Digital Typography (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Most programmers who write programs for setting type have only a passing knowledge about the aesthetics of good composition. The programs are adequate, but to do a first-rate job of typesetting still requires a lot of handwork.

Donald Knuth has written a different kind of program. First of all, he spent considerable time learning the book compositor's art, and that shows in the details of TeX -- as with the oft-mentioned paragraph optimization routines. But more than this, TeX is malleable. It is a tool that lets skilled compositors automate more of the niceties of fine composition, rather than having to add them by hand.

What makes TeX an exemplary program is that the skills and knowledge of various people can be added to the program for all to use, whether or not they actually possess that knowledge and skill. Isn't that the finest purpose of a computer program? -- Charles Ellertson

This is an electrifying book. The essays collected here helped lead typography from its mechanical and photographic past into its electronic, digital future.

Knuth's far-ranging approach was markedly different from the usual articles about digital typesetting, which tended to dwell myopically on the minutiae of gadgets and gizmos. With the engaging charm and enthusiasm characteristic of so much of his writings, Knuth discussed the typography of mathematics, and the mathematics of typography. He examined the history, the art, and the mathematical ideas that joined them. In his illuminating vision, mathematical typography took its proper place in the history of ideas, not as a niche subject, but as a broad and richly fascinating field that deserved and invited deep investigation. -- Charles A. Bigelow

Review

'This wonderful new book contains Don Knuth's articles on TeX and METAFONT, and includes important archival material ... Reading this book is like holding in your hand twenty years of history. My view of TeX, and of the Computer Modern fonts that I use every day, has been changed completely by this book.'

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Product Details

• Paperback: 685 pages
• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575860104
• ISBN-13: 978-1575860107
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #605,291 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Background Material to Knuth's Typesetting Work, March 23, 2002

By	"microtherion" (Sim City, CA (Somewhere in the Bay Area)) - See all my reviews

This book won't teach you TeX or Metafont. It might not even teach you all that much about particular algorithms (although Chapter 3 is one of the most detailed explanations of TeX's linebreaking algorithms published anywhere). Instead, this book offers a look behind the scenes.

Instead of beholding TeX and Metafont in their almost final versions, as published in _TeX: The Program_ and _Metafont: The Program_, respectively, you see them grow from the first design studies (when Knuth thought of TeX as a program for two grad students to write over a summer) to where they are today. You see how the collaboration between Knuth and Zapf on the Euler fonts worked, and you get another glance at many facets of Knuth's mind (And a beautiful mind it is indeed, even though it is entirely sane).

If you have any deeper interest in TeX and Metafont, this book is well worth the money.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very stimulating bathroom read, June 12, 1999

By A Customer

This book collects numerous writings on TeX and typography from one of the greatest coumputer scientists of all time, Donald Knuth. Here you get to read fascinating inside information on Knuth's earliest development of TeX, how doggone hard he worked to get the letter "S" just right in his computer modern fonts, how to typeset his wife's recipes, and other bits of amazing minutiae. Knuth's style is breezy and funny in a wry-dry kind of way. (He's the kind of down-to-earth genius you'd love to take out to dinner.), and I was amused to find out that he seems to be a film buff. (His journal from his early work on TeX shows that he went to see "Earthquake," for goshsakes, "to relax"!)

This is a brilliant book, a book to treasure, and with its relatively short essays, a book to keep handy for bathroom reading. But then again, you may get addicted and just keep reading one chapter after another! If you love TeX (or LaTeX or AMS-TeX) as much as I do, you'll have to have this book. It's that good, and you will not only be astounded by his genius, entertained by the presentation, but you'll learn things too. Trust me on this one.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars !, May 15, 1999

By	John Lacey (San Luis Obispo, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Digital Typography (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes) (Hardcover)

If you haven't heard of TeX this probably isn't the place to start. But for a scintillating peek behind the scenes at twenty years of TeX and Metafont, this is the book to read.