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Just My Type: A Book about Fonts

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 6,321 ratings · 719 reviews

A hugely entertaining and revealing guide to the history of type that asks, What does your favorite font say about you?

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product we buy. But where do fonts come from, and why do we need so many? Who is responsible for the staid practicality of Times New Roman, the...more

Hardcover, 351 pages

Published October 14th 2010 by Profile Books(GB)

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Apr 08, 2013 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Richard by: Julie Van huizen

Shelves: reviewed, recs-by-friends

This book answers such basic questions as: What exactly is a typeface? What's the difference between a typeface and a font? What specific features make them good or bad--assuming one can qualify them subjectively in this way? Why are there so many? And why do people keep designing more? Why are some so well liked, whereas others are almost universally mocked and vilified? Why are old ones still used today, whereas many newer (and carefully designed) ones will never be more than historical curios...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Book Report: The book description says:

A hugely entertaining and revealing guide to the history of type that asks, What does your favorite font say about you?

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product we buy. But where do fonts come from, and why do we need so many? Who is responsible for the staid practicality of Times New Roman, the cool anonymity of Arial, or the irritating levity of Comic Sa...more Rating: 4.5* of five

The Book Report: The book description says:

A hugely entertaining and revealing guide to the history of type that asks, What does your favorite font say about you?

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product we buy. But where do fonts come from, and why do we need so many? Who is responsible for the staid practicality of Times New Roman, the cool anonymity of Arial, or the irritating levity of Comic Sans (and the movement to ban it)?

Typefaces are now 560 years old, but we barely knew their names until about twenty years ago when the pull-down font menus on our first computers made us all the gods of type. Beginning in the early days of Gutenberg and ending with the most adventurous digital fonts, Simon Garfield explores the rich history and subtle powers of type. He goes on to investigate a range of modern mysteries, including how Helvetica took over the world, what inspires the seeming ubiquitous use of Trajan on bad movie posters, and exactly why the all-type cover of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was so effective. It also examines why the "T" in the Beatles logo is longer than the other letters and how Gotham helped Barack Obama into the White House. A must-have book for the design conscious, Just My Type's cheeky irreverence will also charm everyone who loved Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Schott's Original Miscellany.

My Review: I confess it: I am a type geek. I love a well-designed book. I love to immerse myself in a book and lose all sense of time and space, and then after I've returned to the dull confines of mortal reality, look closely at the object in front of me to winkle out its secrets. Often I find the design of a book can make it a better read (The Night Circus being a great example) or pop me so far out of the story there's no way for me to get back in (no names, I don't want to hear from all those shady gray twilit ladies with their dripping fangs).

So this book was meant for me. Simon Garfield, not a first-time writer apparently though one couldn't prove it by me, is the perfect cicerone into the mysteries of typefaces, fonts, and typography (three separate things); he's as nutsy about the subject as one can get (did you know there's a type museum? It's not open to the public, yes the author knows about it, knows the curator...that's deep), and able with his clear and pleasant prose voice to bring the reader right along on his trip.

It might not be instantly obvious, but every single thing you look at has some relationship to type. TV and movies have type in their credits, the box your microwave dinner comes in is loaded with type, the computer you're using? All type interfaces. The dashboard of your car: Type. The entire made world relates to us through type at some level. Yet many, if not most, of us are blind to its specifics, absorbing only its results and usually its subliminal messages. And they are many. Some typefaces convey authority (Futura, anyone? Helvetica! Trajan!) and others soothing calming pleasure (Optima). Some are bluntly informative (Times New Roman, Baskerville) and others whimsically amusing (Papyrus, the loathed Comic Sans).All of them, without fail, were created by crazy people called type designers to fulfill a function. For better or worse, some become standards, and some sink into the great morass of indifference. Such is, after all, the fate of most things...and most people, even type designers.

The stories of the type designers Garfield profiles were entertaining, and often illuminating: Eric Gill, designer of the famous typeface Gill Sans, was a lech of the first water. He was, in fact, criminally culpable in today's world for many of his sexual adventures. Funny thing...I've never liked Gill Sans. Now I have an excuse! John Baskerville, whose beautiful solid-yet-graceful serif typeface is one of my personal favorites, lived a tough life as a type-founder and, within months of his death, was so little valued by his widow that she offered a stranger who came from Europe to meet her recently deceased husband all his fonts and tools for a song. I suppose it's my subliminal response to underdogs that makes me love the typeface so.

