The Elements of Typographic Style

What Hacker News says

1. 1atticeJul 2026
   Give the author their flowers.

   Honestly there are worse things to write about. I too am a hard nerd who migrated from backend to frontend and dabbled in design. The discovery of typography, design rules, graphing principles, etc. felt to me like a revelation far outstripping the initial project(s) that inspired them. I read _The Elements of Typographic Style_ (Bringhurst) and Tufte and I read Nielsen's blog every day (back when it was at useit.com).

   I wish in retrospect I'd written an article like this one; the wonder is genuine, and the satisfaction from the discovery of heretofore-invisible but trivially demonstrable rules is significant.

   Finally, would point out that the author of this piece currently does not have any cards for sale, because they are sold out. :) So not only would it be ethically _ok_ to write an interesting piece that as a side-effect did some art self-promotion (if that were for example the reason the cards sold out,) but we know that, now and going forward, this article _cannot serve as a sales funnel_ because there is nothing being sold!

   So, no, this article is fine and the cards are very interesting. I wish I'd been able to order a set, frankly

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2. ExoristosMay 2026
   There's no substitute for apprenticeship (by whatever name). Unfortunately, skills of this kind may be close to extinction. For someone like you just interested in getting better at layout design, I'd recommend something like 'The Elements of Typographic Style', by Bringhurst; this concentrates mostly on books, but much applies to other layouts. Of more general interest -- i.e., beyond layout design -- might be 'An Encyclopedia of the Book', by Glaister. There's a wealth of valuable design and print resources from the '60s - '90s if you can find them -- some libraries still have high-quality examples, but most have replaced them with much less-valuable contemporary resources. Look for book and magazine sales by university departments, businesses, etc.
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3. jamiecurleOct 2025
   > Could you recommend any good books

   The Elements Of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

   "Five minutes to learn, a lifetime to master" kind of thing.

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4. __mharrison__Sep 2025
   Elements of Typographic Style is also a good one if you want to geek out.
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5. throwanemJul 2025
   (2023) and it is worth noting that web typography is painfully rudimentary, as even a quick skim of Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style suffices to demonstrate. I would strongly recommend the purchase of a physical copy to anyone in or aspiring to design; you will make far more beautiful text just for having read it, which I think you will also enjoy (I have and do!), and it is a handsome artifact besides.
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6. tkcrannyMar 2025
   Presently re-reading this book, The Elements of Typographic Style. It’s one of the few books I’ve gone out of my way to get a physical copy of – it’s just beautiful.

   And I totally agree, space-set en dashes are vastly superior to em. I dislike the way it connects the word more closely to the word in the next clause than the phrase itself.

   E.g. He left—no explanation. Vs. He left – no explanation.

   To me, left—no feels like a weird gluing together than a separator for a different section.

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