Bringhurst's "Elements" is widely viewed as the next best thing to a typographic bible - even by many of those who don't agree with everything in it.

Regards,

T

Elements is indispensable in the overall, but if Ryan is going to choose one book to start, I wouldn't choose that. Something like Tracy's "Letters of Credit", Young's "Fonts & Logos", maybe Cabarga's "Bible" or even Lawson's "Anatomy" should come first, I think.

hhp

Thanks for the replies.

Elements does seem a bit daunting to me as a beginner, although I dont think it would hurt to add it to my library.

Thanks for the recommondations HPH. I will most likely try to find one of those books, as I plan to start off with learning the basics and using FontLab itself.

If your interest is specifically in type design, as opposed to designing with type, then I second Hrant's suggestion of Walter Tracy's Letters of credit, or Lawsons Anatomy of a typeface if you are looking for a more basic introduction. Bringhurst's Elements... is an excellent book, but most of it is concerned with the use of type rather than the making of type.

This is probably overload for a beginner, but I uploaded the "starter booklist" we distribute to new MA TD students here; it's a few pages long, so the really-recommended first twenty-one things to read are highlighted. (PDF saved for Acrobat 5, so all should see the highlights).

I just purchased Cabarga's "Logo Fonts & Lettering Bible" and I must say that it looks perfect for me. I'm excited to read it and learn some new tricks for creating my own fonts.

I will keep my eye out for Tracy's book as well, thanks everybody.

Ryan,

Have you looked at the Typophile Books section? It is a nice resource for book recommendations, including reviews by fellow Typophiles.

Awesome. Thanks Zara.

As you may have noticed, I'm new here. :D