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Typography books:
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Top Reddit reviews mentioning Typography books:
Every designer should read Robert Bringhurst’s The elements of typographic style at least once a year.
Ellen Lupton's book is the first recommended reading for my degree I guess thats a place to start will update when I get home and see the full list if you want to know what a uni recommends?
Link to amazon copy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1568989695/
I can’t recommend Müller-Brockmann’s “Grid Systems” enough, especially if you find yourself drawn to Swiss layout and typography.
Are you also trying to learn baybayin? Kudos, good luck.
Myself, I was trying to learn the textura quadrata ("diploma"-style stuff). But a well-rounded resource is The Calligrapher's Bible by David Harris. It covers both historical and modern styles, with a suggested ductus (or stroke order) for, like, a hundred hands. Amazon link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Calligraphers-Bible-Complete-Alphabets-Draw/dp/0764156152
Unfortunately I haven't read it myself but "Thinking with type" seems to be a popular one lots of designers recommend to each other, doesn't seem that expensive on Amazon either.
^(Reason I haven't read it is that all the books I've read on design have been in my country's language (european))
here's another suggestion then. When you're looking for input on your work, make sure it's 100% what you would show a client. Would you show a client your work here with the text defaulted? Find the font and install it. You want to put your best foot forward.
I really liked this book when i was learning. https://smile.amazon.com/Logo-Lettering-Bible-Leslie-Cabarga/dp/1581804369/ref=sr\_1\_3?crid=3HUBLHLXIFH6K&keywords=logo+font+and+lettering+bible&qid=1642205124&sprefix=logo+font+and+%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-3
Only the ones that don't use Comic Sans. Although I never understood the hate for that?
PSA: https://www.amazon.com/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1592407463 Fascinating book. Highly recommend.
Googling and glancing at it this seems decent:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
(I mostly learned LaTeX from Lamport's 1994 LaTex book in the mid 2000s, but wouldn't recommend it today.)
I think the Vector Bootcamp series on YouTube is pretty good.
This book is quite good. I was written a couple decades ago, but the info on using bezier curves is still solid.
Also regarding Autotrace - it can be a very useful tool if you tweak the settings. I find trying a few different settings and cleaning up the best one is still a better use of time and energy than tracing a photo yourself. Of course the complexity you want is a big factor in that.
I got started by learning Blackletter (Gothic) calligraphy from here, then progressed to other hands after purchasing The Calligrapher's Bible, which has 100 different hands in it (although not really, since it counts miniscules and majiscules as separate hands, so something such as italic would count as two hands - Italic uppercase and Italic lowercase - rather than just one).
I recommend buying Lamport and reading it. Then write a paper using it. If you need stuff not in Lamport, then the LaTeX Companion is the go-to source.
Not what you wanted, but for reference these books are infinitely better than all the videos in the world plus stackoverflow.
Consider checking out Grid Systems in Graphic Design as an introduction to the grid for structuring and arranging your layouts. Or if you prefer a more contemporary example, Making and Breaking the Grid.
Genuinely curious to know how one becomes an art director without ever designing and/or learning these fundamentals? I can see being a designer and then getting promoted over the years to the point where you don't do design anymore and thus have fallen out of practice, but these are rudimentary skills that I would assume anyone practicing graphic design would know.
Just use this book
This is an excellent question. Please get yourself a copy of Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style 4.0. This will be one of your most valuable books as a type designer and will be a useful resource time and time again. (It's also valuable for typesetting and layout - you'll want good typography to promote your type.) The Appendix "The Working Alphabet" in the back will be exactly what you're looking for. I sometimes use this section lists on a daily basis.
Are you using software such as FontLab? Many international languages use Latin + an additional marking which modifies the letter. So as long as those markings have been designed, and specified as to where they would connect on a Latin character, the software can automatically combine these elements and generate the international characters for you.
Agreed!
>It's the first line of the copy that's not indented, not the first paragraph at the top of a column.
Or, to quote one of the most respected typographers and author of The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst,
The function of a paragraph indent is to mark a pause, setting the paragraph apart from what precedes it. If a paragraph is preceded by a title or subhead, the indent is superfluous and can therefore be omitted...
Just as one would not omit the indent from one page to another page, you would not remove the indent from one column to another column. How else can the reader tell that the sentence on the next column is not a continuation of the previous paragraph?
The exception is when there's a break within the column, such as a new subsection. In this case, you do not indent. An indentation would be superfluous. (Example)
If in doubt OP, pull out any book with single or multiple columns. Best practice (on this particular matter at least) can be found everywhere.
Good luck with your assignment!
