Books on Type

The following is a partial listing of books on typography in general. Of these, Bringhurst seems to be the one most often recommended.

The Elements of Typographic Style

by Robert Bringhurst (Hartley & Marks, 1992, ISBN-10 0-88179-033-8)

Finer Points in the Spacing & Arrangement of Type

by Geoffrey Dowding (Hartley & Marks, 1996, ISBN-10 0-88179-119-9)

The Thames & Hudson Manual of Typography

by Ruari McLean (Thames & Hudson, 1980, ISBN-10 0-500-68022-1)

The Form of the Book

by Jan Tschichold (Lund Humphries, 1991, ISBN-10 0-85331-623-6)

Type & Layout

by Colin Wheildon (Strathmore Press, 2006, ISBN-10 1-875750-22-3)

The Design of Books

by Adrian Wilson (Chronicle Books, 1993, ISBN-10 0-8118-0304-X)

Optical Letter Spacing

by David Kindersley and Lida Cardozo Kindersley (The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop 2001, ISBN-10 1-874426-139)

There are many catalogues of type specimens but the following books provide a more interesting overall view of types in general and some of their history.

Alphabets Old & New

by Lewis F. Day (Senate, 1995, ISBN-10 1-85958-160-9)

An Introduction to the History of Printing Types

by Geoffrey Dowding (British Library, 1998, UK ISBN-10 0-7123-4563-9; USA ISBN-10 1-884718-44-2)

The Alphabet Abecedarium

by Richard A. Firmage (David R. Godine, 1993, ISBN-10 0-87923-998-0)

The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering

by Frederick Goudy (Dover, 1963, ISBN-10 0-486-20792-7)

Anatomy of a Typeface

by Alexander Lawson (David R. Godine, 1990, ISBN-10 0-87923-338-8)

A Tally of Types

by Stanley Morison (David R. Godine, 1999, ISBN-10 1-56792-004-7)

Counterpunch

by Fred Smeijers (Hyphen, 1996, ISBN-10 0-907259-06-5)

Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering

by Jan Tschichold (W. W. Norton, 1992, ISBN-10 0-393-70197-2)

A Short History of the Printed Word

by Warren Chappell and Robert Bringhurst (Hartley & Marks, 1999, ISBN-10 0-88179-154-7)

The above lists are limited to books published in English. Typographic styles are somewhat language-dependent, and similarly the ‘interesting’ fonts depend on the particular writing system involved.

This answer last edited: 2011-06-01

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