Recommended Reading
Below is a list of recommended books on typography compiled by former TDC President Charles Nix. For more in depth reviews on a select number of publications, please see our Book Reviews section. We will be continually posting reviews of upcoming titles and if you’re an author and would like your book considered for review by the TDC, contact us to send a copy along for review.
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- “Fine Print” on Type
- 20th Century Type Designers
- A Short History of the Printed Word
- A Tally of Types
- ABC of Lettering and Printing Typefaces: A Complete Guide to the Letters and Typefaces Used for Typesetting and Printing
- American Wood Type, 1828–1900
- An Approach to Type
- An Essay on Typography
- Anatomy of a Typeface
- Arabic Typography
- Art of the Printed Book, 1455–1955
- Asymmetric Typography
- Better Type
- Book Typography: A Designer’s Manual
- Champ Rose, Wherein May Be Discovered the Roman Letters That Were Made by Geofroy Tory and Printed by Him at Paris in His Book Called “Champ Fleury”
- Counterpunch
- Design of Books
- Design Writing Research
- Designing Books
- Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography
- Dimensional Typography
- Emigre: Graphic Design into the Digital Realm
- Finer Points in the Spacing & Arrangement of Type
- First Principles of Typography
- Five Hundred Years of Printing
- Glossary of Typesetting Terms
- Herb Lubalin
- Hermann Zapf and His Design Philosophy
- In the Day’s Work
- Jan Tschichold
- John Baskerville of Birmingham
- Language Culture Type
- Lay In, Lay Out; En Ander Oud Zeer
- Layout in Advertising
- Leben und Werk des Typographen Jan Tschichold
- Letter Forms, Typographic and Scriptorial, Two Essays
- Letterletter
- Letters of Credit
- Life with Letters–As They Turned Photogenic
- Manuale Tipografico
- Meggs’ History of Graphic Design
- Mixing Messages
- Modern Typography, 2nd Edition
- Origin of the Serif
- Paragraphs on Printing
- Period Styles: A History of Punctuation
- Practice of Typography
- Printing Types: Their History, Form and Use
- Rookledge’s Classic International Typefinder
- Signs and Symbols
- Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
- Stylepedia
- Texts on Type
- The ABC’s of [triangle circle square], The Bauhaus and Design Theory
- The Art of Graphic Design
- The Art of Typo(icon)graphy
- The Education of a Typographer
- The Elements of Typographic Style
- The Encyclopaedia of Typefaces
- The Form of the Book
- The Metafont Book
- The New Typography
- The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography
- The Typographic Book, 1450–1935
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
- The Work of Jan Van Krimpen
- Thinking with Type
- Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering
- Type Rules!
- Typencyclopedia: A User’s Guide to Better Typography
- Typographers on Type
- Typography
- Typography
- Typography
- Typologia
- Typophile Chapbook: Designing a Book
- Typophile Chapbook: Harsh words
- Typophile Chapbook: MSS by WAD
- Typophile Chapbook: The Kelmscott Press, 1891 to 1898
- Typophile Chapbook: The Type Designs Made for Private and Commercial Use, 1896 to 1943
- Typophile Chapbook: Theodore Low De Vinne
- Typophiles Chapbook: Ands & ampersands, from the first century B.C. to the twentieth A.D
- Typophiles Chapbook: B. Franklin, 1706–1790
- Typophiles Chapbook: B.L.W. to the Typophiles
- Typophiles Chapbook: Books and printing
- Typophiles Chapbook: Postscripts on Dwiggins
- Typophiles Chapbook: William Caxton and His Quincentenary
- U&lc
- While You’re Reading
- Wolfgang Weingart: My Way to Typography
- Writing & Illuminating & Lettering