Twentieth Century Type Designers

Although the skeleton shapes of the letters of our alphabet hardly change, many skilled type designers have devoted much time, sometimes their whole lives, to drawing different versions of the outlines. This book is an introduction to the concept of typefaces and some of their creators.

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This new edition of the text first published in 1987 includes an examination of the latest technological developments in the design and composition of type, and introduces the work of some of the more recent designers to have made their mark this century. Although the skeleton shapes of the letters of our alphabet hardly change, many skilled type designers have devoted much time, sometimes their whole lives, to drawing different versions of the outlines. This book serves as an introduction to the concept of typefaces and to some of the personalities who have created them - Goudy, Rogers, Koch, Gill, Morison, Van Krimpen, Trump, Tschichold, Frutiger, and Zapf - and places them in the context of the enormous changes that have occurred the 20th century in the methods of creating and setting type.