An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History
Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott and Bernard Stein
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers New York, 1998
This has got to be the typographic bargain of the year! This massive book-nearly 600 pages, over 2,000 illustrations in a 9.5" x 12" format-costs only $39.95.
This is not a typography textbook. It is the beginning of a reference work which demonstrates the interaction between craft and technology, theory and practice, between functional and experimental ideas. Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott and Bernard Stein have not delivered the ultimate book on typography (despite the implications of their subtitle), but it is a book full of engrossing information.
Friedl, Ott and Stein consider typography as a key component of culture and have divided Typography into the chronology, the persons and the institutions, the tools, and typefaces. the chronology, is a 66-page breeze through the history of writing from Raygun to the Assyrians. The chronology actually goes backward from the present. It is very disconcerting since it breaks the usual threads of influence. Fortunately, the illustrations are excellent and the summary descriptions of each "movement" are succinct and often sharply observed.
the persons and the institutions is a conventionally alphabetical (from A to Z) survey of important individuals, institutions and companies in typographic history. It is filled with people familiar and unfamiliar. Each entry is accompanied by several full-color examples of work at a reduced size typical of a small paperback. Why such relatively small illustrations in such a large format book? Because Typography is written in German, French and English. The ingenious design has the German text running across the top of each spread, the English text running along the bottom and the French text split between the left and right sides-the images are gathered in the well created in the middle. The texts are short, thumbnail summaries of each individual's career or each institution's history. Information prevails over opinion. The authors deliberately chose to avoid "biased" copy and the result is a dry recitation of fact. Despite the lack of gossip or personal tidbits, Typography is an excellent resource.

The high quality of the illustrations, coupled with such a strong emphasis on graphic design, will make this book a useful resource for teachers of design history as well as those interested in typography and printing history. English, German en French