Basic Typography: A Design Manual was published in 1990 and is an up-to-date version of Mr. Craig’s earlier book Phototypesetting: A Design Manual.

As the name suggests, Basic Typography offers both designer and non-designer answers to the many fundamental questions on typography. The book explains clearly and simply how type works, so that the designer will be able to take full advantage of type’s enormous potential.

Fine typography is timeless; typesetting technology may change, but there is only so much a good computer can do. Using type creatively has more to do with aesthetics and common sense than it does with typesetting technology. For guidance we can no longer look to the professional typographer, we are now the typographers.

To help the reader find the necessary information quickly, the book is presented as a series of self-contained units that are grouped under three headings: Terminology, Design, and Copyfitting.

“An extraordinarily useful book and I will recommend it strongly to all our students.”
Alvin Eisenman, Yale University

“Certainly belongs in every designer’s library.”
R. W. Hummerston

192 pages. 8 1/2 X 11 inches. Over 600 B/W illustrations. Glossary. Index.

ISBN 8230-0451-1.
Watson Guptill Publications

Return to top