Rating: 
Summary: One of the Few Really Fine Works on Classic Typography
Review: Along with the later book by James Felici, called "The Complete Manual of Typography" from Adobe Press, Bringhurst's book is a landmark work in English for any level of typgographic study.
Read it slowly and carefully for all the nuggets he leaves in a trail for us to follow. An amazing, brilliant effort no graphic design person should omit from his or her typographic education.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Few Really Fine Works on Classic Typography
Review: Along with the later book by James Felici, called "The Complete Manual of Typography" from Adobe Press, Bringhurst's book is a landmark work in English for any level of typgographic study.
Read it slowly and carefully for all the nuggets he leaves in a trail for us to follow. An amazing, brilliant effort no graphic design person should omit from his or her typographic education.
Rating:
Summary: Orientation To Fine Typography
Review: Bringhurst is individual genius who has synthesized the fragmentary knowledge about typography into a singular vision not seen since Tschichold's Die Neue Typographie. Bringhust's list of glyphs is indispensible; it has helped answer that qustion, "What is that puctuation mark called and is this how it should be used?" many times. His method of organizing type faces is historical, reflecting his romantic nature. Catherin Dixon's method of organizing and describing type faces is more practical, but does not offer the thrill that you have joined the ancient society of typographers.
Rating: 
Summary: Rather long for the material covered.
Review: Good information but rather a long text for what I got out of it. Gives much positioning/spacing information that I do intuitively anyway. The industry seems to love this book but I think that it could be better with a rewrite to make it shorter and give clearer headings and divisions. For an industry person fascinated by typefaces it does include comments on many different typeface origins.
Rating:
Summary: Only five stars?
Review: How can I possibly only give this work five stars? Robert Bringhurst's "Elements of Typographic Style" is more than a list of prescriptions. It is a definitive reference which explores the history behind typography, and uses that history to explain in its clear, lucid way why rules exist. Where the antiquated rules have no practical basis, Bringhurst is quick to dispell their necessity - but he neither dismisses them nor rejects them.The visual beauty of this book is apparent upon opening it - it is a model of all it preaches. It addresses ongoing issues of basic formatting and page shaping, but also modern needs such as setting more than one language in one text - including those that read right to left (e.g., Arabic scripts). The simple yet elegant writing style makes reading this work a pleasure in itself. Anyone who deals with type - and this now means most everyone - should read this book; its advice is complementary, or even superior, to a style manual. The Amazon editorial above lays out its sections, and as that shows, the book covers the full breadth of modern typography and page composition. I strongly recommend this book. It is an honour to read it.
Rating:
Summary: type junkie
Review: i had to buy this book for my typography class, this book is what it's all about. it explains in detail the origin and evolution of typography as its life is timelined to teach the deciple about what he needs. Bringhurst lets you know when to use type, how to use it, and where. as well as all the do's & dont's. I trust this man, you should too.
Rating:
Summary: Too Academic??
Review: I had to purchase this book for my typography class. I am a student at Pratt Institute. Though the book is great in terms of learning the formal "rules" of design it can get a little dry at points. The book is a wonderful example of "good" formal design. But maybe its me...sometimes I think some of the great design isnt with how well you adhere to the rules but how well you can fail with them. Its beautiful to take all the wonderful formal characteristics that are listed here and throw them out the window and let intution play a rule let this book influence you but dont let it hinder you
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I read the reviews here, so I decided to buy it. It is a GREAT investment. Not only it is instructive, a serious reference book, but it is also a pleasure to read. It has turn my typography passion all new again! Good for young/veteran designers, and whoever loves design.
Rating: 
Summary: An anal examination of type.
Review: If you are into fonts in a big way you'll like this book. If you design fine books you'll enjoy it. Much on history. The section equating musical scales seemed insane to me. The derivations of the names of the fonts (obscure mythological or operatic characters) is interesting but useless. Most of the book is useless to me at this point in my design career. I'm looking for something more concrete. Something that compares the legibility and usability of various fonts or gives examples of why a designer would choose one font over another for which type of job. I was looking, perhaps, for a discussion on the relative merits of slab serifs vs. other types of serifs, or x-height and usability, or think and thin strokes on serif type. I just finished reading "The Elements of Graphic Design" by Alex W. White which, for me, was much more instructive, giving me concrete reasons for using various styles. Not to say I didn't learn something. The section on analphabetic characters was enlightening as was the comparison of different fonts that really aren't what they seem to be (two entirely different fonts named Garamond). I now know that when people speak about the relative excellence of Garamond they probably don't know what they are talking about. Two stars may seem low but I think people here generally overrate things. I didn't find it very readable either. Still I'd like to have it in my library, good reference on rare occasions. If you are a font fanatic, go for it.
Rating:
Summary: The book to own
Review: If you were allowed only one book on typography, it should be this one. Bringhurst is a poet. He loves language, written language, and all its parts. That love comes through in the text and the visual presentation of every page. Bringhurst advocates a subdued typographic style. This makes good sense in the vast majority of cases, since typography is the servant of the text that it carries. Like any good servant, it should be unobtrusive, well dressed, and competent to handle every task it is given, quietly and promptly. Bringhurst demonstrates nearly everything he says, starting first with this book itself. The book is a beautiful artifact, with an elegant and informative page layout. Body text, side- and foot-notes, references, running titles, and more - they all fit together well on the page. Each kind of information is set off only slightly, but clearly and predictably. The content is well organized: prose in the early chapters, reference material in the later chapters and appendices, and all the intermediates in the middle of the book. Diagrams and tables are minimalist and communicative. The text spans centuries, from ancient Egyptian page layouts to the rationale behind Unicode. Bringhurst is passionate about typography's history, and insists that it inform every modern decision about print and printing. He embraces the new just as much, and is careful to note the strengths and weaknesses of each typographic technology. Bringhurst discusses far too many topics to touch on here. In every case, though, he brings his poet's sense to all of the writing, using witty, descriptive language for even the most mundane of technical issues. The one weakness I saw was in the geometry of page layouts. I like his mathematical rigor and esthetic practicality. Still, I think that the number of different constructions was more a tribute to what can be done than to what serves a real need. This is the best, most complete text I know on book design. As Bringhurst points out, there are lots of other uses for type than books, but he chose books as his subject - I have no problem with that limitation. The only problem I saw, and not really a problem with the book itself, is its subtlety. The nuances (well, most of the nuances) he discusses are important. Beginners, however, may not see the significance of small matters. Once a reader's eye it tuned to the fine detail, however, this book is the most helpful I know.
| 
