Six books on typefaces

Fonts are essential when designing websites, creating blogs, or even a newsletter. Whether you are a designer or a novice when it comes to fine letterform, here are a few books to flip through to understand typefaces better.

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts

Author: Simon Garfield

Exploring the rich history and powers connected to fonts, this book delves into the characteristics fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Comic Sans are associated with. Simon also writes about the best and worst fonts in the world. The book analyses what fonts looked like in the early days of Johannes Gutenberg (the German inventor who introduced letterpress printing to Europe), details the latest digital fonts available in the market now and more.

Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age

Authors: Louise Fili and Steven Heller

The book elucidates the world of fonts by providing examples from varied sources including advertisements, invitations, street signs, and personal letters. It also covers wedding announcements to IOUs (an informal document acknowledging debt), where one can see classic to eccentric fonts used. The book also features popular, rare and forgotten scripts from Britain, Italy, France, Germany and the USA.

Making Fonts: A Comprehensive Guide to Professional Type

Authors: Chris Campe and Ulrike Rausch

If you want to design fonts, this is the book to pick up. The authors clear any mystery around the world of typefaces and explain the basics of type design in nine steps. Learn about the anatomy of letters, tools used for designing fonts, and how to develop your ideas from start to finish here. From experimenting with hand drawings to layout, and creation of the perfect curves, many interesting topics are covered in the book.

Why Fonts Matter

Author: Sarah Hyndman

Fonts possess characteristics that can evoke trust and other emotions, and make products look better. This book looks into how certain fonts create particular experiences, memories or associations.

This page-turner analyses the science and art behind how fonts affect you. It covers insights from the author’s experience as a graphic designer, and described findings by experimental psychologists and neuroscientists about the world of fonts.

The Evolution of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Landmark Typefaces: Examining Letters from Metal Type to Open Type

Author: Tony Seddon

‘The Evolution of Type...’ will take you through the history of font design and how the use of typefaces has changed over decades. It looks at 100 typefaces, their origin, usage of the font, and its impact on the design and print industry. It is divided into six chapters that cover different periods: 1455-1700, 1700-1890, 1890-1920, 1920-1960, 1960-1990, and 1990-today.

The Visual History of Type: A visual survey of 320 typefaces

Author: Paul McNeil

Arranged chronologically, the book explores the timeline of more than 320 typefaces, while explaining a bit about each one of them, their history, and key characteristics.

Written by Paul McNeil, a graphic designer, who specialises in typography, information, and systems design, the book will appeal to graphic designers, educators, design students and professionals.