Hi,
I have been ignoring typography just because I always thought it is a little boring and wouldn’t make much difference in my designs ( I know I know ) until now that I see the big difference, anyways I think it’s time to face it and jump into it.
Can you guys recommend me a good book that can show me the basics about typography?
I would like to be able to know what would be the best font combination, word spacing, height etc.
Also make some point as to why this is so important?
Thanks
I haven’t read a book on it, but there are some good online resources, like this:
Here are some other resources I’ve bookmarked:
http://www.typebooks.org/r-elements.htm (That one’s a book!)
http://www.3point7designs.com/blog/2008/06/10-examples-of-beautiful-css-typography-and-how-they-did-it/
http://ow.ly/htwb
http://typedia.com/
Also make some point as to why this is so important?
I probably should let the trained graphic designers step in here, but what the heck… I guess well formed typography is easy on the eye, a more pleasant experience that enhances the words, their readability and their meaning.
But basically I just do what looks good to me!
Thanks a lot for your reply!
I haven’t read a book on it, but there are some good online resources, like this:
So, a book is not really necessary as longs as I read some online articles?
Books are usually a better resource if you want to learn something properly (in my knee-jerk, ill-considered opinion), but there is some great stuff online too.
I’m not an authority, because I haven’t studied typography properly anyway. I did study calligraphy for a few years, though, so I guess that gives me some idea, and I found books to be the best resource… well, other than studying the work of the masters themselves, which is arguably even better. 
Thank a lot!
Jon Tangerine, [URL=“http://www.cameronmoll.com/”]Cameron Moll, and Vivien at [URL=“http://www.inspirationbit.com/”]Inspiration Bit maintain sites that are very informative about typography and worth visiting.
I’d learn the fundamentals and then some…
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Detail in Typography by Jost Hochuli
Also read this
Ryan, cookies for you. 
I just found out yesterday that that article was cited in a book about Joomla developing. Not sure why it’s cool in a different way to be cited in a dead tree publication instead of in a pixel-driven one, but there it is…
[ot]Awesome cookie smiley! I will definately be using that 
.
That’s cool! I tried writing for Sitepoint once but they rejected it :O.
[/ot]
@Op, I think the rule of thumb is, any information you find in a book, can be found in the interwebz
Wow, so not true! I do research as a second job/avocation (see the History Commons link in my sig), and there’s a ton lot of info in books that will never make it on the innertoobz. However, that’s not true about Web design and code info. This time, we split the cookie.
I was referring to web design but yes I should have specified that. Here, have a
Hi Fs-tigre
Delighted to hear there is another typophile in the making. If you’re just getting started with typography, Robin Williams (a designer not the comedian) has a couple of books that are very helpful.
Typography For Non-Designers
Design For Non-Designers
Both are written in an easy to understand way but are incredibly informative.
I’ll also blow my own trumpet here and just mention that I write about typography once a week here on the Sitepoint blog if you would like to take a look. Here are links to a few recent posts that might be of interest to you and others.
[URL=“http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/29/typography-readability-legibility-part-2/”]
Legibility In Typography
[URL=“http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/11/27/spaced-out-tracking-in-typography”]
Spaced Out - Tracking In Typography
There are lots more posts on the Sitepoint blog but I’ll just point you to this - part 1 of a 4 part series dedicated to typography - you’ll see the other links in the series on that page.
all the best
Jennifer
There are some other titles out there if you enjoy reading books on typography, it’s wrong to assume that online articles will act as a total replacement for the subject. Typography and web design are pretty new together (before we just had a limited amount of fonts to work with). I agree with the Robin Williams recommendations.
I recommend…
Thinking With Type (Ellen Lupton)
The Elements of Typographic Style (Robert Bringhurst)
The Typographic Desk Reference (Theo Rosendorf)
Enjoy!
Books are usually a better resource if you want to learn something properly