Typography?

[nclester02]

As most of you who keep up on the GDF... i'm new. I work every single day for hours and hours reading and practicing to make my self better. I have a question. What is the understanding of typography? Don't shoot it down and call me a f*ing moron... because I know I should know.

Whats the best book/class to learn great typography.

nate

[nclester02]

As most of you who keep up on the GDF know *

[Ned]

Check with your local college for part-time courses.

[budafist]

I love type. There are books I've read, but I'll have to look them up later for you.

Looking at the font sets themselves will tell you a lot, always keep an eye out for type around you. Make note of what works and what doesn't.

[morea]

I quite enjoyed the book "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works"
check: www.half.com or www.ebay.com

See also:

http://creativelatitude.com/articles/articles_fisher_rlist.html

http://thecreativeforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=270

[morea]

http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/forum/search.php?searchid=306341

[morea]

http://www.itcfonts.com/Ulc/4012/

[morea]

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/default.mspx

http://www.typophile.com/

[Johan Backman]

I like The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

There you have the basics of classic typography, but also good thoughts you can use when you want to create your own, new and modern typography.

[Samakimoto Graphics]

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

I second that :cool: .

[capezio]

"Stop Stealing Sheep" is a good one

I had a great tutor at college, she was the daughter of Herbert Spencer, typgrapher and graphic designer (1924-2002) and had lived typography since she was a child. She was able to bring in and show us many original scripts. He wrote and edited a number of good books, was the founder of Typographica

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,667503,00.html
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,667503,00.html)

[patkennedy78]

I love type! I think it's great to design with and love the classic faces, the modern ones, leading, and just the whole 9 yards. That being said, I don't like type books. Yes I have the ones mentioned earlier in the post, and have read them. I think there is a big difference in knowing type and being able to lay it out well. Check out those books, and find examples that just blow you away, and some that you think are shite'. Find the designer who did them and look into them and their style. Pick up magazines and compare their layout. Most of all know why type has rules, why comic sans isn't a real font ;), why type works the way it does, THEN after you figure this stuff out break all the 'rules' trying to be innovative.

[steve-o]

Also be sure to check out the Type sections on Dynamic Graphics and STEP:

http://www.dynamicgraphics.com/dgm/Door/28471

http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Door/28399

[transmit failure]

Stop Stealing Sheep is a great book, Bringhurst's book is also excellent, but a little dry. I would recommend reading Stop Stealing Sheep and/or Thinking with Type, by Ellen Lupton (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Critical-Designers-Students/dp/1568984480/sr=8-2/qid=1161269511/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-4359863-8674525?ie=UTF8). Then I would move on to bringhurst's book, which is a little more advanced.

[dogmama]

When I was in college we learned about type the old fashioned way... we did everything by hand. Pen and ink letterplates using t-squares and triangles. It definitely helped getting that "intimate" with type.

[mojoprime]

the other thing i tried was fontographer, back in the OS9 days. they have a custom font at the place i used to work at, but the metrics were all messed up, no kerning pairs were made, etc. when you get into the technical part of the fonts, looking at bezier curves and creating the special characters, it can either be truly fascinating (like it was for me) or really boring (like it was for everyone else i described the process to.)

the other thing is that you're allowed to make mistakes before you get it right. learned that the hard way as well. imagine uploading the retooled font to 100+ users (and to several RIPs), forgetting to do a minor things, and having to do it several more times. embarassing but a good way to make sure you don't make the mistake again.

i know they just updated fontographer for OSX (after a bajillion years) but they didn't really do anything to the feature set (since the new owners, fontlab, make what many say is a much superior product, fontlab studio -- i've never used it.)

but it's fun to think back, since aldus originally produced fontographer, and of course, aldus begat macromedia...but they never really did much with the software either. ah, the days of macdraw and freehand 3.1...

[elninos]

you can also read the book..Designing type by Karen chung..it's beautifully written and very easy to understand

[urstwile]

the other thing i tried was fontographer, back in the OS9 days. they have a custom font at the place i used to work at, but the metrics were all messed up, no kerning pairs were made, etc. when you get into the technical part of the fonts, looking at bezier curves and creating the special characters, it can either be truly fascinating (like it was for me) or really boring (like it was for everyone else i described the process to.)

the other thing is that you're allowed to make mistakes before you get it right. learned that the hard way as well. imagine uploading the retooled font to 100+ users (and to several RIPs), forgetting to do a minor things, and having to do it several more times. embarassing but a good way to make sure you don't make the mistake again.

i know they just updated fontographer for OSX (after a bajillion years) but they didn't really do anything to the feature set (since the new owners, fontlab, make what many say is a much superior product, fontlab studio -- i've never used it.)

but it's fun to think back, since aldus originally produced fontographer, and of course, aldus begat macromedia...but they never really did much with the software either. ah, the days of macdraw and freehand 3.1...

I loved Fontographer. I used to jokingly threaten that one day I was going to do an entire layout in Fontographer, and just send the font to the printer. ;)

[Invader Xan]

Admittedly, it's more about hand lettering than type, but "The Logo, Font and Lettering Bible" by Leslie Carbaga is a brilliant book...

[elninos]

Admittedly, it's more about hand lettering than type, but "The Logo, Font and Lettering Bible" by Leslie Carbaga is a brilliant book...
will try and get my hands on it...I am quite new to this field myself..but it is fascinating ..I am enjyoing every bit of it