A Grammar of Typography: Classical Design in the Digital Age

The complete guide to achieving classical type and book design with a keyboard and screen.

How do we absorb the lessons of the printing tradition’s hot metal past and bring them to the digital era? Distinguished designer Mark Argetsinger guides the reader through every aspect of modern book design and production ― from the choosing the proper typeface and leading of type to the choice of paper and specifications for binding.

Chapters include “The Classical Tradition,“ “A Short History of Typographical Variations,“ “Desktop Publishing,“ “Composition,“ and “OpenType Fonts and Font Editing.“

Illustrated with over 425 images and diagrams, many in color, Argetsinger discusses and delineates typography as a discipline, situating it among other art forms. Two appendices cover the history of cast-type ornaments and of Greek typography. Throughout there is special reference to the historical printers’ grammars―from Moxon to De Vinne―that serve as a present-day apprenticeship in the traditions of classical typography. Whether a novice or an expert, readers will gain a deeper appreciation for text, and all its rules of form, that can make words on a page a joy to the eye.