Since type has been part of my existence from little on up, it's hard for me to gauge how good an introduction this book would make to a type-tyro, but my sense is that Garfield's obsessiveness about the topic makes him a good and reliable conductor on the train. Get on with a pleasant tingle of anticipation, alight at each small station dedicated to the history of one specific typeface, and arrive refreshed and amused at the destination, the place of expanded appreciation of the nature of your entire visible world.(less)

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May 09, 2011 Laura Fudge rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’m only just on target with my challenge, and I think this is because this is another genre of books that I am not swift at reading! I would normally dip into books like this and going at it all in one go wasn’t difficult, but I did go a day every now and again where I didn’t pick this up… I think this is mainly because this topic is linked to my job and after spending all day designing and looking at typefaces, occasionally (as much as I love the subject!) I didn’t want to then carry on readin...more I’m only just on target with my challenge, and I think this is because this is another genre of books that I am not swift at reading! I would normally dip into books like this and going at it all in one go wasn’t difficult, but I did go a day every now and again where I didn’t pick this up… I think this is mainly because this topic is linked to my job and after spending all day designing and looking at typefaces, occasionally (as much as I love the subject!) I didn’t want to then carry on reading about the subject in my downtime.

However, this makes me sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, when in fact I really enjoyed it. Each chapter was the story of a font, or of specific uses of different fonts, and told the stories of Gill Sans, Futura, Optima and Helvetica just to name a few. There were some interesting anecdotes, little snippets of history, and some technical information, all told in a relaxed and easy to read way. As someone who has studied Typography at degree level, a lot of the content was information I already knew, the history of many famous typefaces and typographers, and news about different faces being used for different work (the Verdana/Ikea new story, the 2012 Olympic logo and font etc.) but in most cases went into a little bit more detail, so the stories were still interesting.

There were many images of both the faces in use and the typographers at work, and the main bulk of the book itself is set in Sabon and Univers 45 Light. Within the publishing details at the beginning of the book, the author explains the typefaces used which I think is lovely. This is not done much anymore and is a real shame as if I like the look and feel of a typeface when I’m reading a book, I like to know what it is!

When a chapter is on a specific typeface, the first paragraph is set in that face which I think is a really nice touch, and throughout the book every face that is mentioned has an example, either in the form of text set in the face or an image, so you do not need to rush off to your computer very 5 seconds to see what the author is talking about!

The stories were short and sweet, and I would highly recommend this to anyone who has the slightest interest in typography, even if you have no real prior knowledge. the book doesn’t use lots of terminology, and when it does, it explains it all very well.As someone who loves typography, this book was definitely a must red for me, but I think most people would find it interesting, it’s a rich and varied subject about something that we all see and use everyday without really thinking about it.(less)

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Mar 20, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Truthfully, as a child that came up nearly entirely within the digital age, I never really gave much thought to typeface or fonts. As I would imagine that most others of my generation have done, I simply took these items for granted. Furthermore, I presumed the only utility of choosing between 'Word' fonts was to come in just below, or right at, the page limit of my high school and college assignments. 'Just My Type' has opened my eyes into the utterly fascinating world of type, typeface, and fo...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is seemingly written for a niche audience - the sort of people who talk about fonts the way others might talk about wine, or who spot typeface anachronisms in movies. I am not in this crowd, though I did have a favorite font in high school (ITC Officina Sans, mentioned on page 182) and a month ago I pondered aloud the different fonts used on Interstate signs (this topic is also covered!). So when this book was mentioned in an article on Slate.com I had enough mild interest to look it u...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, non-fiction

Note: I won this book in a First Reads giveaway.

This made for an enjoyable and easy read. For anyone who’s studied typography or design, I can’t imagine the book would contain anything they don’t already know, but for a clueless layman like myself it’s full of interesting information on something most of us probably give little thought to. As someone coming to this book with precious little knowledge on the subject beyond a passing familiarity with some of the more widely-used fonts out there,...more Note: I won this book in a First Reads giveaway.

