Typographers on Type: An Illustrated Anthology from William Morris to the Present Day

Rating:
Summary: I didn't know type could be so dull.
Review: I honestly had trouble staying awake reading this one. I'm very interested in type design and typography but the pace of this book made me feel like a kid with attention deficit disorder watching C-Span. There's a lot of interviews so definitely get your money's worth. Illustrations are bit sparse for a book on type and the whole book comes across as überconservative.

Rating:
Summary: A book on type should be designed better than this.
Review: The four stars are for the content, which is generally excellent and has not been published in other books. Everyone will have their favorite chapters, but the interview with Dwiggins is particularly illuminating and amusing.

My problem with this book is its astonishingly poor design. The layout of the pages works well, even though there are few illustrations. The paper is a shiny, bright white that positively hurts my eyes. If the book featured photography, I could understand. But it's all black type on snow -- nasty. Not to mention that the stock itself stinks. It has a heavy chemical odor, and consequently is difficult to hold at a comfortable reading distance.

If Rauri McLean did not want to use ligatures, he should have choosen a type that did not require their use. The crashing fs disturb me. Also, the beginnings of chapters are not flagged well. They begin with a drop cap followed by a short introduction in italics. This would probably work if the drop caps were larger, or in a different color. As it is, it's difficult to pick out a subject by simply thumbing through the book.

I understand that McLean was trained by the great typographer Jan Tschichold, whom I admire enormously. However, I don't see much of his influence in this glaring white, smelly book.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughts of Great Typographers
Review: This is a great compilation of the thoughts of numerous renowned typographers and type designers. It is not light reading, but consequently provides great insight. McLean has done a great job with all aspects of the book, including its layout