A short history of the printed word
"A Short History of the Printed Word Makes plain the evolution, impact and development of the printed word as we know it. Covering the earliest forms of the letters of the alphabet, to graphic technology today, this revised classic is an invaluable guide for designers, students, and typophiles." "Warren Chappell, the originating author, was expert in every printing technique and medium of illustration in his age, and was the ideal guide through the landscape of printing and letterforms. Robert Bringhurst, designer, typographer, poet, scholar, and translator, has masterfully revised the text. The past two decades have not only seen the advent of the digital revolution, but the fruits of new typographical research have further illuminated the history of the printed word." "The lucid and lively narrative is interspersed with more than 200 illustrations of calligraphy, typefaces, and pages from the greatest books ever printed, as well as presses and workshops. The authors take the reader through the evolution of the printing press. They explore the contributions of the great printers and typographers, from Gutenberg to Goudy, and investigate the complex interaction between the creation of moveable type and the societies it reflected and influenced. Robert Bringhurst guides the reader into the heart of the most turbulent and important period in the printing arts since the advent of the printing press -- the digital revolution. Book jacket."--Jacket.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
4mentions
3people
2010–2024years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- _A Short History of the Printed Word_ by Warren Chappell --- also his _The Living Alphabet, and his cousin Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ because they inspired in me a lifelong love of the written word and of books, resulting in a career in typography and book composition.
I'd also recommend Robert Bringhurst's _The Elements of Typographic Style_.
- The books which really affected my life, and which all-too few people have read:
- Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ --- a collection of short stories, these are still thought-provoking now, esp. "Raindrop" and "The Mechanic", w/ the former seeming esp. prescient. These are available in: _Music of Many Spheres_: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Sph...
- Hal Gordon's _Divers Down! Adventure Under Hawaiian Seas_ which is available as a podcast: https://www.sffaudio.com/uvula-audio-divers-down-adventure-u... --- where I got my work ethic
- Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- early urban fantasy billed as a young adult series --- good insights on morality
- Steven Brust's _The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars_ --- art and life and love by a writer who always has something interesting to say --- other books in this series are quite good
- Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ and Warren Chappell's _The Living Alphabet_ and _A Short History of the Printed Word_ --- these books, which I read when I was quite young were why I studied graphic design and did book composition --- if you read and understand them, you'll know more about typography than most professional designers
- H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ --- a delightful book, which is beautifully read by tabithat on Librivox: https://librivox.org/little-fuzzy-by-h-beam-piper/
- C. J. Cherryh's _Rimrunners_ and the balance of her Alliance-Union books --- her stuff is always worth reading.
One book which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, and which I need to read for myself is _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics_ by Alfred Korzybski
- Those aren’t f’s, they’re long s’s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s.
You should read up on typography before decrying things about it. Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style or Warren Chappell’s A Short History of the Printed Word are two great places to start.
- nod Can't recommend Robert Bringhurst's 'The Elements of Typographic Style'[1] enough. 'A Short History of the Printed Word' is also good, but I've found the former to be indispensable.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_Sty...
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