Name: Thinking with Type
Rating: 4.26829268292683 (41 reviews)
ISBN: 9781797226828

Ellen Lupton

A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students (3rd Edition, Revised and Expanded)

Thinking with Type

The organization of letters on a blank sheet—or screen—is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills. Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no's to avoid).

A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students

Thinking with Type: A Primer for Deisgners

matej yangwao

Onboarding to fonts, brings overview, history, AA, how to use typography while sending message, tweaking right amount of text, less is more nuance.

Seems great intro but not any deep dive.

≥The bottom line is that when typography is used in a creative and sensible way, it adds value to the words and gives them structure, allowing the meaning to be conveyed in a more concise and impactful manner.

≥Text positioning is, therefore, vitally important in terms of the overall look of your work.

≥When positioning text correctly, a process called “kerning” needs to be used. This helps the designer manually adjust the space between each letter and ensures that letters that don't sit next to one another naturally can be tweaked to look more visually pleasing.

≥You also need to make sure that you’re not using too many words to get your message across. A message can often be communicated effectively with fewer words, and readers don’t need to be confused with excess bulk. Try getting to the point with fewer words and focus on being concise.

≥Just as designers should avoid filling up space with arbitrary visual effects, writers should remember that no one loves their words more than they do.

Erik Wallace

From time to time I buy resource books and out of all of my purchases this may be the most handy. Besides being beautifully laid out and a pleasure to read, there is a wealth of information for designers of all experience levels. Thinking with Type provides a nice overview of the history of typography starting with the first typefaces to desktop publishing. From type the subject matter shifts to basic design principles and there is also a nice intro to grids. To top it off there is an excellent appendix full of wonderful resources: proofreaders marks, keyboard shortcuts, the correct usage of dashes, and lastly, worthy advice on all things design. Fantastic.

Our all time best selling book is now available in a revised and expanded second edition. Thinking with Type is the definitive guide to using typography in visual communication, from the printed page to the computer screen. This revised edition includes forty-eight pages of new content, including the latest information on style sheets for print and the web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, the use of small caps and enlarged capitals, as well as information on captions, font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering. Throughout the book, visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typographic form—what the rules are and how to break them. Thinking with Type is a type book for everyone: designers, writers, editors, students, and anyone else who works with words. The popular online companion to Thinking with Type (www.thinkingwithtype.com) has been revised to reflect the new material in the second edition.

Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition

It was a perfect introduction to typefaces and how types should be designed and managed in different environments (as the author said “Make the shoe fit, not the foot”).

I’ve learned what kerning is, the difference between a typeface and font, glyph and character, and many other things. It’s a great book and glad I read it. 

Fatih Arslan

It was a perfect introduction to typefaces and how types should be designed and managed in different environments (as the author said “Make the shoe fit, not the foot”).

I’ve learned what kerning is, the difference between a typeface and font, glyph and character, and many other things. It’s a great book and glad I read it. 

Oleg Stirbu

I actually enjoyed the book very much, but I don't understand why are Lupton's book titles so misleading?!
The book covers not only typography but some aspects of UX, Info-graphics, Grids, Web standards and some philosophical aspects of graphic design.

Thinking with Type A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students (3rd Edition, Revised and Expanded)

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