Product Description
To the layman, all printing types look the same. But for typographers, graphic artists and others of that lunatic fringe who believe that the letters we look at daily (and take entirely for granted) are of profound importance, the question of how letters are formed, what shape they assume, and how they have evolved remains one of passionate and continuing concern.
Lawson explores the vast territory of types, their development and uses, their antecedents and offspring, with precision, insight, and clarity. Written for the layman but containing exhaustive research, drawings and synopses of typefaces, this book is an essential addition to the library of anyone s typographic library. It is, as Lawson states, not written for the printer convinced that there are already too many typefaces, but rather for that curious part of the population that believes the opposite; that the subtleties of refinement as applies to roman and cursive letters have yet to be fully investigated and that the production of the perfect typeface remains a goal to be as much desired by present as by future type designers. Anyone aspiring to typographic wisdom should own and treasure this classic.
Customer Reviews:
A collection of magazine articles.......2006-01-30
While this is not a bad book, I don't think it deserves the five-star reviews it got above.
Each chapter is an article (or perhaps adapted from an article) originally for a magazine called Printing Impressions. As a result they stand alone better than they fit together: some stories are duplicated or unnecessarily scattered over several chapters, while others seem more compressed than they had to be (such as his discussions of sans-serif typefaces.) The type samples are good, often original, which is wonderful for history (but will be a disappointment if you wanted side-by-side comparisons.)
The discussion of the workshop process of making metal type is tantalising but not all that helpful to understanding. And while it has pretty old engravings, they aren't labled or explained to help distinguish essential parts from workshop quirks.
I'd certainly recommend reading Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style first. I've not yet read James Felici's Complete Manual of Typography but people say good things. From browsing it seems to be more specific than Bringhurst, with more focus on technology, and less on timelessness. (It's hard to tell but I doubt it has his wonderful prose.)
Great history and commentary.......2005-08-12
Lawson has created a wonderful, readable historical account. The first 30 chapters each present one typeface ('font' for computer folk). A typeface's chapter analyzes the structural features of the sorts ('glyphs'), noting how the typeface fits into the usual bins labelled 'black letter', or 'modern', etc. That discussion tends to be spotty, though, and the successful reader already knows a few different ways for serifs to differ from each other, for line weight to vary, and lots more.
What this book does well is present specimens of different typefaces within each family, showing how the letterforms drifted through time, or how they evolved to meet specific demands of paper, ink, and press. The typefaces are arranged in a chronological order, of sorts, but one type face's era may overlap another a large margin. Within each chapter, Lawson explores the development of that typeface, from the calligraphy and earlier letterforms that preceded it up through its contemporary appearance and use. The many examples also show the relationships between members of the same evolutionary tree. A few times, though, the samples could have been bigger, e.g. for pointing out differences in bracketing of the serifs.
This is very much a history of the type designers, printers, and other people in the history of type. It also gives some history of printing and typefounding technology. That motivates discussions of typefaces that were created to solve specific problems of paper, ink, and press, as well as esthetics. Historical information about punchcutting technology and modern type creation tools also explains the changing business relationships between font designers, distributors, and users.
Knowledge of history may help the reader in speccing type appropriate to some printing task, but there's very little here that would help in setting up a page of text. It's a book for another purpose, though. It's about the typefaces that are (or should be, or should not be) important to today's typographers, and why.
//wiredweird
Wow! A Great Book!.......2003-03-19
A friend told me about this great book. It is possibly the best book about type and type designers that I have. Alexander Lawson does a superb job telling the history of the designers and the type faces back to the beginning. Excellent illustrated examples of the type faces. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in type and letterforms.
Dated but a worthwhile read........2000-10-03
This book does not take into account the digital type revolution of the past twelve years, but it's an excellent critical review of all the important types still in use. Some of these types may have had their genesis several hundred years ago, but Lawson also takes into account their twentieth-century incarnations. Especially valuable are the examples of old typography, which never fail to fascinate and enchant. Not only a worthy reference, but an entertaining read.