This made for an enjoyable and easy read. For anyone who’s studied typography or design, I can’t imagine the book would contain anything they don’t already know, but for a clueless layman like myself it’s full of interesting information on something most of us probably give little thought to. As someone coming to this book with precious little knowledge on the subject beyond a passing familiarity with some of the more widely-used fonts out there, I found it contained just the right amount of technical detail to satisfy the curiosity of a non-expert, served up with plenty of anecdotal information and examples that made it very readable and accessible. I enjoyed learning about the people, stories and original purpose behind various typefaces, and how they came to be. The book also finally solved for me the ‘mystery’ (which I had vaguely wondered about, but apparently not enough to bother spending two minutes of my life researching the answer) of where Calibri suddenly sprang from back in 2007.

I liked the way that in most cases, the book gave an example of the typeface being discussed, especially the chapters devoted to a specific typeface, which use the entire first paragraph as an example, giving the reader a better feel for what the author's saying. However, in some cases, where a typeface is just mentioned in passing, the example is limited to just setting the font name in that face, which I found mildly infuriating when the author is writing about how the typeface in question features particularly attractive or unique letters which are not used in the font name, leaving me trying to picture what’s being described and wanting to run to the computer and look the thing up and see for myself. The copy I received was an uncorrected proof, though, so this may be addressed at a later stage.

This is the kind of book you can easily dip in and out of, although I read it straight through over the course of a few days. If, like me, you’re no expert but have ever found yourself admiring a particularly appealing typeface and wanting to know what it is, or grinding your teeth over a colleague’s inexplicable choice of font, you will probably find this one worth a go.(less)

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Apr 04, 2013 umberto rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, reference

Considerably readable, this book is informative and inspiring regarding each font's interesting inception, ‘typographic engineer’ and impact on the printing, advertising and communicating world dating back years ago till present days. It’s inspiring due to different font examples that help its readers decide which one should be more appropriate in what context and why.

I recalled vaguely, more than a decade ago, it was advised not to send a message in capital letters. For instance, we’re kindly i...more Considerably readable, this book is informative and inspiring regarding each font's interesting inception, ‘typographic engineer’ and impact on the printing, advertising and communicating world dating back years ago till present days. It’s inspiring due to different font examples that help its readers decide which one should be more appropriate in what context and why.

I recalled vaguely, more than a decade ago, it was advised not to send a message in capital letters. For instance, we’re kindly informed who initiated that unthinkable mission and what happened to her (pp. 31-32). In point of fact, it might be reasonably decided which is more readable between two messages sent to us in normally-typed Arial fonts vs. in all capital letters. Thus, sending a message in capital letters literarily similar to ‘shouting’ at its reader is quite understandable and we should keep this warning in mind.

Moreover, we would gradually learn from its 22 chapters why we should or should not use some unfamiliar, weird fonts, that is, the question of politeness or font etiquette is the key. Some few are simply unreadable, in other words, unacceptable for some reasons, for example, ‘the eight worst fonts in the world’ as nominated by the author (pp. 299-312).

I’ve tried to find some new fonts from my Microsoft Office Word 2007 but in vain, nearly. From the following ten fonts the designers used most as revealed in a 2007 study published by Anthony Cahalan (pp. 296-297):
1. Frutiger
2. Helvetica/Helvetica Neue
3. Futura
4. Gill Sans
5. Univers
6. Garamond
7. = Bembo; Franklin Gothic
9. Minion
10. Arial

From the list, I can find/use only 4 (Gill Sans, Garamond, Franklin Gothic, Arial), possibly I need to upgrade the program. Moreover, we would know another two font categories in the study, namely, 8 Highly Visible and 11 Least Favorite (p. 297).

In brief, reading this book is relaxing as well as character searching by means of our favorite fonts presented to our friends, colleagues, strangers, etc. for the sake of friendship, fellowship and partnership.

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Jan 17, 2012 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Many of the books I “read” are in fact audiobooks, and I am a big fan of a good book read by a good reader. Well, here’s a book I cannot imagine choosing as an audio book. You really need to see the typefaces as you read about their histories, their uses, and their creators.

What does your favorite font say about you? There are many of us for whom that is not a silly question. This cleverly imagined and researched book is for us.

