[texhax] Fonts for Beginners

[PETER WILSON]

Paul,

I'm not sure what you mean by `accessible' --- can't you get hold of any of the mentioned texts or is it that having read them they don't provide what you are after?

In any case I suggest that Bringhurst's `The Elements of Typographic Style' and Smeijers' `Counterpunch' will help you.

I'm surprised that you don't find William's `Typeface Terminology' accessible in both senses of the word. 

One book that is not in William's list is Karen Cheng, `Designing Type', Yale University Press, 2005 (ISBN 0-300-11150-9). 

My `A Few Notes on Book Design' has a little on fonts, though whether it will help you I don't know. Try 
texdoc memdesign
which should display it on your terminal, otherwise it's on CTAN in /info/memdesign

Peter W.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Stanley <paulrichardstanley at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 25, 2012 4:48 PM
>To: texhax at tug.org
>Subject: Re: [texhax] Fonts for Beginners
>
>William
>you named a number of books which might be interesting and helpful, 
>however, none of them are accessible. I am not interested in font 
>installation at this stage, I'm merely looking for a text, be it a 
>web document, a TeX file,  or an accessible PDF (a bit of a 
>contradiction I know) detailing the very basics of fonts, how they 
>are structured, designed, the terminology  and so forth,taking 
>nothing for granted about the reader's prior knowledge of the subjet matter.
>At 16:15 25/07/2012, you wrote:
>>On Jul 25, 2012, at 11:07 AM, Paul Stanley wrote:
>>
>> > sorry William, none of these books are accessible.
>>
>>Some of them should be:
>>
>>
>> > At 13:00 25/07/2012, you wrote:
>> >> On Jul 24, 2012, at 10:46 AM, Paul Stanley wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > Does the list recommend a text on the subject of fonts for a 
>> complete beginner?
>> >>
>> >> If you mean for installation into old styles of TeX, then Philipp
>> >> Lehman's Font Installation Guide:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/Type1fonts/fontinstallationguide/
>>
>>http://ctan.gladstone-tech.com/info/Type1fonts/fontinstallationguide/fontinstallationguide.tex
>>
>>
>> >> If you mean using them in a ``modern'' TeX system then Will 
>> Robertson's FontSpec:
>> >>
>> >> http://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/xetex/latex/fontspec/
>>
>>
>>http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/fontspec/fontspec.dtx
>>
>>I'll have to see about doing a version of the Typeface Terminology 
>>broadside using TeX.
>>
>>William
>>
>>--
>>William Adams
>>senior graphic designer
>>Fry Communications
>>Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
>
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