Alphabet the History Evolution and Design

by Allan Haley

The letters of the Roman alphabet are so much a part of our everyday life that often they are taken for granted. We no longer see tham for what they really are: complex and beautifully designed symbols of enormous graphic power whose colourful history stretches back many thousands of years. The computer age has easy access to technology that potentially unlocks this versatility . Today's designers, however, are in danger of losing touch with the knowledge that allows them to exploit and develop this rich inheritance. This sourcebook for the study of practical lettering and typography focuses on the visual strengths of the alphabet, examining in detail tha history and evolution of each individual letter, both upper and lower case. It also looks closely at each letter's design, describing the precise technique needed to draw it and examining and illustrating various typefaces. With additional sections on the ampersand, punctuation marks and numbers, this guide should be of interest to students, designers, typographers, calligraphers and anyone with an interest in letters and lettering.

Genres: History, Language, Reference, Design

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 1995

Reviews

[Nilendu Misra]

A delightful little book full of interesting trivia about alphabets a how Phoenicians invented it, Greeks transformed it and Romans inscribed it into typographic conventions. Loved it.

[Riq Hoelle]

The title misleads a bit as its real purpose is to discuss type design, but it does include a bit of history for fun and because it sometimes informs the topic a bit. If you have an interest in both the history of letters and in types, they intersect perfectly here. There's great knowledge in the taxonomy of type at the start of the book, which can be very helpful when you're trying to pick out a typeface for a purpose. Sometimes topic depth is sacrificed a little for the sake of brevity and sometimes characters of a particular typeface are mentioned, but not illustrated. The artistic arrangement of sample letters on every page looks great though.

[Katie]

Detail-specific for type designers. As a history of the alphabet, less enthralling. I also wish the author had not excluded some key glossary terms that I guess he assumed everyone knew ("brackets").

[Marc]

Far too cursory, and lacking in concrete examples of how letters derived. Some nice pictures of different examples of each letter from various typefaces, but very introductory.