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sunsun886's review against another edition
4.0
'may your thoughts be deep, and your wounds be shallow'
donasbooks's review against another edition
5.0
There's a lot of history about type in Ellen Lupton's Thinking With Type, which you might expect, but it's not all the dry academic stuff you might also expect. For example, on page 16, Lupton shares a sample of Geofroy Tory's font, which he believed should reflect the ideal human body. He said of his capital A, "the cross-stroke covers the man's organ of generation, to signify that Modesty and Chastity are required, before all else, in those who seek acquaintance with well-shaped letters." Well I can't speak for designers, but this individual clearly hasn't met many writers! In general, the flavor of the history in this book is rich and offsets the dry surroundings.
This material could be very dry, but it's not. One of the reasons for that is that Lupton writes in an engaging, dramatic tone. Reading these passages, I can feel her passion for the humble letter, again and again. (Read the first paragraph on pg. 29 by way of example.) She discusses the panel appointed by Louis XIV during the Enlightenment, in 1693. The panel was charged by the king with designing an "ideal typeface" using a finely meshed grid in its design. Lupton's handling of this section is deeply humorous and at times ironic. It's just another example of how her love for and familiarity with her subject becomes entertainment for her readers.
Thinking with Type takes form to another place; a beautiful place.At the beginning of the chapter called "Text," Lupton defines the term "text" as "large bodies of type that may and will flow onto further pages, columns, or boxes. She differentiates "text" from the letters we use to spell out titles, captions, or even smaller chunks of supporting type. Lupton illustrates the primacy of text over type by introducing the concept through a text wall, which proceeds for a solid number of pages, enough to feel. I had been climbing that text wall long enough to need a break, when a peak ahead revealed a break in the bricks and the energy I needed to finish the section. So much beauty by design in this book.
For my fellow IG poets, we often have to think about type when we present our work in a digital format, and that's where this book becomes particularly useful. Thinking With Type is full of practical advice for anyone who works with font; like on pg36, the "Type Crime" listed there (that manually digitally manipulating your letters to make them wider or narrower distorts the proportions of the letters). Also, this book is totally gorgeous... unsurprisingly. It was designed by a designer for design students.
This book brims with such advanced ideas about the immutability of text, the integrity of copyright law in a digital age, and the function of typography to allow the reader to read *less* not *more*. And that's just in the first 5 pages of the "Text" section. This is a clever book that has good humor about itself, which are always the best books to learn from. For a good chuckle, catch the ironic "Common Typographical Diseases" section. Whatever the case, you'll learn a lot from this one. It's such a crying shame this book is ultimately defunct, being published in 2003. I still hold it's worth the cost of a copy and the time of a read.
This material could be very dry, but it's not. One of the reasons for that is that Lupton writes in an engaging, dramatic tone. Reading these passages, I can feel her passion for the humble letter, again and again. (Read the first paragraph on pg. 29 by way of example.) She discusses the panel appointed by Louis XIV during the Enlightenment, in 1693. The panel was charged by the king with designing an "ideal typeface" using a finely meshed grid in its design. Lupton's handling of this section is deeply humorous and at times ironic. It's just another example of how her love for and familiarity with her subject becomes entertainment for her readers.
Thinking with Type takes form to another place; a beautiful place.At the beginning of the chapter called "Text," Lupton defines the term "text" as "large bodies of type that may and will flow onto further pages, columns, or boxes. She differentiates "text" from the letters we use to spell out titles, captions, or even smaller chunks of supporting type. Lupton illustrates the primacy of text over type by introducing the concept through a text wall, which proceeds for a solid number of pages, enough to feel. I had been climbing that text wall long enough to need a break, when a peak ahead revealed a break in the bricks and the energy I needed to finish the section. So much beauty by design in this book.
For my fellow IG poets, we often have to think about type when we present our work in a digital format, and that's where this book becomes particularly useful. Thinking With Type is full of practical advice for anyone who works with font; like on pg36, the "Type Crime" listed there (that manually digitally manipulating your letters to make them wider or narrower distorts the proportions of the letters). Also, this book is totally gorgeous... unsurprisingly. It was designed by a designer for design students.
This book brims with such advanced ideas about the immutability of text, the integrity of copyright law in a digital age, and the function of typography to allow the reader to read *less* not *more*. And that's just in the first 5 pages of the "Text" section. This is a clever book that has good humor about itself, which are always the best books to learn from. For a good chuckle, catch the ironic "Common Typographical Diseases" section. Whatever the case, you'll learn a lot from this one. It's such a crying shame this book is ultimately defunct, being published in 2003. I still hold it's worth the cost of a copy and the time of a read.
samfah's review against another edition
3.0
Yo the first chapter fully had me,
And then it started talking about texts and grids and there were less pictures, so I cared significantly less.
And then it started talking about texts and grids and there were less pictures, so I cared significantly less.
carmiendo's review against another edition
5.0
i'm trying to read more design books. this was a textbook i had in college, and it's super fun to read. any other recommendations?
stalwart's review against another edition
5.0
A great overview of typographic principles. This is very accessible to the newer student of design and covers a wide range of topics.
tonyskyday's review against another edition
5.0
Essential reading for anyone who deals with words on a page or screen.
mashleypotatoes's review against another edition
3.0
This was a decent light overview, with some interesting historical points, as well as a few good tips for use of formatting, punctuation, dashes, editing marks, etc. Not the most comprehensive guide, but decently useful, especially as a quick reference guide.
beautyisterror's review against another edition
4.5
This was such an interesting compendium of information! I knew most of these things already, but this past month me and a friend wrote and printed a silly story for another friend, and all the stuff I studied for my history of the book and publishing modules came back with a vengeance - oh, to be a youngster thats still had hope for an interesting future! The end/beginning of the year is a moment of reflection for everyone, and as every year passes on by I always reflect on how boring my life turned out to be - so going back to these old interests just by reading about them will have to do for lack of anything else.
The text is divided in neat little sections regarding every aspect of the page, starting from the birth of calligraphy styles and the typefaces rhey inspired, up until the use of the space in a page and the editing process. The information is very basic, but the presence of clear (and sometimes funny) examplea, as well as further recommendations for each specific topic, make it a great basis to learn a new skill: how to use a blank page to the best of your abilities and how to think like a graphic designer.
I accessed a scanned edition of the book on the Open Library (which is a tool I advise all of you to use - there are a lot of books, some of them even very popular contemporary bestsellers! It's free, but you can choose to donate something, or even buy a copy of a book to donate to the library); it was a great choice because I don't think an epub version would have been easy to read - there are a lot of images, as I expected from a book about graphic design regarding the printed word. But if you can, I'm sure a physical copy is the best way to appreciate the book!
The text is divided in neat little sections regarding every aspect of the page, starting from the birth of calligraphy styles and the typefaces rhey inspired, up until the use of the space in a page and the editing process. The information is very basic, but the presence of clear (and sometimes funny) examplea, as well as further recommendations for each specific topic, make it a great basis to learn a new skill: how to use a blank page to the best of your abilities and how to think like a graphic designer.
I accessed a scanned edition of the book on the Open Library (which is a tool I advise all of you to use - there are a lot of books, some of them even very popular contemporary bestsellers! It's free, but you can choose to donate something, or even buy a copy of a book to donate to the library); it was a great choice because I don't think an epub version would have been easy to read - there are a lot of images, as I expected from a book about graphic design regarding the printed word. But if you can, I'm sure a physical copy is the best way to appreciate the book!
davemmett's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic, practical guide to type. Really interesting to think about how to apply a lot of the classic typography advice to the web.