Type Matters!

Why would I care about a book like Type Matters? Back at the beginning of the PC era; Apple sought to differentiate itself through its understanding of design. Steve Jobs had the Macintosh team apply the knowledge he’d gained dropping into a college course on typography. Fonts and kerning became important.Type MattersJobs also drove his team to distraction. The original Macintosh operating system had a 2D graphics library called QuickDraw that was a core part of the system. It could create primitive objects such as lines, rectangles, polygons and arcs. Jobs berated his developers. They didn’t have an oval or a rounded rectangle in its capabilities. He took them outside looked around the real world and pointed these shapes out to them.Decades later, we care about the principles of UX; but don’t pay quite the same attention to typography. Books are often designed to be to be read on screen and then a paper version is printed from the same layout. Often the sole consideration that will be given to typography will be by the digital designer who will be wondering what web font will be used. Spacing and kerning won’t have that much attention paid to it. Instead we accept ‘good enough’ in the way that the word appears on the web or in an app.Which is where I think Type Matters comes in. Jim Williams brings decades of experience of graphic design to the book. The book is a thin Moleskine sized volume that provides a good guide to fonts and their use. It’s a book that is easy to read cover-to-cover, or dip in and out of as you feel like it.It combines good design practice with a history lesson on the elements and consideration of putting words on a page: whether its made of velum, paper or pixels. Williams’ writing is accessible for the non-designer. It provides a better understanding about readability and legibility considerations.

Beautifully designed book, I hope God can bless it's content to me!"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." - Proverbs 1 v7

This is an exquisitely crafted book, full of richness, intelligence and class in its content and its styling (I love the Moleskine-sketchbook-inspired cover and paper quality). The use of just red and black type is attractive and helps with readability, breaking up the content in a simple, effective way. I work in design but learned a lot of new information about typography and the necessary attention to detail which will hopefully ensure a truly polished, clear outcome in more of my future design work. This book is a joy to behold, in all senses.

Well, the look and feel of this book is just gorgeous! I could have easily just purchased this book just by how it appears. But I also bought it for the useful content inside! It's a pretty good read and can help with developing your typography skills. I would recommend this if you have a basic knowledge of typography already, although it isn't took difficult to get a hang of the terminology. I'm very happy with my purchase!

I was a little confused at first, as the copy is written sometimes multiple times, to show different kerning etc, so you sometimes re-read the same bit 2/3 times which can be very repetitive. But overall this has some really useful examples of both good/bad typography. This is a great starting point for any budding Typographist, and I often refer to it often.Looks similar to a Moleskine book, and the elastic band and bookmark help keep it look smart. I have shared this book with friends who also loved its design, layout, and ease of use.

A decent approach to typefaces and their secrets. Clear layouts and not too technical but the quality of finish of the book itself could be better. The red elastic band holding the book folded, came off very soon and without even trying. Recommended for those who want to understand the hidden secrets of a good typeface without reading a ton on the subject.

This is a first class book for anybody, professional or amateur, who wishes to expand their knowledge on the subject of Typography. It is well written and beautifully designed and would be a very useful reference book for schools, colleges, universities etc. The author is clearly passionate about the subject and it shows in his attention to detail. You could only benefit by owning this book, it looks great on your desk too!

I bought this book with an interest in learning type. It is literally one of the most informative books that I have ever read. It runs through everything from the types of fonts through to line spacing and kerning. So if you are into your type of just want to learn about the basics then don't hesitate in buying this book.