Great work on history and design of typefaces.......1997-08-23
Although called "Anatomy of a Typeface," this book actually takes about 20 classic typefaces and analyzes each, discussing its designer, history, and aesthetics in depth. This is an outstandingly thoughtful and well-researched book by a master in the field, potentially of use both to someone with a basic understanding of the topic and to an expert
Average customer rating:
|
Anatomy of a Typeface
Alexander Lawson
Manufacturer: Hamish Hamilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Criticism
| General
| Regional
| Themes
| Women in Art
Graphic Design
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
| 3D Graphics
| Adobe FrameMaker
| Adobe Illustrator
| Adobe InDesign
| Adobe PageMaker
| CAD
| Desktop Publishing
| Electronic Documents
| General
| Information Visualization
| Interface Design
| Printing
| Reference
| Rendering & Ray Tracing
| Scanning
| Typography
| Web Design
General
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0241129435 |
Average customer rating:
|
How to Draw Wizards, Dragons and Other Magical Creatures
Barbara Soloff Levy
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Drawing
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Criticism
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Drawing
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Games
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Criticism
| Art History
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Drawing
| Instruction & Reference
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Instruction & Reference
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Drawing
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Games
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
How to Draw Aquarium Animals (How to Draw (Dover))
-
How to Draw Animals (How to Draw (Dover))
-
How to Draw People (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
-
How to Draw Funny Faces (How to Draw (Dover))
-
How to Draw Dinosaurs (How to Draw (Dover))
ASIN: 048643351X |
Book Description
How-to book shows youngsters and beginning artists of all ages a simple way to draw portraits of 30 amazing inhabitants from a magical world. Step-by-step illustrations incorporating circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, and other basic shapes show how to depict graceful mermaids, appealing dragons, gentle giants, and other fanciful creatures.
Book Description
This historical survey of American theory and criticism of art photography covers the period from late-nineteenth-century Pictorialism through 1970s formalism. The author deals deftly with the difficulties faced by critics, from the essential question, how is photography an art at all? to the more modernist question of what constitutes the medium of photography at its pure core.
With Pictorialism representing the first theory of photography as art, Eisinger begins his chronological overview with Charles Caffin and Sadakichi Hartmann, the two major Pictorialist critics who worked in the circle of Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secession. A discussion of documentary photography of the 1930s and magazine photography of the 1940s offers an explanation for these years being a low point for photographic art criticism. The writings of Minor White, Henry Holmes Smith, and others in the 1950s brought renewal to photographic criticism, whose apogee is, arguably, John Szarkowski.
This book offers the first overview of the criticism of photography as art. It will be informative and useful to anyone interested in photography and the cultural life of modernist America.
Book Description
There's no accounting for taste. That must be why so many accountants are buying Groo collections! This trade paperback collects the latest and greatest adventures of Groo, the world's stupidest barbarian. In a savage land of another era, a goodly segment of the world has long been under the heavy thumb of the evil, power-mad despot known as Pipil Khan. The tyrant wants nothing more than to name an heir and shuck his mortal coil, but one thing stands in his way: Groo! It seems Khan just can't rest easy until Groo is out of the way. He'll give his kingdom to the one of his sons who can accomplish this. One of them has a foolproof plan how to do it. Unfortunately for him, it may be that no plan is foolproof enough to thwart Groo. Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Sergio Aragones and "World's Greatest Soccer Mom" Award-winning wordsmith Mark Evanier bring you more moronic mayhem from the barbarian who made "mulch" a household word.
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
An ancient ruler named Khan doesn't like his family much, or he is the dumbest Khan that ever lived. Or was smoking some of the same stuff as Kublai. Anyway, for some odd reason he wants to get rid of Groo. Who does he pick to do it? Some of his own flesh and blood, whom he actually does purport to care for.
Oh, the tragedy.
More Destructive Silliness.......2005-10-21
A colorful and ridiculous graphic novel. This time Groo goes to work for an information pamphlet, but business is slow because nothing much is happening. So Groo whips out his sword and destroys everything in sight. Then he interviews the survivors on how they feel. Beneath the silliness, there's some serious commentary on the place of the media in society, and the power of well-meaning people to do immense harm. Kind of reminds me of the idiots who got us into the war in Iraq.
