to reference various chapters and allow them to give a thorough explanation of a topic, rather than throwing in mini-definitions anywhere a term or concept is mentioned.

6. The list of popular typefaces at the end of the book is very useful to me, and I have returned to it time and time again. Perhaps after the typefaces are shown/described, a few lists/tables could follow that would group them by classification (old style, transitional, modern, etc.) and also by use (formal invitation, technical manual, classified advertising, logo, etc.)

So... this book is not beyond all hope. Even with all of its faults, I have still found it useful. I would, however, hesitate to recommend it to anyone in its current incarnation... maybe a future edition!

Typography has never been an easy or interesting subject for most people. It is rare to find a book that explores and explains Typography in an interesting and modern. This book does just that. Having taught the subject, I used this book as a basis for my course. It is a wonderful primer for students and a great refresher for typographers. The information is well-written and presented. The book provides wonderful exercises and quizes at the end of each chapter and great typographic examples. My only minor criticism is that some pages are not the easiest to read because of the font and font size that is used - but this is very minor and easily overlooked. I whole-heartedly recommend this book!

This book (2nd edition) was required reading for a college class. While the textual content seemed complete and well presented, I started to think that the quality of the illustrations in the historical background question was very poor. The text layout was also weirdly hard to read.

After reaching the more technical chapters analyzing type form and typographical layouts it became very clear that something had gone horribly wrong with the printing. The text refers illustrations and diagrams with grey parts, but everything is black and white. Some illustrations are entirely missing (anything light grey) while others are solid black without the announced differences (anything dark grey).

This text relies heavily on greyscale information that is missing from my September 2009 copy. Comparing my book with classmates, anything printed in September 2009 is bad. Older copies seem fine (and a lot more legible when the grey is added to the presentation).

1 star (would be 0 if I could give it a 0) since the latest print runs are unusable -- too much reliance on missing/mangled information for the text to be intelligible. If buying from Amazon itself, be prepared to send a defective copy back -- unfortunately at this point the editor is sitting on a warehouse full of defective books while waiting for the 3rd edition to come out. Since that edition has been delayed for a year already, I would look elsewhere if you need a good typographic reference in the near future. Which is a pity since the book seems otherwise pretty good (would probably have rated a 4 or 5 from this typography newbie).

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Edited to add:

After a few back and forth and the sending of scans from my defective copy the editor sent me out a new copy. It was a later edition, not from an older print run, so the problem seems to be fixed. Based on the clean copy I am upping my rating to 4 stars. This is a solid textbook on the subject, and will probably remain a good reference in the future.

This may be the most poorly written book I've read. There are numerous spelling, grammatical, and even typographic errors in every chapter. In addition, there is a great deal of irrelevant historical information (some of which is dubitable, some of which is simply inaccurate) which the reader is obliged to skip over. It is ostensibly provided as background, but rarely serves that purpose. Occasionally it is downright insulting (purely as a random example: she actually takes a paragraph to explain that the 13th century is the 1200s, and why--do we need this?). Finally, the inaccuracy one sees in the world history here makes one question the accuracy of the typographic information provided.

That said, there is quite a bit of information packed in here. If you are a beginner looking for historical or introductory information on typography, you may find it here. The book does serve as a decent typographic specimen book also, which is nice. (However, even some of the specimens are not well done--several of the typefaces shown in Chapter 6 show pixellation. The Universal font on page 94 is especially degraded.)

I do hope that many of the book's problems may be worked out for a future edition. I wish they had been worked out for this one.

Although I think this is a really informative book, there are printing issues. Any text or illustration components that should print gray either print black or don't print at all. It has caused enough of an issue in my typography class that the instructor doesn't feel confident enough to give quizzes.
It is not one print house or date but several. A classmate has been corresponding with the publisher and hopefully this issue will be soon rectified.

This is unequivocally the most poorly written textbook I've ever encountered in my life. I have no idea how this got published. If you casually flip through the book as a cursory review, you'll find that it LOOKS nice, (On almost every other page there's an enlarged sample of a font - complete with an unnecessary, meticulously hand-drawn portrait of it's creator) But once you begin an attempt to actually read the text, it's migraine time. The writing is so distractingly bad that I'm at the point where after reading this book for a few hours, I find myself having learned nothing because I keep finding awkwardly written sentences and revising them in my head instead of retaining the information they're supposed to convey.

As an example, proving why no one should ever spend money on this book, here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

"Those who could read were looked to for advice in all types of disputes and emergencies, their knowledge and judgment were unchallenged. Scribes - those who could write - were believed in some cultures to have power over human life, if an Egyptian scribe wrote your name in the Book of the Dead, your time was up in this world! Doubtless, the scribes did little to dissuade this myth. Scribes were trained in Egypt from the time they were about five years old. Today we have abolished this controlled system of learning writing and reading skills. (But a parallel to that practice today can be seen today in the knowledge of computer programming.) In ancient times, hand-copied scrolls were expensive to produce, (not many people were taught to write); any scrolls were cherished, valued and cared for from one generation to the next."