Today, I would like to introduce “Reading Letters,” written by Sofie Beier.
This book explains typeface visibility in detail. At a glance, it is a hard theme. However, the book is designed to be easy to understand, just looking at the illustrations included. Although there is a big theme of visibility, it is investigated from truly varied directions, such as history of character, shape, viewpoint movement, distance between people and character, etc., so that the information never becomes boring.
What does it mean for a typeface to be easy-to-read? It seems simple but it is quite a deep theme. How the typeface designers in the successive generations faced this issue and created typeface, and how the author patiently observed them can be understood. Nevertheless, there is no clear answer. It makes us think, however, that we can come closer to the best typeface by thinking from various perspectives. The book is recommended to anybody who is interested in learning deeply about typeface visibility.
Book Information:
“Reading Letters”
Author: Sofie Beier
Publisher: BIS Publishers
Purchase Information:
You can purchase a used version on Amazon, but sale has regrettably concluded on the official website.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Reading-Letters-Legibility-Sofie-Beier/dp/9063692714
(KY)
Series archive Recommended Book / Book of the Month
- Book of the Month (2024 April): “Mincho Type: Its Origin and Formation”
- Book of the Month (February 2024): “Stroll with Typography: Observation of Characters on the Road”
- Book of the Month (September 2023): “Shintaro Ajioka’s Typeface Course”
- Book of the Month (July 2023): “Men Who are Possessed by the Type”
- Book of the Month (February 2023) : “The Visual History of Type”
- Book of the Month (December 2022) : “Reading Letters”
- Book of the Month (October 2022): “SANS SERIF”
- Book of the Month (June 2022): “’Typeface’ is Created”
- Book of the Month (March 2022): “Size-specific adjustments to type designs”
- Book of the Month (December 2021): “The Field Guide to Typography: Typefaces in the Urban Landscape”
- Book of the Month (November 2021): “Designing Type”
- Book of the Month (October 2021): “Writing Vertically Creates the Scenery of Words – Why Do We Need Two Japanese Writings in Vertical and Horizontal?”
- Book of the Month (September 2021): “Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana – History of Japanese Notation”
- Book of the Month (August 2021): “Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age”