I bought my first Macintosh in 1984, and I was amazed to discover th...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Wyma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just think - Garfield reminds us - before the personal computer most people knew next to nothing about typeface. But once we were given the opportunity to use it, we took off and often overdid it, used the same typeface for everything (comic sans), or used multiple typefaces on a page rather than bothering with expressive language. But that was part of the learning process and most of us settled in to a few reliable typefaces, which we call fonts. That's another thing I like about this author. H...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Yune rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-typography

Yes, a book about fonts. You can yawn if you want to.

But typeface designers can just just as colorful and crazy as "normal" people, and you'll hear about their shenanigans from sexual practices to the dramatic gesture of throwing metal type into the river. Garfield knows how to mine the human interest element.

Neither does he neglect the core purpose of his book, the invention and usage of fonts. You'll see them in their demonstrated glory and variations (and misuse, where Comic Sans is concerned...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads

As someone who spent most of her childhood making faux newsletters on The PrintShop and half her high school career agonizing over what fonts would make yearbook spreads least laughable fifty years hence, I'm predisposed to enjoy the full-on typographical geekery of Garfield's Just My Type - and I did, mostly. Garfield opens strong, with a foreword by cover designer (and Cheese Monkeys author) Chipp Kidd and then plays to the crowd with an opening chapter dedicated to the unmitigated loathing pe...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Jsavett1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

On the face of it (ha!), a book about fonts probably doesn't seem appealing to many people. Many people would be wrong.

This book is a delight. Chapter by chapter, Garfield takes us through both a history of typeface development and some of its major aesthetic trends---down with comic sans!

Woven between these chapters are numerous "Font Breaks" in which Garfield discusses the style and history of some of the most well known fonts.

Typeface design reminds me very much of architecture, and I feel eq...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Mark Eichin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the most accessible bits of font-geekery I've ever seen; bite-sized chapters dive into individual corners of our obsession with type, and helps put names to faces - names of designers, to typefaces, that is. One of the few modern books that is important to get on paper - someday Amazon will step up their game, and producing a Kindle edition of Just My Type that accurately captures the extensive use of obscure fonts as example and illustration would be a good indicator, but in the meantime...more

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Jan 12, 2013 S rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Original review at my blog, Writing by Numbers, here: http://ararebit.wordpress.com/2012/12...

Wikipedia reveals that Garfield has authored twelve nonfiction books, on topics from Victorian synthetic dyes, to wrestling, to war diaries. Is he generally passionate about British social/cultural history, or a true aficionado of each topic? Regardless, he made me believe in his typeface enthusiasm. This is a history of fonts, and it made me laugh aloud on the subway. It’s a rollicking, punchy romp.

Eac...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Georges rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Na era de e-books um livro sobre tipos pode parecer anacrônico ou saudosista. A importância dos tipos (fontes) na indústria gráfica e editorial não pode ser menosprezada e que provavelmente os novos leitores digitais deverão incorporar as qualidades gráficas dos livros impressos. A obra é muito agradável de se ler, conta as histórias dos tipos e da tipografia, os desafios que se apresentavam a cada evolução tecnológica, e a evolução dos gostos, usos, da estética e da arte em geral. Depois que St...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Jeff Seymour rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pretty good read! I came into Just My Type with very little knowledge about fonts and typefaces, and I left it with a cursory (pun!) idea of some of the major elements, developments, and names in the field (for instance, serifs are the flat parts at the top of some fonts, the blank interior space in a letter is called a counter, and men named Eric Gill and Matthew Carter are important). I now find myself occasionally looking at all the signage that surrounds me and realizing that a person chose...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Julieann Wielga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a playful book. Whenelse have I read a book where the font changes midpage or midsentence. The book is chockful of pictures, engravings, ads, street signs, comic strips, book jackers, album covers...The writing is light and full of small word plays. The subject is made current by home computing where we all choose fonts for each work we make. I will never again look at an ampersand without critical appreciation.

(I just realized how much I dislike this font.....)

