Amazon.com Review
This approachable book helps aspiring Web authors and design novices learn the nuances of typography on the Web. The author starts off with an introduction to typography in its traditional print form, explaining the various typefaces and fonts and exploring typesetting terms, type treatment, and page layout. The second part of the book focuses on digital typography, covering display issues such as resolution and monitor types; standards such as PostScript and TrueType; and character sets, Unicode, and OpenType. The guide also offers an introduction to SGML and XML.
Next, you begin to explore the issues surrounding typography production for the Web. The author discusses HTML's potential and limitations and teaches you how to use HTML 4 to create special effects; you also get practice working with tables and templates. Subsequent chapters teach you how to use cascading style sheets, how to work with TrueDoc, how to understand Bitstream's typography technology, and how to embed fonts in your Web pages. Advanced topics include Dynamic HTML, NetTV, Java, and SGML-XML authoring.
Finally, the author shows you a variety of typefaces so you can select the best for your purposes. An appendix displays the Windows, Latin-1, Mac, and HTML character sets. The guide also includes a glossary of computer and typography terms, a bibliography of related books, and a CD-ROM with fonts, type catalogs, links to typography-related Web sites, and trial versions of HTML-authoring software. --Kathleen Caster
Review
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While Typography on the Web absorbs you in its entertaining and appealing artistic theme, Sinclair gets lower marks on his nuts-and-bolts web acumen. For example, he is under the impression (p. 409) that "[Java] applets evaporate; that is, they disappear after a user either closes his or her browser or shuts off the computer ... giving a user no opportunity to copy or redistribute them." This is misleading; any material transiting the wire to the user's computer can potentially be stored by the user for later retrieval.
In any event, Sinclair's sound grasp of classic typographical considerations in presenting textual information and his ability to relate his knowledge to actual Web practice serve to excuse minor blemishes and make Typography on the Web a useful tutorial in the field. --Jack Woehr, Dr. Dobb's Journal -- Dr. Dobb's Journal
