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She has written this book for practitioners,
positioning it as "the designer's
guide to professional typography." She explains "what to do" with type and "how
to do type". She unashamedly focus on MAC computers because that's what she
uses, and that's what the design community mostly uses.
I read "Type Rules!" from a layman's point of view
and found it satisfying. I
feel impacted by typography whenever I select a font from the drop-down menu of
my computer, or when a simple word styled in an Art Deco font, manages to convey
a whole historical era to me. And with "Type Rules!" I could also see typography
from a layman's point of view, as there are good photos and graphics of designs
that convey meaning well beyond the words they embrace.
I now have a much better appreciation of type and
the role of designers in
applying typography.
No doubt it's a book that will be read by many
students, because it's also a
teaching book with exercises, updated to cover software programmes like such as
InDesign CS4 and Quark8.
This is the book's third edition and Strizver
offers updated information on
current type trends, such as OpenType, font management utilities, font search
methods, scaling logos, and interactive typography. It reviews methods for
customizing fonts, techniques for setting type, common mistakes to avoid, and
guidelines for selecting the right type for the job.
It's a book with design in mind, not just because
that's it's target market, but
because its presented in a smart layout, with oodles of example of practical
workman-like type, as well as type of the more artistic, original and intriguing
variety. Or in the words of its publishers, the book design is an embodiment of
principles and practices of typography design.
Strizver's credentials for writing this book are
impressive. She spent nine
years as Director of Typeface Development at International Typeface
Corporation (ITC), where she developed over 300 text and display typefaces for
Designers. She founded The Type Studio in the USA and was the Creative and
Production director of Upper and lowercase (U&lc), an award-winning
international journal for typography. And she currently writes a monthly column
for the ITC and Agfa Monotype Typography web sites.
If you still don't think that typography is an
appetising subject, you can
always go to Strizver's "Gourmet Typography" classes or master classes at the
Type Directors Club. If you live in the USA that is.
In the meantime, for an authoritative,
interesting and practical guide to
typography, a great starting point is the book "Type Rules!".
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