PDF Thinking with Type 2nd revised and expanded edition A Critical Guide for Designers Writers Editors Students 0787721911067 Reference Books

Product details Paperback 224 pages Publisher Princeton Architectural Press; Revised, Expanded edition (October 6, 2010) Language English ISBN-10 1568989695

Thinking with Type 2nd revised and expanded edition A Critical Guide for Designers Writers Editors Students 0787721911067 Reference Books Reviews

• Do not purchase the kindle version of this book. The font size is so small you can't even read it. There is no option to increase the font size
• I think this is a better book for someone who already has a background. I really wanted to learn some basic typesetting theory, and I felt like this book was more an encyclopedia of fonts and their history, than a teaching tool for someone wanting to learn the basics of how to use them effectively. I was hoping for something more along the lines of "here's how to pick a font for a certain situation, here's how to decide on how big to make it, how much space to give it, etc." and I didn't feel I got that out of this book. Again, I read some of the rave reviews so obviously for some people this is an amazing book, it just wasn't one for me.
• The printed book is great, but the book is set up in a awful, unintuitive way. It's very difficult to read - none of the pages are zoom-able, and while captions are, "art" or examples are not. And because the printed book's layout is dependent on the aspect ratio of the printed page, 7" x 8.5", the only viable way to keep the format similar for a mobile device is to add white margins to each page, shrinking them and making some of the copy nearly impossible to read. This makes the edition useless as far as I'm concerned. Avoid at all costs. And, if you any of you know the person(s) responsible for the design of this edition, please find them and yell at them about this.
• Is this a joke? It literally looks like the book was scanned and the images are being loaded on the kindle screen. Fail! Impossible to read.
• Most of this book is pictures & captions instead of text. In the text that does exist you will find a basic primer on typography that you can easily find on the internet. Compared to the reviews (that convinced me to buy), this is an extremely overrated book.
  
  This is a nice book to buy when you are excited about being a graphic designer. Given that one day you will actually want to do something with those aspirations, you will find this book severely lacking.
• I really disliked this book. It was required for a university typography class and I would not recommend it. If you are at all a visual learner, I can't begin to describe how unpleasant it is to try to read this. It looks like someone threw up type all over the pages with no rhyme or reason for placement, which it is what it is supposed to be teaching.
• See title. The entire book talks both about things that happened in history and things that people do in typography. But it doesn't say why people do these things in typography, or why that stuff happened in history, or why the historical facts are relevant. Let's look at one example passage and I will explain
  
  "In fifteenth-century Italy, humanist writers and scholars rejected gothic scripts in favor of the lettera antica, a classical mode of handwriting with wider, more open forms. The preference for lettera antica was part of the Renaissance (rebirth) of classical art and literature."
  
  Why did they reject gothic scripts? Were they too harsh looking? Was there too much embellishment? Were they harder to read easily? Did using wider and more open forms have a clear benefit? Was gothic just a fad and the fad was over? Did readers like letter antica more because it was easier to read? Or was it easier to draw, allowing more books to be made? How was it part of the renaissance, was it coincidental that it happened during the renaissance, or was it caused *by* the renaissance, or did it help *create* the writing renaissance?
  
  The entire book is like this. Including the parts where they talk about how typography is used. They say stuff, and you're left wondering how any of it works or why it's significant. The author will tell you that some people use a certain grid system and show you a picture of said grid system. But they won't say why those people do it, or what the benefits and disadvantages are of that system compared to others. It's just like "Hey, this grid system exists, see look." This means there is very little practical information in the book.
  
  Overall the book feels like the author wrote a bunch of post-it notes to remind themselves of things they already know. But they don't let the reader in on the background knowledge that makes those post-it notes relevant. So yeah, sorry for the negative review but I was pretty dissatisfied.
• This is another must have typography textbook to keep by your side. Ellen has a different approach to explaining the history and techniques of applying type in various mediums. She gives some history too with numerous references to other books to expand upon. Her examples illustrate her words poetically. I would highly recommend this along with Robert Bringhurst Elements of Typographic Style version 4.1. They compliment each other quite well.