Using Typography in Visual Communication with Thinking with Type

Did you know how to be inventive within systems of typographic form? Thinking with Type is the definitive guide to using typography in visual communication, from the printed page to the computer screen.

This revised edition includes forty-eight pages of new content, including the latest information on style sheets for print and the web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, the use of small caps and enlarged capitals, as well as information on captions, font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering. Throughout the book, visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typographic form—what the rules are and how to break them. Thinking with Type is a type book for everyone: designers, writers, editors, students, and anyone else who works with words.

Review:
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton is really the pinnacle of learning typography and understanding how typesetting works. There was not a lot of information presented in this book. his paired with Grid Systems will really open up your perspective as a designer about the importance of type in graphic design.

This book has easy-read essays about letters, text, and grids, all followed by some specific do's and don't's, and ideas/exercises to consider, all without being too preachy and laying the groundwork for you to make your own decisions about how to display text. Thinking with Type is really good for people who have little or no knowledge on typography. The content is not too heavy in terms of jargon and the concepts within have clear explanations, which makes easy for anyone to understand them.The content is not too heavy in terms of jargon and the concepts within have clear explanations, which makes easy for anyone to understand them.

There was also an appropriate amount of text and visuals within the book and the way the content was categorised into three parts: Letters, Text and Grids, made it convenient for a first-timer to get into the idea of typography and the details that are involved.

This book is not a critique on fonts, nor is it a book on how to design them. While this book explains what a font is, you learn a lot about what the visual representation of a word is comprised of (text) and how to use these representations (text) in the various ways in design, and how they have been used in the past.  After reading this book you should be familiar with almost all of the typographer's jargon (terms, vocal), and you will have a better understanding of how to organize text in a design.