: What are beginner’s books on typography? Hum, for some reason I would like to buy myself a book about typography. I have a lot of interest in this field, and already have some knowledge

@Turnbaugh909

A wonderful old book, well-worth keeping an eye out for is Better Type: Learn to see subtle distinctions in the faces and the spaces of text type. Achieve legible, beautiful, and expressive type every time. by Betty Binn.

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@Pierce403

Lots of great suggestions here, I would add Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton (which also comes with well-documented companion website.

It is different from Bringhurst or Tschichold as it contains much more about expression but still contains lots of information about the smaller details in type.

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@RJPawlick971

"Stop Stealing Sheep" is a typical Type 101 required reading:
www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Works-Edition/dp/0201703394

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@Rambettina927

The Form of the Book by Jan Tschichold. He dedicated a tremendous amount of time to researching the minutiae of classical typography. In his very German way, this collection of articles distills all that work down to digestible chunks of info. Judging by Amazon's price, I'm not the only one who loves this book! See if you can find it elsewhere for cheap. I think I paid about years ago.

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web is another great resource. I haven't seen much develop there in a long time but what the author completed is very good.

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@Reiling762

The book that changed the way I see typography was Just My Type by Simon Garfield. It's not exactly technical, it's more of a book of stories about fonts, but it's done and narrated beautifully. I would definitely recommend it!


Just My Type examines how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. It
explains why we are still influenced by type choices made more than
500 years ago, and why the T in the Beatles logo is longer than the
other letters. It profiles the great originators of type, from
Baskerville to Zapf, as well as people like Neville Brody who threw
out the rulebook. The book is about that pivotal moment when fonts
left the world of Letraset and were loaded onto computers, and
typefaces became something we realized we all have an opinion about.
And beyond all this, the book reveals what may be the very best and
worst fonts in the world – and what your choice of font says about
you.

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@Kristi927

If you're going to get one book on typography, I would grab The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. It's self–demonstrating and is filled with tons of useful and intriguing examples, as well as an informative, but brief history of type. It's a great introduction that will continue to prove helpful far into the future.

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