This book makes me realize...more

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May 07, 2012 Greta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: art, general-non-fiction

I love fonts and I love geeky books about rather obscure subjects so, naturally, I was destined to enjoy this book. Which I did. It was fun to read about the history of typeface, the nature of various fonts and to discover why we like or dislike them, what makes them legible, interesting, entertaining or manipulating. That we can be coerced to like or dislike something based on the font the message is delivered in is an additional subject that is barely discussed but important as well. This book...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Minli rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I wanted this book to be The Disappearing Spoon of typefaces, but alas it was not. However, it is a perfectly good layperson's introduction to type, the history of-, and the obsession with-. If you know nothing about typefaces, I recommend reading this and watching the Helvetica documentary.

I'm not a graphic designer, but I have a bit more knowledge than a layperson's, and I wished Garfield delved more about type-as-art-history--especially the bits about type trends and how styles evolve from th...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who's ever yearned to kern...

Recommended to Alan by: The total package

Hard to believe, perhaps, but this book about fonts, typefaces, the shapes of the letters that make up the text we read every day, is lively and entertaining in a way that defies its only apparently trivial topic. From the reviled Comic Sans, to the historic impacts of powerhouse fonts like Times New Roman and Helvetica, to less common faces (like one of my personal favorites, Zapf Optima), Simon Garfield shares his enthusiasm for type in a series of clear, erudite, and wide-ranging essays. You...more Hard to believe, perhaps, but this book about fonts, typefaces, the shapes of the letters that make up the text we read every day, is lively and entertaining in a way that defies its only apparently trivial topic. From the reviled Comic Sans, to the historic impacts of powerhouse fonts like Times New Roman and Helvetica, to less common faces (like one of my personal favorites, Zapf Optima), Simon Garfield shares his enthusiasm for type in a series of clear, erudite, and wide-ranging essays. You don't have to know a lot about fonts to start this book; most likely, you'll know a lot more about them when you finish. Each chapter is short (and the specific "Fontbreak" sections even shorter), which makes for a fast-moving and accessible experience. And in contexts ranging from the importance of legible highway signage to the effect the right font can have on someone's election chances, Garfield relates the mundane details of typography to the most pressing of real-life issues.

As one would expect, the book itself, as a designed artifact, has also been beautifully constructed. It has a pleasant heft and size, a good mix of text and illustrative images, and of course the font chosen for the main body of the book is a clean, readable, yet relatively uncommon one called Sabon, about which Garfield says, "It is not the most beautiful type in the world, nor the most original or arresting. It is, however, considered one of the most readable of all book fonts, and it is one of the most historically significant."

I do wish that the particular library copy I read had not been annotated by a blithering (and of course anonymous) idiot. First, of course, one should probably think twice about scribbling in a library book at all... and second, if one must, at least refrain from doing so so badly, merely underlining obvious emphases and doodling redundant letter forms!

Garfield expresses some fairly strong opinions about fonts, though I honestly found none I disagreed with. I don't know how a professional would react to this book—I am no great shakes as a graphic designer, myself—but as an interested amateur, I found it fascinating.(less)

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Jan 28, 2012 Evanston Public Library added it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Back in 1439 or thereabouts, Johannes Gutenberg invented the modern printing press, and that changed the world. The press and its moveable type were accompanied by a burgeoning adjunct industry--typography. Type designers (those who actually create a typeface), usually artists and artisans of great skill, found a growing demand by publishers who wanted to give their materials a unique style. Handbills, newspapers, posters, and signage started to appear in fonts purposely selected to enhance the...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Frutiger. Garamond. Goudy Stout. Gill Sans. Zapf dingbats. You may think they're just names of fonts in your word processing program. But it turns out, they're named after real people. And that's just one of the many interesting facts I learned from reading this book.

Garfield has put together a very readable history of fonts, from Gutenberg and Caxton to digital typefaces. He brings to life the men (and some women) who created something that is as ubiquitous as the telephone or the TV or the co...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Danny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I made the curious decision to listen to this book about fonts instead of reading it, but though the hardcopy has lots of images of the things they're talking about (I looked at it before I decided to check out the CD book) I've been living with word processing programs long enough to have a pretty good idea about what most of the fonts they're talking about look like.

