Jun 20, 2018AaronAardvark1940 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Nearly seven centuries have passed since Gutenberg's invention. Garfield discusses a bit of written communication that occurred before that time, and then spends a fair amount of time explaining what fonts are, how type was made, and how typesetting has been done. The bulk of the book identifies many fonts, describing their characteristics. A potentially dry topic is made interesting through numerous examples and a sprinkling of humor. "Comic sans walks in a bar and the bartender says, 'We don't serve your type'." Well, maybe you have to read the book...
As the author discusses various fonts, their creation, evolution, and use, much of his text concerns the feeling aroused by each font. This seemed a bit over the top to me, but when I got to page 174, where he set out ten versions of the lower case "g," I found that there were versions that I didn't like, and that they were easy to rank by preference. If you have ever wondered why your favorite books or movies have titles or text that draw your eye and seem to tell you something about the topic to be covered, this is the book for you.
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Just My Type