Jost Hochuli’s concise guide to micro-typography considers everything that can happen within a column of text. The book was published first, in several languages, in 1987 and 1988. Hochuli then developed the German text, publishing it again in 2005, with Verlag Niggli in Switzerland. That new edition is the basis for our book: translating and adapting the work to English-language conditions. (For an explanation of why we have let the book go out of print, see here.)
| availability | forthcoming |
| published | 2008.06.18 |
| extent | 64 pp |
| dimensions | 210 × 125 mm |
| illustrations | 75 b&w pictures |
| binding | sewn & flapped paperback |
| ISBN | 0-907259-34-0 |
| ISBN13 | 978-0-907259-34-3 |
| price | £12.50 |
Detail in typography discusses in simple steps the factors that make text easy to read and good to look at. Hochuli starts by describing what we know about the reading process. Then he looks at the letters of the Latin alphabet: what is good form in letters? How has script and type developed? How do letters work as visual elements? He goes on to discuss words: how do they hang together? How do we recognize them? Next, he looks at lines of words, and thus at the space between words. Also here he considers punctutation as an element of the line. Then there is the question of the space between lines (‘leading’): what are the factors there? The book is rounded off with a look at typefaces and their properties.
Detail in typography, designed by its author, is printed and bound in Switzerland to the best standards. It provides, in its own form and manufacture, a demonstration of how books can be made.