The first chapter is an examination of everyone's favorite font to hate, Comic Sans, but it's not just a hatchet job. You actuall...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Steve Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You'd think a book entirely focused on typefaces would only interest those with a keen interest in graphic design, but no, Simon Garfield's font-filled fact-fest appeals to the everyday reader, too. Anyone from the most experienced of typographical artists to your average computer user whose knowledge of fonts stretches no further than Arial and Comic Sans will enjoy it. Packed to the brim with interesting stuff about all areas of the field of typography. Each chapter revolves around a single to...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Sarah Mayor Cox rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lordy-an-adult-book, narrative-non-fiction, great-for-art-history, great-for-book-clubs, middle-years-guided-reading

This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. It's one of a growing genre of populist academic research – academia meets popular culture – a great hook to get young people into reading. The introduction about Steve Jobs really hooked me in, and made me go and examine the font on my iPod more closely.
There are lots of interesting facts about the people who created the fonts that label our world, the quirky stories of how they came to be such well loved (or hated) fonts and the impact...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: design, other-non-fiction

This is a book about fonts: their history, their production, their character, their use. I know, it sounds like it should be painful. So imagine my surprise when I finished this book and realized that I wished it had contained more font geekery.

Let me just say that I started the book knowing that some people cared passionately about type, and that I wasn't one of them. I've finished the book and I'm still not one of those people, but I have begun to appreciate it. As with the Cloud Spotters Guid...more This is a book about fonts: their history, their production, their character, their use. I know, it sounds like it should be painful. So imagine my surprise when I finished this book and realized that I wished it had contained more font geekery.

Let me just say that I started the book knowing that some people cared passionately about type, and that I wasn't one of them. I've finished the book and I'm still not one of those people, but I have begun to appreciate it. As with the Cloud Spotters Guide, and A Scientist at the Sea Shore, I've come away from the book able to see distinctions that I didn't see before. I love it, it's like a superpower.

My problem is that my font-appreciating superpower is still puny! I know to look at whether the horizontal stroke of the 'e' is below, in, or above the middle of the letter. I know to look at whether the curl terminates horizontally or at an angle. I just don't know what this means! My next read on fonts will have to be some kind of study and quiz book: how to identify true Helvetica, and then tests for it.

The anecdotes in this book are fantastic, and cover historical and modern characters. My absolute favourite was Baskerville:

In the event, Lichtenberg didn't buy Baskerville's punches and matrices. Instead they passed to Pierre de Beaumarchais, the dramatist responsible for The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville, who bought them in 1779 for the Literary and Typographical Society. The society intended to use them to print the complete works of Voltaire in 168 volumes. It is likely that they were also used to produce much revolutionary propaganda in Paris. They were sold again to a French foundry before landing at their current resting place at Cambridge University Press. (Ironically, the first full Baskerville biography, published by CUP in 1907, was printed in Caslon).

A similar restless fate befell the remains of Baskerville himself. Suspicious of religion, Baskerville had few friends in the church, and had arranged for his own mausoleum to be erected in his grounds. Here he was buried vertically, a further snub to tradition. But he proved a movable type: in 1827, half a century after his death, his body was found by workmen lying horizontally beneath a pile of gravel. He had been shunted from his mausoleum by the new owner of the grounds, and apparently just dumped nearby.

When the body was found it was wrapped in a linen shroud covered by sprigs of bay and laurel. His facial skin was described in a local newspaper as `dry but perfect'. The eyes had gone, but eyebrows, eyelashes, lips and teeth remained. `An exceedingly offensive and oppressive effluvia strongly resembling decayed cheese arose from the body, and rendered it necessary to close the coffin in a short time.' The newspaper concluded that even in this undignified state he was `possessed of a natural elegance of taste, which distinguished every thing which came from his hands'.

Following this discovery, he was interred in a catacomb in a Birmingham churchyard, but then moved again when the space made way for shops. He ended up beneath the chapel in Warstone Lane, in a vault that has since been bricked up to deter vandals. This is how we honour our type heroes.

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Oct 28, 2011 Kate Woods Walker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just My Type was feel-good nostalgia for me, bringing back memories of fonts-gone-by and the days of dodging the greasy, inky grime around the Linotypes to get to my new, modern Varityper Headliner to commence setting grocery ads for a newspaper that finally, in 2011, succumbed to That Internet Illness and died. Oh! What memories of Futura and Bodoni Bold, Franklin Gothic and Rockwell, this book brought to the fore!