Be warned that like other Groo books, this one is extremely poorly bound. It is guaranteed to fall apart after just a few readings. Sort of like "this message will self-destruct . . . ."
Beware of Groo!.......2002-11-03
Groo Mightier than The Sword
An Oriental king is dyeing on his bed and lamenting he has never seen the pleasure of Groo's destruction, so he sets his three sons out to fulfill that last dying wish with his empire as the reward. Detestation results as the events foment the birth of the newspaper and the lies which are printed as a result throw everything into chaos. Groo only has to slay a few armies instead of his regular diet of slaying everyone - the newspaper is so handy in creating chaos. For those who know him not, Groo is the most feared creature on earth: he's a devastating swordsman and as dumb as a rock, hence anyone who knows his name flees at the sight of him. Some short takes of Ruferto included in the end. Note: the printing quality is generally okay to very good for the series, but this is generally a collection for Groo fans and comic book fans. The binding on some of my copies is broken (these are soft backs) and the print is now and then not the greatest. As a fan, I bought every collection I could, and enjoy them despite this! Not though for long-term pristine collectors though.
Hilarious!.......2002-04-03
I've always seen those Groo comic books, yet never bought one (figuring I don't know the background, etc, so I won't understand it fully). So yesterday, when I saw a Groo graphic novel lying around in my local comic book store, I knew I had to buy it. What can I say? It was worth the wait!
The plot: Groo is a mighty warrior, a barbarian, who just roams the earth with his loyal dog, looking for adventure and trouble. The thing is, Groo is really, really, quite stupid. In this graphic novel, Pipil Khan, a tyrant whose schemes were foiled many times by Groo, is on his death bed. Pipil Khan, however, declares he won't name his heir because he keeps being tormented by memories of Groo. So he issues a quest for his three sons: the son who brings the head of Groo, will be the named heir. So, Etrufio, a great warrior, Ogamio, a great wizard, and Relmihio, a great schemer, start hunting for Groo. The plot gets complicated by the fact that Groo's tales by now reached mythological stature, and everyone think of him as a six headed giant - nobody really knows how he looks like, and also because Groo is just too plain stupid to know somebody actually wants to kill him..
This leads to a very amusing tale..
I wholeheartily recommend this graphic novel, it was very amusing - and I definitely will be reading more about Groo's adventures.
Book Description
Here is the autobiography of one of the world's first celebrity journalists: Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), a man whose writing was so notorious that President Theodore Roosevelt coined a term for it—muckraking.
Growing up in 1870s Sacramento, Steffens studied at Berkeley and in Europe before taking a position at the New York Evening Post, and later at McClure's Magazine. His crusade to expose corruption took him all over the nation and on to Mexico, Europe, and the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, where he made his famous proclamation, "I have seen the future, and it works!" Eventually he became disenchanted with communism, and in his later years he returned to California, to feel again its "warm, colorful force of beauty" and to write what would become a best-selling memoir.
The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens is the story of a cranky and brilliant reporter with a passion for examining the complex and contradictory conditions that breed corruption, poverty, and misery. As such, this book is an antidote to the spin doctors, pundits, and talking heads who discourage us from ever reading past a headline or challenging the status quo. Lincoln Steffens is an inspiration to all socially engaged citizens today.
Customer Reviews:
A brilliant classic.......2000-01-17
This book holds the premier position in my book collection. It is a book that looks at how a man's environment and passion for life forces him to separate the right from the wrong, sometimes at personal peril. From the quintessential muckraker to one of the original socialists, Steffens was an independent thinker who shares his mistakes, his disappointments, and his fundamental beliefs in rich and passionate prose. Thought by many to be the greatest autobiography ever written this book, as well as his famous "Shame of the Cities", are considered two of the New York Times' greatest 100 books of the 20th century. And rightfully so. Don't expect dry historical narrative. Rather, be ready to be given insight into turn of the twentieth century life and to be inspired by a man's struggles while exposing and understanding truth and power in every form.
