Research Catalog

Title

Typeforms : a history / Alan Bartram.

Author

Bartram, Alan, 1932-

Publication

London : British Library ; New Castle, DE : Oak Knoll Press, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• British Library, publisher.
• Oak Knoll Press, publisher.
• Cambridge University Press, printer.
• Norman Tilley Graphics, compositor.

Description

128 pages : illustrations; 26 cm

Summary

"This book is the long-awaited successor to the classic An atlas of typeforms, the great visually-led history of type that Alan Bartram and James Sutton produced in 1968. Much has changed in the last 40 years, not least the teaching of typography and the means by which it is created. Because current design methods do not require the drawing and tracing of letterforms in order to produce layouts, we have lost our close connection with them. Few understand their history, their appearance, how and why they have developed as they have. Nearly 75 different types are shown in their original metal forms, just as they were in the Atlas of typeforms. But an entirely new feature is the author's attempt to place the types in their historical context. By including photographs of contemporary inscriptions on buildings and monuments, Alan Bartram explores the relationship between printed and architectural letterforms and their parallel course from the Renaissance until Victorian times. The opportunities offered for graphic and type designers in the digital age are greater than ever before. But without an understanding of the visual structure of letterforms and some knowledge of their fascinating history, designers cannot fully exploit the potential of type. In this book, the author Bartram educates us in these critical areas"--

Subject

• Type and type-founding > History
• Type and type-founding > Specimens
• Inscriptions
• Signs and signboards > Lettering
• Type and type-founding

Genre/Form

• Typefaces (Type evidence) – Fournier (Monotype)
• Typefaces (Type evidence) – Franklin Gothic Heavy.

Note

• "First published 2007"--Title page verso.
• "Designed by Alan Bartram. Typeset in Monotype Fournier and Franklin Gothic Heavy by Norman Tilley Graphics, Northampton. Printed in England at the University Press, Cambridge"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (page 126) and index.

Binding (note)

• Publisher's gray cloth; in illustrated book jacket.

Contents

Prologue: then, and now -- Introduction -- A brief history -- Venetian -- Italian old face -- Italic -- French old face -- Dutch old face -- Dutch old face/Caslon -- Dutch old face/Early transitional -- Early transitional -- Transitional -- Late transitional -- Modern -- Victorian display/Fatface -- Egyptian -- Clarendon -- Sanserif -- Grotesque -- Twentieth-century Roman -- Decorated -- From metal to digital -- Epilogue.

Call Number

JQF 08-897

ISBN

• 9781584562221 (alk. paper)
• 1584562226 (alk. paper)
• 0712309713
• 9780712309714

LCCN

2007047616

OCLC

181328147

Author

Bartram, Alan, 1932- author, book designer.

Title

Typeforms : a history / Alan Bartram.

Publisher

London : British Library ; New Castle, DE : Oak Knoll Press, 2007.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (page 126) and index.

Binding

Publisher's gray cloth; in illustrated book jacket.

Connect to:

Request access to this item in the Schwarzman Rare Books Collection

Table of contents only

Place of Publication

England London.

United States Delaware New Castle.

Added Author

British Library, publisher.

Oak Knoll Press, publisher.

Cambridge University Press, printer.

Norman Tilley Graphics, compositor.

Research Call Number

JQF 08-897

*KAB 15-6