Hi Endre. Tiffany and Eben are maintaining a list of books about typography and type design. You’ll find stuff both on type design history and practice depending on what you’re looking for. To get started in type design all-around, there is what some people call “the triumvirate”, which includes:

• Letters of Credit by Walter Tracy
• Anatomy of a Typeface by Alexander Lawson
• Counterpunch by Fred Smeijers

Good luck!

I thought Bringhurst was one ot the triumvirate.

http://typophile.com/node/15349?

You’re right, Mili, I apologize for the mistake. That must have been some sort of subliminal misquote as I tend to regard Counterpunch as more fundamental than The Elements of Typographic Style indeed.

Looking at the new H&FJ site I see this nice list of recommended books.

And the best of all is actually the web site of G. Briem.

And the most essential is just opening faces you admire in a type design program, and studying them.

Endre,

As William said, Briem’s site is a superb resource.

As you’re searching for information other than the technical, I found David Earl’s interviews in Designing Typefaces interesting for gaining an insight into the philosophies of various type designers, including Barnbrook, Hoefler, Porchez and Carter.

Also, there’s Karen Cheng’s, ’Designing Type’. There’s been much debate about the usefulness of this book. I for one found it useful.

Typophile itself is a priceless reference for gleaning pearls of wisdom if you dig around.

Thanks a lot guys. I have a few of these books already though I might have to get a new bringhurst one (my second copy is almost worn out from use;-)

I will definetely get the ones I haven’t got and then it’s just a matter of getting the time to read them (I’m contemplating going back to school - simply to get some more time to study;-)

I’m just starting to read Karen Cheng’s Designing Type. At first blush I was really very impressed with it. It looks wonderful. And, then, to be fair, I must admit that I realized that part of its impressiveness is because it’s printed on heavy paper: it is literally a weighty tome. Flipping through it and seeing all the examples of letterforms only reinforces my sense that it will be aterrific reference.

That said, it does follow a now customary, but annoying habit: a seemingly very good book on design that is itself a bad example of design: tiny, light-faced sans serif main body type.

Can someone please fill me in on the “much debate about the usefulness of this book”?

Stephen Tiano
Book Designer, Page Compositor & Layout Artist

See here –
http://www.typotheque.com/articles/designing_type_/

See this review by Peter Biľak, who is a superb type designer.

Essentially his complaint is that the title is misleading, as Cheng doesn’t approach type design as a type designer would. The best examples of the latter are “Letters of Credit” by Walter Tracy and the Briem web site.

Still, the comparisons are done well and well displayed, so it is a pleasure to read, and helpful. The bottom line is that the book is valuable, and does something that you won’t find elsewhere. I find the comparison of proportions of the caps, particularly nice. So it is a useful book, though more limited than you might expect from its title.

Oh, and I agree with you about the light weight of Univers for the text, on shiny paper; that kind of thing doesn’t inspire confidence.

If you are designing type you will no doubt to much more of she has done by opening different fonts in a Font creation program, and pasting the outlines one over the other for comparison.

This is the first dip in the water required of incoming students at Reading http://wiki.typefacedesign.org/matd/published/beginner%27s+references

Thanks very much, Dave, for the link to the list of Beginner’s References.

Although I can see where the Cheng book may still prove very valuable—I guess I was sucked into it by the blurb, as Peter Biľak’s review warned. I guess I really should have gone for Walter Tracy’s Letters of Credit. This is particularly annoying because—after a spree—my book-buying budget is on a complete hold till I get paid for the job I’m currently working on.

Ah, nice to see that our Thomas Phinney made it to the Reading reading list.

I’m reading two books at the moment from Adrian Frutiger, they called:

Der Mensch und seine Zeichen

Buch der Schriften. Anleitungen für Schriftentwerfer

The books are in german, I’m not shure if there is a english version around, maybe someone knows here at typophile.

Cheers!

__________________________________________________
Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz.

Are there any books that really explains how to draw glyphs after the designfase is done (vector drawing skills)?

Leslie Cabarga’s book Learn FontLab Fast is essential if you are using FontLab, and his Logo, Font and Lettering Bible is also very informative.

My impression from Typophile is that most font drawing these days is done directly in a font design program, though some people keep sketch books for ideas.

I second what William says — Leslie Cabarga’s books have great tips for drawing with Bezier curves.