October 3, 2013

Typography is all around us, signs, posters, books, menus, websites, the list goes on. It is the visual component of the written word, and there is such a thing as bad typography. Grab any school bake-sale poster for a perfect example of bad typography. There are many resources out there that are great for teaching the fundamentals of typography. One such resource is the online book: Butterick’s Practical Typography by Matthew Butterick.

It is a website that has been designed to read like a book to really sell the power of proper typography. The end result is a comprehensive guide to typography. The site (book?) runs on an honour system. It is 100% free with no ads, the author asks the reader to pay what they feel is fair and share the book with others. Though ultimately would prefer the reader buy some of the fonts he has designed. Butterick summarizes 5 major rules and makes the bold claim:

If you learn and follow these five typography rules, you will be a better typographer than 95% of professional writers and 70% of professional designers.

And after reading only a small portion of this book, I do not think that claim is too bold at all. It is right on the money in fact. Go flip through Butterick’s Practical Typography if you haven’t already, it is definitely worth your time.

~B-Man

Categorized in: Graphic Design