This is a 370-page college-level textbook about the use of printed letterforms, or what is more widely and commonly known as Òtypography.Ó It is surprisingly ambitious, in the sense that it makes an attempt to discuss an enormous range of issues, large and small, related to the history, theory, and practice of typographic design. The result, which interweaves an astonishing amount of text with hundreds (maybe thousands) of black-and-white illustrations (of mixed quality), is easily enough to fill two or three volumes. The first 270 pages consist of 20 chapters with such general headings as ÒReadability and Legibility,Ó ÒTypographic Hierarchy,Ó and ÒThe Grid Structure.Ó Within each chapter, there are a dozen or more subsections on such topics as ÒDesigning with Two Families of Type,Ó ÒLetterspacing and Its Effect on Readability,Ó and ÒColor Symbolism Through Time.Ó Intended to function also as a type specimen book, it ends with 75 pages of type samples, while, throughout the volume, the texts on the pages are purposely set in varying type styles, with annotations about typeface, size, and leading. How admirable to have put all this information under one cover. Yet, sadly, it suffers the critical flaw that, too often, the typography and layout of the book contradict its own principles. For example, nearly all the text is set in 8.5 point type with 12 point leading, regardless of typeface. While convenient for type comparisons, the effect of this is devastating for the reader, since some type styles can survive dense paragraphs at that setting, while others cannot. In the bookÕs opening pages, the boldface, small cap headings for ÒdedicationÓ and ÒacknowledgementsÓ are so small and tightly letterspaced that they are all but unreadable. These strange errors, of which there are many throughout the book, are not quibbles. The relationship between what one says (content) and how one speaks (form) is essential in design, which is largely about form and function, and, in the end, the book undermines its own credibility. It is, after all, an arrangement of type about type, a book about book design. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 2, Winter 1998-99)
