Type: The Secret History of Letters

by Simon Loxley

""Good typography should be invisible"", so goes the old maxim--the typeface should carry the message, but not distract with its own personality. But if you've ever wondered how type was developed, exactly what a Goudy Friar is, or if Baskerville has anything to do with Sherlock Holmes, then Type will answer these questions and more. This is the story of the faces behind type, letters and it tells of the passions and obsessions of its creators, of war, persecution and political upheaval, of business and technological breakthrough, of rivalry, death and disinterment. With the skill of a novelist, Simon Loxley weaves the story of letters through the history of our time. From Gutenberg's first moveable type to the internet, type has grown out of ambition, jealousy, desire, treachery and love. Never again will you look at your letters, your bank statements or your books in the same way.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, History, Art, Language, Books About Books, Writing

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Simon Loxley is a graphic designer and writer on design, typography and design history.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very similar in conception to Simon Garfield's Just My Type . Each book is meant to be a general overview of typography (the creation of fonts for printing) via short chapters on narrow topics. This book is rather more "rambling" in its treatment, and the author has less interest in "history" (that is, there is much less about the early centuries of printing) and concentrates more on "book design" in general and the British aspect in particular. For instance, both books cover the topic of highway fonts (i.e., the lettering for highway signage), but while Garfield talks about both US, UK and European fonts, Loxley restricts himself to David Kindersley's vain effort to change UK scheme for highway signs in the period around 1960. Also, Loxley talks a lot more about modern technology (e.g., the difference between Monotype and Linotype systems of composition, though I found the details confusingly laid out), and has a rather pointless (I thought) discussion at the end about graphic design (rather than fonts per se) focused on Nicholas Brody. The last 40 pages or so didn't really seem to be about fonts proper.

While I did learn some things in this book that didn't appear on Garfield's, if I had to pick one, I'd go with the latter.

Also, rather peculiarly for a book written by a graphic designer, I thought this book was uglier and harder to read than Garfield's. For instance, the outer margins are huge, since both the illustrations with their captions and (weirdly) the notes were placed there. This resulted in huge amounts of "wasted paper" on pages without notes or images). The book would give a few letters each of capital and lower-case letters for fonts discussed, but it would have been more useful to have the whole alphabet (it was odd that the text would sometimes discuss specific letter shapes that weren't illustrated!). The cover was also ugly (again, Garfield's was more striking and nicer-looking too).

[Joe Drogos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished it!

The writing's fine, I suppose. And for a book about type and typesetting, it's a pretty finely designed paperback.

But... there's nothing "secret" about this book.... Most of it is simply untold because it's not all that interesting.

I am able to recognize and contextualize many more fonts now, though. It's not worthless, but it was a slog to get though some of this.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entirely too focused on the lives and personalities of the font designers rather than the fonts themselves. Couldn't take it was not what I was looking for from this somebody may be interested in Stanley Morrison's love life but it isn't me.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book about the people behind type or typography innovations.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I’m not a typographer or type-designer, when I began engaging in desktop publishing a decade ago and sought out guidance for the decisions I suddenly had to make, I became interested in the history and minutiae of fonts and letterforms for their own sake. Also, in pursuit of a master’s degree in library science more than thirty years ago, I took an elective in the “History of Books and Printing,” so the background knowledge was already there. Loxley has produced a thoroughly fascinating social and philosophical history of the development of type, beginning with Gutenberg (who may or may not have been the inventor of moveable type) and following the development of words-in-print down through the centuries to the Nazi affection for Blackletter and the present-day democratization of the field via the personal computer. The author is very knowledgeable, especially about biographical details and personalities among western type designers. Illustrations and quotations are frequent and the book itself, naturally, is very nicely designed with footnotes and cut-lines set off in a one-third-size outside column. Though this is Loxley’s first book, I hope it won’t be his last.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book about typography and the people who've designed it, from Gutenberg and the others involved in creating printing, to the present, with some brief, interesting speculation about the future. I was most interested in the analysis along the way of different fonts and styles, and in how (as with any human endeavour) they have been influenced by individual personalities through to world-sized events.

While I wasn't mad keen on the cover of this edition, it made its point. The wonderful thing was that the insides of the book were suitably elegant and beautiful in design and font choice. An excellent way, of course, to reinforce all kinds of points about the power of good typography. Nicely done!

[Keli Rylance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simultaneous Reading: As I found this coupled with Alexander Lawson's "Anatomy of a Typeface" was more enjoyable than as individual books: they augment one another. Simon Loxley, a graphic designer, dramatizes key typographic innovations through the personalities of the designers. Featured: Edward Johnston's letters for the London Underground; Jan Tschischold's New Typography.

[Gergely H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a simply entertaining read for anyone who interested in typography, although do not expect any real secret. :) It can be a good start to think different about type designers, and understand the work behind it.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers everything from the development of Movable Type, the Private Press Movement, 21st Century type and all the fonts in between. Fun to read...if your into that kind of thing.

[Minardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Font history!

[Lee Hunter]

this book is one of those single issue history books about type and the people who created the first typefaces. it's interesting so far, we'll see what happens.

[Benjamin David Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than Just My Type.

[Alena · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's more like The Secret History of People who had Something to do with Letters. Very biographical.