An Essay on Typography

This manifesto, however, is not only about letters—their form, fit, and function—but also about man's role in an industrial society. As Gill wrote later, it was his chief object "to describe two worlds—that of industrialism and that of the human workman—and to define their limits."

His thinking about type is still provocative. Here are the seeds of modern advertising: unjustified lines, tight word and letter spacing, ample leading. Here is vintage Gill, as polemical as he is practical, as much concerned about the soul of man as the work of man; as much obsessed by the ends as by the means.

"Written with clarity, humility and a touch of humor.timeless and absorbing."—Paul Rand, The New York Times