Ahhh Typography – it’s a beautiful thing! From the flow and arrangement of type on a page to the mesmerizing curves of ampersands, typography is hands down my favorite element of graphic design, and if handled with care can really make or break a design.
I find, and I’m sure many would agree, typography is often what most designers struggle with in the beginning, including myself. Below are 15 typography books (with links to purchase) that I own and personally recommend that has helped me learn, understand, appreciate and absolutely love typography and type layout.
Thinking with Type
Getting It Right With Type
1,000 Type Treatments
Designing with Type
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type
Layout
Made with FontFont
Comment to win a FREE copy! Continue reading below.
Making and Breaking the Grid
New Vintage Type
28th Type Directors Club Annual
29th Type Directors Club Annual
Typology
U&lc (Uppercase & Lowercase)
My Amazon wishlist has now been updated! Of the 15 I’ve only read ‘Designing with Type’. If only the local library had more books on Type and Design. sigh…
“Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst is always a classic and always the one I go back to at some point. But, having more is always a good thing…
I’d love to get the Made with FontFont book!
Sweeet what a good giveaway
I just borrowed Thinking with Type from a friend and can’t wait to get into it. Winning a typography book for myself would be nice too!
I love Thinking with Type! :)
Lupton’s Book is a classic. We used this is school and it seems to do a pretty solid job. Designing with type is also good. I’ve been wanting to check out U&lc.
I’d love to have New Vintage Type or Layout…
My bible – always recommended:
Robert Bringhurst – “The elements of typographic style”
If i could choose one, will be “The Elements of Typographic Style”
I’d agree with Jeffrey on the ‘Stop stealing sheep….’ choice.
And I have to say this one looks pretty intriguing! Don’t own it but quite fancy a peek…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fuck-Off-Typography-Gerard-Saint/dp/1903391210/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245088422&sr=8-8
They’d all be welcome but since I have to choose, I ask for “Typology (Type Design from the Victorian Era to the Digital Age)”!
have and love the lupton book. the accompanying web site is great, too!
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type is my favorite one.
I’ll have to agree with several others here that my favorite is “The Elements of Typographic Style.” I also own “Thinking With Type,” but am curious to check out some of the others listed here. Thanks for the list!
I would love to have all of these books!!!
I too own thinking with type and making and breaking the grid. Both of these have been of great help in my design career thus far. I also have to note that elements of typographic style was the first book ever assigned in my typography classes, and I have referred to it time and time again. While Lupton’s book is fantastic, Bringhurst really gets into the nitty gritty, plus you can tell the passion he has for type in the way he describes typographic concepts.
Fontfont looks awesome btw! good luck everyone.
I’ve always been a fan of Making and Breaking the Grid. :)
House Industries. My Favorite !! It should be on the list !!
i wanna book.
I really want to buy ‘Making and breaking the grid’..
but maybe i’ll have ‘made with fontfont’? :)
useful site, anyway!
I bought Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton because it was required for one of my college courses, and I love it! This book really showed me how to better understand how to use and apply type. Other typography books I have include A Topographic Workbook and The Complete Manual of Typography, but I’ve found Ellen Lupton’s book to be my favorite. I plan to buy more in the future, starting with 1,000 Type Treatments only because its cover art caught my attention once while browsing Amazon, but I’d still really like to win this book to add to my ever-growing design books mini-library.
Layout and Grid Systems are great “rut-blockers” — they always provide alternatives to the usual grids designers tend to follow. Great list.
I own absolutely no type books. I just don’t know what book is the best one to start with! Anyhoo, I wanna book. =D
I *am* practicing typography though … and Feel Script is just *so* beautiful! And I have 2 subscriptions to font newsletters. I think I’ll bookmark this page so I can get these books myself.
I must say, the only book I have bought in the last six months in the Logo, Font and Lettering Bible. I pretty much carry it with me everywhere the interwebz is unavailable! Would love a copy of ‘Made with FontFont’ too :) May have to buy a bigger big though by the sounds of the reviews!
I love the grid system book. My fave reference. Thanks for sharing this post. :)
The grid systems book is great, good list Brian!
I love Thinking with Type! And I’ll be sure to check out some of those other ones too.
Taught a course using “Designing With Type” as main textbook.
Clearly written with extremely creative assignments.
I would love a copy of “Designing with Type” :)
Awesome post man. I really like how you showcased the books. I agree with typography being hard at first but I think the more in depth you get the more it drives your designs.
The grid systems book is one of the most useful thing i’ve ever read, highly recommended
[...] 15 Typography Books To Help You Learn and Love Typography [...]
Awesome list of books! These are all such great reads, I’ll be using “Thinking With Type” as the course book for the Typography I class I’ll be teaching this fall. Eric Gill’s “Essay on Typography” is also a great little book filled with insight.
These books look great, especially Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on FontBook, 4th Edition though.
woot! another give away!
i couldn’t find thinking with type here in my country :)
i would love have a copy of it
I’d say “Stop Stealing Sheep” is definitely worth being on this list!
Designing with Type is a keeper. Brings me back many many years ago when I handset movable type in a compositor’s “key” pecking pieces of metal type from a California Job Case. That was really “designing with Type”
Bill Frieday
That book looks awesome. I would love to win a copy of ‘Made with FontFont’. Your blog is really nice and that looks like a great list of typography books. I was looking at ‘New Vintage Type’ the other day. Ellen Lupton’s books are great too.
I’m with a lot of the people here. Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style is one I’m desperate to read.
James
All these books are fantastic and must-haves. This is one I own in my library and it’s been like a bible for typography. The Complete Manual of Typography by Jim Felici.
Great selection of books, oddly enough I’ve just picked up two of them and am reading them on my commute to and from the office.
“Getting it Right with Type: The Dos and Don’ts of Typography ” is great reference material!
I actually have Thinking with Type, it’s an easy read and helpful for up and coming young designers. I read it while I was a sophomore in college.
You forgot to add “The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst. It goes beyond with some of the books you mentioned.
How I wish I could have even one of them. I teach typography in one of our school here in the Philippines and we lack books of this kind for teaching, Hope some of you can donate to us. Even electronic version would be highly appreciated.
ive been wanting to buy “getting it right with type”. sometimes people go overboard with too crazy of a type. i appreciate the simplicity of certain types and the impact it has on design.
Grid Systems changed the way I thought about type when I read it. I am going to read Designing with Type next to evaluate it as a potential text book for a class I am teaching.
Thinking with Type is an excellent book! In an age of rogue free fonts, loosening design standards, and spread of web type, Ms. Lupton’s book pushes back on (untrained) designers who select type solely by intuition. This book explains very well how to properly and effectively spec type.
1000 Type Treatments is a good source for inspiration although with design-based blogs such as your blog, Brian, popping up all over the web, buying a book such as this is hardly worth the investment.
Between Making and Breaking the Grid and Grid Systems, the latter is more foundation — content you learn in school. The former takes that foundation and shows you how to use the grid in new and interesting ways. If you already work with grids, get …”Breaking”…
Good list, Brian. You should see my wishlist!
very cool list! thanks! I’ve read about a lot of good reviews about Thinking with Type.