The Elements of Typographic Style is a book by Canadian typographer, poet and translator Robert Bringhurst. Originally published in 1992 by Hartley & Marks Publishers, it was revised in 1996, 2001 (v2.4), 2002 (v2.5), 2004 (v3.0), 2005 (v3.1), 2008 (v3.2), and 2012 (v4.0). A history and guide to typography, it has been praised by Hermann Zapf, who said “I wish to see this book become the Typographers’ Bible.” Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones consider it “the finest book ever written about typography”, according to the FAQ section of their type foundry’s website. Because of its widespread use, it is sometimes abbreviated simply as Bringhurst.
What accounts for the lasting influence and popularity of Bringhurst’s book? There are three reasons: the range and depth of his treatment, the quality of his writing, and the confidence and generosity of his tone.
Bringhurst’s scope is wide: the fundamentals and finer points of macro- and micro typography, type anatomy and classification; choosing typefaces and page formats; the use of diacritics and other analphabetic symbols (no doubt his experience as a translator of languages that rely on extensive diacritical support in the Latin alphabet has sensitized him to these matters); annotated lists of designers and foundries; glossaries of glyphs and terminology; and more. Besides distilling centuries of typographic expertise, his treatment of it is remarkably thorough: he doesn’t pretend that his book is an exhaustive account of typography, but his care and attention to detail is obvious (in places even overwhelming). And all of it is supported by well-made illustrations and diagrams. It would be hard to find another writer in English who commands as much knowledge about the use of writing and print to capture language as Bringhurst does, and that he can condense it into 386 pages (in this edition) that many people will read (once more) from half-title to colophon is impressive.
The quality of Bringhurst’s writing allows him to pull this off. Knowledge, experience, judgment, and enthusiasm are not always accompanied by writing skill, and like many academic and quasi-academic fields, typography is not flush with talented prose stylists. But the fact that Bringhurst came to book design and typography from poetry is evident on every page. He is a gifted author used to making every word tell, and his prose is (to borrow Robin Kinross’s description from Modern Typography) “serene” and “incantatory”. He finds words that capture — more completely than practically any of us can muster — why typography matters. This is most simply and succinctly evident in “first principles”: “Typography exists to honor content.”
Author(s): Robert Bringhurst
Edition: 3.0
Publisher: Hartley & Marks
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 386
City: Vancouver
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Page and Textblock Proportions
Contents
Epigraph
Foreword
Historical Synopsis
1 The Grand Design
1.1 First Principles
1.2 Tactics
1.3 Summary
2 Rhythm & Proportion
2.1 Horizontal Motion
2.2 Vertical Motion
2.3 Blocks & Paragraphs
2.4 Etiquette of Hyphenation & Pagination
3 Harmony & Counterpoint
3.1 Size
3.2 Numerals, Capitals & Small Caps
3.3 Ligatures
3.4 Tribal Alliances & Families
3.5 Contrast
4 Structural Forms & Devices
4.1 Openings
4.2 Headings & Subheads
4.3 Notes
4.4 Tables & Lists
4.5 Front & Back Matter
5 Analphabetic Symbols
5.1 Analphabetic Style
5.2 Dashes, Slashes & Dots
5.3 Parentheses
5.4 Quotation Marks & Other Intrusions
5.5 Diacritics
6 Choosing & Combining Type
6.1 Technical Considerations
6.2 Practical Typography
6.3 Historical Considerations
6.4 Cultural & Personal Considerations
6.5 The Multicultural Page
6.6 Mixing Alphabets
6.7 New Orthographies
6.8 Building a Type Library
7 Historical Interlude
7.1 The Early Scribal Forms
7.2 The Typographic Latin Letter
7.3 Mechanical Typesetting
7.4 The Plurality of Typographic History
8 Shaping the Page
8.1 Organic, Mechanical & Musical Proportions
8.2 The Golden Section
8.3 Proportions of the Empty Page
8.4 The Textblock
8.5 Margins & Satellites
8.6 Page Grids & Modular Scales
8.7 Examples
8.8 Improvisations & Adjustments
9 The State of the Art
9.1 The Hundred-Thousand Character Alphabet
9.2 The Substance of the Font
9.3 The Multidimensional Font
9.4 Methods of Justification
9.5 Pixels, Proofs & Printing
9.6 Maintaining the System
10 Grooming the Font
10.1 Legal Considerations
10.2 Ethical & Aesthetic Considerations
10.3 Honing the Character Set
10.4 Hinting
10.5 Naming Conventions
11 Prowling the Specimen Books
11.1 Nomenclature & Synonymy
11.2 Serifed Text Faces
11.3 Unserifed Text Faces
11.4 Blackletters
11.5 Uncials
11.6 Script Types
11.7 Greeks
11.8 Cyrillics
11.9 Inscriptional & Callygraphic Capitals
Appendix A: The Working Alphabet
Additional Latin Letters
Inflected Latin Letters
Basic and Inflected Greek Letters
Basic and Inflected Cyrillic Letters
International Phonetics (IPA)
Visual Index of Analphabetic Characters
Appendix B: Glossary of Characters
Appendix C: Glossary of Terms
Appendix D: Type Designers
Appendix E: Typefoundries
Further Reading
1. Books & Articles
2. Periodicals
3. A Sampling of Web Resources
Afterword to the Third Edition
Index
Colophon
Back Cover
