The Design of Books

That's a big territory to cover. It starts with selections of font and paper. It then works up to the design of entire families of books like the Penguin series, as of when this book was written. No one text can possibly cover the whole range of skills in book design, at least not in any detail. This gives a quick introduction to the many concerns of the book designer. Many topics will look familiar, such as harmonious matching of different fonts and selection of layout grids. Other topics are technological, like the strengths and weaknesses of different typesetting processes. Some choices won't be available to all book designers - choice of one volume vs. three or four, or choice of binding and cover material. Yet other concerns have to do with the business of book design, estimating design jobs and working with the authors, illustrators, and others involved in the book. The coverage may be sketchy, but the whole of the design process is laid out.The biggest problem is that the original edition came out in 1967. It predates effectively all of computer-based design. There are Jetson-like predictions of technology, though, such as the dream of Computer Composition: having typewritten text scanned (!?) automatically for typesetting. WYSIWYG never occurred to Mr. Wilson. Beyond lack of computers, its technology is archaic in other ways. Hand typesetting is still used in limited, artisan printing, but is obsolete for all commercial books. The tools of the designer have changed, as well. The real weakness, though, is its treatment of color. Again, printing technology has made photorealistic use of color feasible in most contexts. Some of the commentary is completely up to date, though. The garish, cartoony textbooks he criticizes have, if anything, gotten worse.There are some minor problems as well. The text makes reference to illustration 3-9, for example, which is not included in this edition. The "cover flaps" folded from the paper binding tend to get in the way. When they are the vehicle for a discussion of book design, the irony becomes annoying.This is an outstanding introduction to the full breadth of book design issues. It has weaknesses, but was never intended to stand alone as a typographic how-to. It still complements other texts very well.

This book is the best introduction (I know of) to the design, layout, and typography of traditional page and book design. This was written in 1967, long before desktop publishing and Web pages, but anyone who works in visual design can learn a huge amount from this classic work on page layout and typography.