Choosing and Using Fonts
by Robert Bringhurst
Often referred to as
"The Typographer's Bible", Chapter 6 of The
Elements of Typographic Stylecovers Choosing and Combining Type.
Bringhurst reminds us to
"Choose faces that will survive, and if possible prosper, in the
final screen conditions"
and to "choose faces that suit the task as well as the subject."
He tells us to "start with a single typographic family," but when
the time comes to combine fonts, "balance the type optically more
than mathematically.
by Tim Brown
Nice Web Type strikes a balance between typographic artistry and
technical know-how. In the "fonts" section of the site Brown
writes,
"You may have noticed, there are lots of typefaces out there to
choose among. Here you'll find the ones I prefer, and my
reasons."
by Matej Latin
A web typography book for both—web designers and web developers
that comes with cheat sheets, example design files for designers,
and example source code for developers
Working with Text on the Page
by James Craig
A classic book on using typography to maximize reading, Designing
with Type is now in its fifth edition. Its companion web site has
some lovely examples of how to design with text type, how to
design with display type (headings), and how to use color.
by John Kane
A book for beginning typography students, A Type Primer includes
chapters on working with text, organizing text, and creating a
grid system.
For the Love of Type
by Robert Bringhurst
While not a typographer himself, Bringhurst is a poet, with a love
for ideas and a love for the letters and words used to make ideas
visible.The Elements of Typographic Style teaches the basics of
honoring and respecting the written word -- through choosing and
combining typefaces; striving for rhythm, proportion, and harmony;
and designing typographic pages.
by John Boardley
From the website: I love Typography (ILT) was born on August 7,
2007. It exists because I have a passion for typography, type
design, and lettering, and for the words born of those
disciplines. As a child I wondered why the teacher asked us to
draw the letter a as an o with a tail, when in my books, the a’s
had an extra bit at the top. This site aims to make the subject
more accessible, to bring the study of typography to the masses,
if you will. It's just about impossible to imagine a world without
type, but at the same time type's ubiquity has most of us taking
it for granted. So take a closer look.
by Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a muralist, photographer, and printmaker whose work
often including lettering. When he was 14, he was apprenticed to a
lithographer. In Love and Joy About Letters he writes: "I
discovered the Roman alphabet in all its elegance and its austere
dignity, and I fell in love all over again with letters… Letters
are quantities, and spaces are quantities, and only the eye and
the hand can measure them. As in the ear and the sensibilities of
the poet sounds and syllables and pauses are quantities, so in
both cases are the balancing and forward movement of these
quantities only a matter of skill and feeling and art.