Overview
What decisions lie behind the way a book is designed? How are readers of books helped or hindered by the choices that a designer, publisher, or printer has made in presenting an author's text to its intended audience? Are there any lessons we can learn from a study of the books that have been produced in previous centuries?In this stimulating and generously illustrated volume, Alan Bartram, a distinguished book designer and typographer, answers many of these questions and provides his personal view of some of the successes and failures of his predecessors. He looks with fresh eyes at a varied range of books published in western Europe and America in the last half-millennium, concerning himself in particular with readability, function, and clarification of meaning. He also discusses how different elements of text, decoration, and illustration were combined in the layout of the printed page, and he comments on whether the resultant design is successful.
Concisely written and handsomely produced, this visual history of book design and production is intended for a wide audience -- students of graphic design and the history of the book, bibliophiles, collectors, and all who are interested in the visual communication of ideas.
Synopsis
What decisions lie behind the way a book is designed? How are readers of books helped or hindered by the choices that a designer, publisher, or printer has made in presenting an author's text to its intended audience? Are there any lessons we can learn from a study of the books that have been produced in previous centuries?
In this stimulating and generously illustrated volume, Alan Bartram, a distinguished book designer and typographer, answers many of these questions and provides his personal view of some of the successes and failures of his predecessors. He looks with fresh eyes at a varied range of books published in western Europe and America in the last half-millennium, concerning himself in particular with readability, function, and clarification of meaning. He also discusses how different elements of text, decoration, and illustration were combined in the layout of the printed page, and he comments on whether the resultant design is successful.
Concisely written and handsomely produced, this visual history of book design and production is intended for a wide audience -- students of graphic design and the history of the book, bibliophiles, collectors, and all who are interested in the visual communication of ideas.
Publishers Weekly
In 500 Years of Book Design, British book designer Alan Bartram (Typefaces for Books) parses the rectos and versos of pages famous (the Kelmscott Chaucer) and less so (Benjamin Franklin's edition of Cicero's Cato Major), showing how and why different typesetting decisions are made. And he does so by example this beautifully laid-out book puts commentary on the top quarter of each page, with the remainder being devoted to wonderful reproductions of the classic designs in question. More a set of self-described "personal observations" than systematic study, this book will entice anyone who reads for more than gist. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.