Letter Fountain: On Printing Types

Everything you could ever want to know about printing letters and numbers

Looking back as far as man's first efforts to communicate with visual signs and drawings, Letter Fountain is a completely unique typeface handbook: in addition to examining the form and anatomy of every letter in the alphabet (as well as punctuation marks and special characters), the book cross-references type designs with important works of art and art movements from Gutenberg's times until today. Further attention is given to the esthetics of the digital age and typographical recommendations such as the choice of the right typeface for a job. Rounding out the guide are an in-depth comparison between sans-serif and serif typefaces, an essay about measuring systems and indications, advice about typographic rules, plus a manual for developing digital fonts.

Over 150 typefaces, their origins, and font characteristics are discussed in detail, visually explained by full page tables including scale, weight, and slope increments. The extensive appendix contains a general index, one on typefaces (more than 300 are depicted in the book), an index on over 250 type designers, an exhaustive index on type founders from Gutenberg to present, a graphical dictionary, and a bibliography for further reading.

The original Dutch edition Letterfontein received a Certificate for Typographic Excellence from Type Directors Club New York (TDC) in 2010, and a red-dot design award from the Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Special features include:

• thoroughly hardbound in half linen with three ribbon bookmarks
• 144 pages appendix with resourceful glossary and indices
• convenient typographic ruler with conversions between four measurement systems and hidden shortcuts for your Apple keyboard!