Review of 'Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Lupton's book gives an overview of the field of typography and page design. It's a quick read, but is enough to let the reader get an idea of what's out there, how different fonts interact, what sorts of things to consider when laying out a page, and so on.
The main structure of the book is a zoom-out: it starts with fonts--showing what a serif, a slab, or a descender are--to paragraphs, to pages and books.
It's reminiscent of Scott McCloud's [b:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art|102920|Understanding Comics The Invisible Art|Scott McCloud|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328408101s/102920.jpg|2415847] in that it uses its subject to illustrate itself: McCloud used comics to explain comics, and Lupton uses fonts and page design to explain fonts and page design. For instance, instead of spending half a page explaining how to pick fonts or font weights that complement each other and work well together, Lupton instead shows half a dozen examples …
Lupton's book gives an overview of the field of typography and page design. It's a quick read, but is enough to let the reader get an idea of what's out there, how different fonts interact, what sorts of things to consider when laying out a page, and so on.
The main structure of the book is a zoom-out: it starts with fonts--showing what a serif, a slab, or a descender are--to paragraphs, to pages and books.
It's reminiscent of Scott McCloud's [b:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art|102920|Understanding Comics The Invisible Art|Scott McCloud|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328408101s/102920.jpg|2415847] in that it uses its subject to illustrate itself: McCloud used comics to explain comics, and Lupton uses fonts and page design to explain fonts and page design. For instance, instead of spending half a page explaining how to pick fonts or font weights that complement each other and work well together, Lupton instead shows half a dozen examples that work, and another half dozen that don't. This might seem gimmicky, but I think it works.
There are passages where Lupton gets into what could kindly be called poetic digressions into somewhat esoteric and esthetic topics, and might unkindly be called arty nonsense. Thankfully, it's easy enough to skip to the next chapter (most chapters are only two to four pages long) and get on with the next bit.
