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Just My Type

a Book About Fonts
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Tulsa City-County Library.
LDuke2012
Feb 27, 2013LDuke2012 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This is my 2nd attempt to write a review on the book “Just My Type” by Simon Garfield. I wrote this lovely review that got eaten by my phone so here we go again. A causal browse through my bookshelves will indicate that a book called “just my type” would be right up my preferred genre’s alley but you would be wrong. This isn’t mass market romantic fiction but a book about fonts. I’m writing my review in Arial Narrow point 11 but have no idea what it will turn into when I copy and paste into the library and goodreads review sites. I recommend this book to just about everyone that has an interest in history, art, graphic design, or how the alphabet used can make or break a sales pitch. I think you have to develop an eye for fonts like you develop an ear for sound when learning a foreign language or musical instrument. It is for this reason I give this book 4 instead of 5 stars, simply because I couldn’t figure out what font the main text was printed in. In the “good old days” of publishing a hard back book would often have a page at the end of the book saying this book was published in XYZ font, # point on an ABC printing press. I always looked at those pages and thought, Huh, why does the average reader care. I think the average reader doesn’t but that was a subtle marketing tactic by the publishers and perhaps required by the font designers so credit was given where credit was due. The author may have stated the type of font used but I missed it. I found the info about digital fonts sad but inevitable. I have always known that fonts played a big part in marketing messages and advertisements, in which the way an alphabetic letter is shapes brings out differing emotions in people. I didn’t really get into whys and wherefores of different fonts until I started selling Yellow Book ads and many business owners wanted a font that matched their logo in their display ads. I wanted their ads to be legible. I truly believe a good font in most cases is undemanding of its reader because of good clarity and legibility. I’ve seen a Gutenberg Bible and understand the revolution that he caused by inventing the movable type printing press. (That was a 4th or 5th grade trip to the Gutenberg museum in Mainz Germany, http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=29&L=1 (where my more pressing concern was what I was going to drink at lunch, we were asked while traveling from school on the army school bus for our orders so the restaurant would be ready for us. The options were Coke (forbidden in my house) and mineral water (which can be delicious or nasty depending on the brand and I didn’t know which brand would be offered), & tap water was most assuredly not being served by the wait staff that accommodated 60 plus American school kids after the trip to the museum)). But since I could read some German I read the placards while touring the museum and admired the fancy work done by the monks in the pre-mass printing bibles on display. Fonts have come a long way since Gutenberg and this is an enjoyable read.