Way to Learn Computer

I found this to be a really good book. It covers everything you need to know about typography. From the basics and generalized topics, to the nitty gritty. So if you are looking to have a better undertanding of typography, I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 5 / 5

The greatest compliment I can give this book is to say that I read it from cover to cover. It’s true- each of its 290 pages contained useful information and- perhaps more importantly- it is written in a very approachable style. Discussions often include interesting historical explanations, leaving the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ or ‘what’. The tone of the book is engaging and straightforward with moments of surprising wit. Helpful examples comparing blocks of text are used generously throughout the chapters.

A brief summary of the book:

-Part one, Typographic Basics: History of type; units of measurement; about fonts & typefaces; using typefaces; typesetting versus typewriting; setting type on a personal computer; the differences between good and bad type

-Part two, How to Set Type: Measure, point size, leading; hyphenation and justification; kerning and tracking; indentation and alignment; special characters; document structures; tables; language-specific issues; style sheets; output resolution issues

-Part three, References: includes a very thorough glossary and index

As a whole, the book is intended primarily for people wishing to learn about typeography, and more specifically, the typography of printed text (books, newspapers, and magazines, as opposed to broadcast or advertising). This book is not meant to be a guide to print in advertising, although reading it will help you set better type in your ads if that is your job. Nor is this book a compendium of typefaces; the examples show typefaces primarily used by book publishers, such as Sabon, Garamond, or Caslon. This book is not a guide on which typeface to use for every situation; the author writes most of the book with the assumption that the typesetter will have the font and style dictated by the publisher. From the introduction: “This is not a style guide, but an execution guide.”

What this book intends to teach is proper typesetting: The spacing of letters within words; the spacing of words and punctuation within sentences; the spacing and arrangement among lines of text and paragraphs; functional and attractive justification; and page color.

This book would be helpful to anyone involved in printing text, whether large scale or small.
Rating: 5 / 5

“Dangerous” because there is enough well-presented information in this volume to set you on the path to typography snobbery, and in this age of Word, fast and cheap self-publishing, DIY advertising, etc., you’ll start seeing mistakes everywhere.

I disagree with a previous reviewer who said there was not enough practical advice in this book. On the contrary, it is full of useable rules of thumb, best practices, etc., regarding common typographical quandaries. For example, what are the options for setting an extract, or “blockquote” in the web design world, off from the main text? Answered on page 221.

While this book does contain valuable information for web designers, almost thankfully a lot of what Felici prescribes is not even possible on the web. I say thankfully because, while I want textual content to be legible and readable on the web, I don’t relish working out fussy “H&J” (hyphenation and justification) settings for every piece of text. No browser would agree on its implementation anyway…

This book is an excellent read and reference volume for any designer, print or web.
Rating: 5 / 5