Type Now: A Manifesto, Plus Work So Far - Softcover

With the desktop publishing revolution of the 1980s, typographic design came within the reach of anyone with a home computer. Since that time, we have seen a boom in the production of new fonts. This book takes stock of what was achieved during this protean period. Smeijers, a first-generation digital type designer, knows the possibilities of computer technology, but nevertheless argues for the continuing validity of the traditional skills of drawing and shape-making. He suggests that the trends of the recent past are already exhausted. As new industry standards are introduced, font design must again become a job for engineers rather than self-trained designers. The book concludes that the number of new fonts being introduced must be reduced, and it ends with a proposal for a new "moral code" for type designers.

Smeijers is a Dutch type designer who specializes in typographic research and development for product manufacturers.