"Fonts" back then meant lead-filled printer's drawers, dinner-plate-sized plastic...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As soon as I heard about this book on NPR I knew I had to read it. As if I didn't have enough nerdy interests, I've become interested in fonts and typefaces over the last few years. Fonts first caught my attention when I found some great open-source font projects, and from there I began to notice and appreciate how well-crafted letters helped communicate ideas and promoted clarity. Simon Garfield's book Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, would probably be best enjoyed by a font nerd like me, but...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a jolly fun romp through the history, use and applicability of major (i.e., the most popular and well known) typefaces. I went into the book thinking it would be an interesting look at random fonts. It is that and much more.

The book succeeds in delivering a sampling of how fonts evolved and how we use them and to what end. The book achieves this in part by offering lots of illustrations of typefaces, real-world examples of various typefaces and having sections that talk about specific t...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Just My Type: A Book About Fonts” by Simon Garfield is a nonfiction book about fonts. After reading this book I will never look at signs the same way again.

The book documents the history of fonts and typefaces from Gutenberg to modern digitized versions. Using humor the author tells of the impact of fonts on business and culture.

“Just My Type” by Simon Garfield is a humorous and entertaining book which will change the way you look at the world. Like me, most people probably...more “Just My Type: A Book About Fonts” by Simon Garfield is a nonfiction book about fonts. After reading this book I will never look at signs the same way again.

The book documents the history of fonts and typefaces from Gutenberg to modern digitized versions. Using humor the author tells of the impact of fonts on business and culture.

“Just My Type” by Simon Garfield is a humorous and entertaining book which will change the way you look at the world. Like me, most people probably don’t think much about fonts, unless they’re ugly, unfitting or difficult to read.

As it turned out there are font aficionados out there, enough to merit heavy discussions on IKEA changing its font and to religiously maintain Internet groups. That is not including those whose livelihood depends on fonts (authors, designers, advertisers, etc.).

f you know nothing about typography don’t worry, the second chapter explains common terms which you’ll want to know because the first chapter already hooked you in by discussing font related anecdotes about Comic Sans. Between chapters there are “Font Breaks”, which praise fonts, tells of font controversies as well as great stories about dead typographers and interviews with those who are still among the living.

The book is a quick tour around the world, not only by looking at road signs, but by including movies, TV shows, album covers, magazines, movies, computers and more. What I found even more fascinating is the misuse of fonts in movies, fonts that are used in time-period movies but have actually been created later in history.

In this lively book you’ll discover how fonts are picked for road signs (very important), how are they tested at high speeds and what do fonts say about products and politicians. Of course one could make the very legitimate argument that politicians are products, but that’s a different book.

Among the many tidbits in the book you’ll find some gems such as how the @ sign is called in different languages (strudel in Hebrew, escargot in French), the secrets of Rolling Stone’s “R” and why the “T” is lowered on the Beatles’ logo. You’ll also read stories about the font makers and their curious lives.

No book about fonts will be complete without the “worst of” section. Mr. Garfield does well by staying away from home made fonts and covering only those made by professionals; otherwise that section would prove to be unruly.

Mr. Garfield did a great job writing an intriguing book on, what could have been a very boring subject, the history and analysis of fonts. The author completed that feat by writing a cheeky book about the human side and our reaction to fonts. An added detail to this wonderful book is that most of the font names are printed in that font.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com (less)

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About Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield is a British journalist and non-fiction author. He was educated at the independent University College School in Hampstead, London, and the London School of Economics, where he was the Executive Editor of The Beaver.

His published books include:

Mini-The True and Secret History of the Making of a Motor Car

Exposure: The Unusual Life and Violent Death of Bob Carlos Clarke

The Error World

P...more

More about Simon Garfield...

Books by Simon Garfield

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World

On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks

Our Hidden Lives: The Remarkable Diaries of Post-War Britain

We Are at War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times

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“These days, digitization enables us to view the copies [of the Gutenberg Bible] online without the need for a trip to the Euston Road, although to do so would be to deny oneself one of the great pleasures in life. The first book ever printed in Europe - heavy, luxurious, pungent and creaky - does not read particularly well on an iPhone.” — 4 people liked it

“One thing was for sure: no one wanted a repeat of Christopher Barker’s Bible of 1631, which omitted the negative from the seventh commandment so that it read, ‘Thou shalt commit adultery.” — 1 person liked it

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