Average customer rating:
|
Lincoln Steffens
Justin Kaplan
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Journalism
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Journalists
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0671215922 |
Customer Reviews:
Revolutionary journalist.......2006-06-30
This is a great biography of the muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens who exposed a number of corrupt practices by politicians in many of the large cities in America around the turn of the twentieth-century. Born in San Francisco and educated at the University of California and in Europe, he settled in NYC and began writing for the New York papers. In 1901 he joined McClure's Magazine and with other social critics working there (Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker) began writing about political corruption in St. Louis, Minneapolis, and other large cities. The articles were a tremendous success and were later brought out in book form, entitled THE SHAME OF THE CITIES. Theodore Roosevelt was impressed by the work of these journalists (at first, anyway) and tagged them "muckrakers," a reference to certain characters in PILGIM'S PROGRESS. Steffens, as Kaplan makes clear, was not just an exposer of political evils or a moralist, but raised more questions than he answered and made the public aware, through irony and other literary devices, of the paradoxes between public life and private affairs. His chief question, as Kaplan says, was "What are you going to do about it?"
Later, when exposed to the Russian Revolution in 1917, Steffens became an advocate for communist principles. Losing much of his support in America because of his revolutionary beliefs, he spent much of the 1920s in Europe. In 1931 he published his AUTOBIOGRAPHY, which was a huge success, and he spent the next few years until his death in 1936 lecturing across the country. More than anything else, Steffens wanted people to think seriously about society and politics; he never joined the Communist party: "I am not a Communist," he said once. "I merely think that the next order of society will be socialist and that the Communists will bring it in and lead it." He was wrong about that, and not even Kaplan, writing in 1974, could know just how wrong. He's a beautiful writer, though, and makes his subject interesting and important. It's a delightful biography.
Customer Reviews:
History comes alive........1998-12-29
I have read this book 3 times. 1979, 1986, and 1996. This book brings an exciting perspective to a time in history not well known by the average person. As well it gives political insight of corruption and mudslinging that existed well before the 1990's. The book is quite long, but never dull. I read it first right before college, and it influenced me to major in history/PoliSci.
Book Description
Hold the presses! Here's the sensational story of the birth of investigative journalism in America. At the turn of the 20th century, news reporters and monthly magazines collaborate to create a new kind of journalism—in-depth, serialized exposés of corporate, labor, and political corruption. Many of these stories become instant bestsellers in book format: books like The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's classic account of corruption in the meat-packing industry.
Ann Bausum's dramatic narrative follows a generation of dedicated journalists who force responsible changes in industry and politics as America thrives. Muckrakers is the inside story of public-spirited journalism right through its evolution, with profiles of latter-day practitioners like Woodward and Bernstein and today's Internet bloggers.
Ann Bausum's storytelling savvy will engage and inspire young people to cherish age-old values such as truth and public accountability. Muckrakers is the scoop on American journalism.
Customer Reviews:
Ho Hum.......2005-09-20
Capt. Bill published his highlights for his own enjoyment. Not a bad idea, but not enough detail to interest others. A waste of money.
Blue Water Odyssey.......2003-08-22
Mr. Braden's adventures at sea and land were very touching. I laughed through the Virgin Islands and cried when they sailed to their next port. I thought the author has a wonderful ability to comunicate his feelings at the time that the story took place. There aren't any new sailing books on the market and I found it quite refreshing. A book short enough to fill an evening or two.
Books:
- Arboriculture: Integrated Management of Landscape Trees, Shrubs, and Vines, Fourth Edition
- Architectural Surfaces: Details for Artists, Architects, And Designers
- Architecture Now 3
- Art Deco Interiors: Decoration and Design Classics of the 1920s and 1930s
- Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000
- Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Home
- Built By Hand
- California Colonial: The Spanish and Rancho Revival Styles (Schiffer Design Book)
- Child Care Design Guide
- Community By Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
- Bill and Pete
- Artificial Rock Waterfalls: Rock Making Techniques for the Professional And the Hobbyist
- Biostatistics: How It Works
- Biology: Concepts & Connections with Student CD-ROM
- Co-Active Coaching, 2nd Edition: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and, Life
- Bones & Silence
- Bathing Spaces: Designs for Pampering Body and Soul
- Animate Form
- By Sorrow's River: The Berrybender Narratives, Book 3
Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design
Type: The Secret History of Letters
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
The Stroke: Theory of Writing
