Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly Ambitious
Review: This is a 370-page college-level textbook about the use of printed letterforms, or what is more widely and commonly known as Òtypography.Ó It is surprisingly ambitious, in the sense that it makes an attempt to discuss an enormous range of issues, large and small, related to the history, theory, and practice of typographic design. The result, which interweaves an astonishing amount of text with hundreds (maybe thousands) of black-and-white illustrations (of mixed quality), is easily enough to fill two or three volumes. The first 270 pages consist of 20 chapters with such general headings as ÒReadability and Legibility,Ó ÒTypographic Hierarchy,Ó and ÒThe Grid Structure.Ó Within each chapter, there are a dozen or more subsections on such topics as ÒDesigning with Two Families of Type,Ó ÒLetterspacing and Its Effect on Readability,Ó and ÒColor Symbolism Through Time.Ó Intended to function also as a type specimen book, it ends with 75 pages of type samples, while, throughout the volume, the texts on the pages are purposely set in varying type styles, with annotations about typeface, size, and leading. How admirable to have put all this information under one cover. Yet, sadly, it suffers the critical flaw that, too often, the typography and layout of the book contradict its own principles. For example, nearly all the text is set in 8.5 point type with 12 point leading, regardless of typeface. While convenient for type comparisons, the effect of this is devastating for the reader, since some type styles can survive dense paragraphs at that setting, while others cannot. In the bookÕs opening pages, the boldface, small cap headings for ÒdedicationÓ and ÒacknowledgementsÓ are so small and tightly letterspaced that they are all but unreadable. These strange errors, of which there are many throughout the book, are not quibbles. The relationship between what one says (content) and how one speaks (form) is essential in design, which is largely about form and function, and, in the end, the book undermines its own credibility. It is, after all, an arrangement of type about type, a book about book design. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 2, Winter 1998-99)
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid at all costs
Review: This is unequivocally the most poorly written textbook I've ever encountered in my life. I have no idea how this got published. If you casually flip through the book as a cursory review, you'll find that it LOOKS nice, (On almost every other page there's an enlarged sample of a font - complete with an unnecessary, meticulously hand-drawn portrait of it's creator) But once you begin an attempt to actually read the text, it's migraine time. The writing is so distractingly bad that I'm at the point where after reading this book for a few hours, I find myself having learned nothing because I keep finding awkwardly written sentences and revising them in my head instead of retaining the information they're supposed to convey. As an example, proving why no one should ever spend money on this book, here is an excerpt from the first chapter: "Those who could read were looked to for advice in all types of disputes and emergencies, their knowledge and judgment were unchallenged. Scribes - those who could write - were believed in some cultures to have power over human life, if an Egyptian scribe wrote your name in the Book of the Dead, your time was up in this world! Doubtless, the scribes did little to dissuade this myth. Scribes were trained in Egypt from the time they were about five years old. Today we have abolished this controlled system of learning writing and reading skills. (But a parallel to that practice today can be seen today in the knowledge of computer programming.) In ancient times, hand-copied scrolls were expensive to produce, (not many people were taught to write); any scrolls were cherished, valued and cared for from one generation to the next."
Rating: 
Summary: Very poorly written, not always accurate or relevant
Review: This may be the most poorly written book I've read. There are numerous spelling, grammatical, and even typographic errors in every chapter. In addition, there is a great deal of irrelevant historical information (some of which is dubitable, some of which is simply inaccurate) which the reader is obliged to skip over. It is ostensibly provided as background, but rarely serves that purpose. Occasionally it is downright insulting (purely as a random example: she actually takes a paragraph to explain that the 13th century is the 1200s, and why--do we need this?). Finally, the inaccuracy one sees in the world history here makes one question the accuracy of the typographic information provided.
That said, there is quite a bit of information packed in here. If you are a beginner looking for historical or introductory information on typography, you may find it here. The book does serve as a decent typographic specimen book also, which is nice. (However, even some of the specimens are not well done--several of the typefaces shown in Chapter 6 show pixellation. The Universal font on page 94 is especially degraded.)
I do hope that many of the book's problems may be worked out for a future edition. I wish they had been worked out for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: User-Friendly Typography!
Review: Typography has never been an easy or interesting subject for most people. It is rare to find a book that explores and explains Typography in an interesting and modern. This book does just that. Having taught the subject, I used this book as a basis for my course. It is a wonderful primer for students and a great refresher for typographers. The information is well-written and presented. The book provides wonderful exercises and quizes at the end of each chapter and great typographic examples. My only minor criticism is that some pages are not the easiest to read because of the font and font size that is used - but this is very minor and easily overlooked. I whole-heartedly recommend this book!
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