Look up the Facebook group "Copperplate Script For All". TONS of information and support. On Youtube, look for videos, including those from Dr. Joseph Vitolo, who is a leading authority, and a down-to-earth instructor.
One of the best books to learn from is this: https://smile.amazon.com/Mastering-Copperplate-Calligraphy-Step-Step/dp/0486409511/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2AE668GZ9HME6&keywords=eleanor+winters+mastering+copperplate+calligraphy&qid=1648595321&sprefix=copperplate+elea%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1
If you feel you want more intensive training, there are lots of good instructors giving online classes, including Kestrel Montez, Suzanne Cunningham and David Grimes.
Good luck in your pursuits - Calligraphy is a wonderful hobby, and can be a lucrative business!
Ellen is a renowned designer. And type is so critical in design and communications. Here’s a great one:
The term for this is <em>typography</em>, and you can learn a lot about it in a superb book called <em>The Elements of Typographic Style</em> by Robert Bringhurst.
It's one I actually learnt in school and from my Nana as she always wrote like that. It's really lovely to write, the capital letters are the key. (Showing my age 😂)
Most calligraphy books with have it listed with the stroke order and slant etc.
I would recommend having a look at your local library to see what bikes they have.
There appears to be quite a range of books specific only to copperplate, so see if they have one similar at the library.
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Copperplate-Calligraphy-Step-Step/dp/0486409511
Now I was to get my nib and ink out again! I recommend using a nib and ink as you need a really soft flexible nib like the old days, fountain pens and brush pens just won't do the same soft fluid script.
A fun book for anyone who wants to read more about typography is Just My Type by Simon Garfield !
There’s also the Wikipedia entries for type designers Eric Gill (pervert! Don’t forget it!!) and Matthew Carter (not a pervert, or at least not more so than the rest of us). Type people are weird. Thank goodness we have them!
Great book for applying the analytical mindset of engineers to design problems
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956
Most good design is about consistency, reused patterns, harmonious relationships in color, sizing, etc. Good design is more predictable than you think. Once you understand the patterns, the design process will become a lot more manageable. You may not be great, but you can get to be good enough.
A absolutely recommend a text-only format and to store it along with the source code in version control.
I've used reStructuredText for smaller documentations and LaTeX for larger ones. (I also used the LEO text editor to document a large library in HTML/chm, it is interesting but this leans more to the experimental side).
reStructuredText has some specific support which makes it more powerful than Markdown, for example it has extensive support for formatted code listings, and can add tables of content. It has many output options. You can convert it to wikitext, using the pandoc vonversion utility. Also, github can render it. There is a python pip package called restview which renders your document in the browser, including links, while you type it - this works very smoothly.
With LaTeX, code listings (I guess you don't need them here) be done using the "minted" Package. What makes LaTeX extremely good specifically for the purpose of documentation is, apart from a very consistent formatting, its support for a keyword index. And this is something you really need to make information discoverable in a large documentation. It is actually fun to build it. You can compile documents to different paper sizes, one in B5 which fits well as a PDF on a medium screen, and one for printing on A4 paper, for example. With the right font settings, it looks really really good and top notch readable.
Book recommendation (and a good example on how to do it well) : Leslie Lamport, LaTeX, A Document Preparation System.
Edit: Also, I have good experiences with inkscape for graphics. Readers love graphics.
Edit: Racket's scribble has been mentioned. I think it is good.
The Logo, Font & Lettering Bible" by Leslie Cabarga has been a favorite since I got it fifteen years ago. It's the most timeless must-have on my shelf
Are you looking for Typography specifically? If so, I can recommend The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.
ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VWu6Eb5FA8FA6 Amazon
> You’re using too many points.
It turns out I was using too few, actually. I drew this font in illustrator by using as little points as possible (I'm lazy), but Fontcreator couldn't deal with some of the long handles, which fucked some of the curves up.
I know what a 'good' font is supposed to look like, but as I've pointed out before: that's not what I'm going for.
(As for that Bible, I had a look at it on amazon, but the front and back cover have some of the worst typography I've ever seen, so I think I'll pass.)
Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I also found this book > https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
Thinking with type second edition https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
Grid systems in graphic design: A visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers and three dimensional designers (German and English Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/3721201450/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_w1MtCb7YYFE0J
If you’re talking about brush lettering or anything in that kinda style, I’d recommend this book as a basic foundation on how to structure your strokes (it’s a calligraphy book but brush lettering is based on the same principles).
I second/third/n’th Tombow pens for brush lettering, but once you get the basics down you can also use fun stuff like Crayola markers or anything with a vaguely chubby nib.
Rhodia makes excellent paper that won’t bleed but is rather pricey.