Thinking
with Type

Ever since I wrote <span
class=95StoneSerifIt>Looking Good in Print: A
Guide to Basic Design many years ago, clients and students have
been asking me for the best book about type. There are many candidates, but
Ellen Lupton’s recent Thinking
with Type from Princeton Architectural Press is a winner for both
quality and value.

It’s a refreshingly simple book in
terms of page layout and presentation of the myriad details involved in setting
type. You don’t have to study it; you can read it for enjoyment, while learning
how to use type effectively in print and online. Best of all, the book costs
only $19.95.

I’ve spent more than $50 on some
type books that haven’t had one-tenth as much to say as Ellen Lupton manages to
communicate in just 176 pages of concise, conversational prose, augmented by
visuals large enough to be studied. Reading <span
style=’font-size:11.0pt’>Thinking with Type is like sitting in
the audience at one of her presentations, where her passion and enthusiasm for
quality typography come through to everyone.

Finer
Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type

Although the tools used to set
type change, the rules of typographic excellence have been constant for
centuries. And although each generation tends to want to reinvent the wheel,
typographic classics sometimes offer the most inspirational writing.

One of my favorites is Geoffrey
Dowding’s Finer
Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type. This slim,
elegantly designed and printed volume provides an excellent and highly
accessible review of the basics of text alignment and spacing, in a way that
drives home information that you may have encountered elsewhere but that failed
to make an impression on you.

First published in 1966 and now
available from Hartley and Marks, the book provides advice and straightforward
illustrations that will motivate you to pay attention to the tiniest details of
typography to achieve grace and easy reading in everything you produce.

Jim
Krause’s Color Index

Confused about color? You’re not
alone. Choosing the right color palette for your corporate identity—your
ads, brochures, newsletters, and Web site—is crucial.

Luckily, help is at hand: <span
class=95StoneSerifIt>Jim Krause’s Color Index:
Over 1100 Color Combinations, CYMK and RGB Formulas for Print and Web Media,
published by Turtleback. This volume is slim enough that you can keep it
constantly by your side, next to your computer, yet you’ll probably never
outgrow it. It’s one of those books you’ll refer back to time after time.

Complete
Manual of Typography

Effective graphic design is based
on choosing the right typefaces and using them intelligently. Few books do as
good a job of relating the centuries-old craft of typography to today’s digital
environment as James Felici’s <span
style=’font-size:11.0pt’>Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting
Perfect Type, from Adobe Press.

This is the best single volume
available for anyone who wants to combine the aesthetic aspects of typography
with the capabilities of today’s page-layout programs.

Author and design
consultant Roger C. Parker invites authors and publishers to Test Your
Newsletter Marketing IQ at www.onepagenewsletters.com.