Typography: What is it?

“The arrangement, style, or general appearance of printed matter” is how Webster's New World College Dictionary defines typography. It entails a concern with all the elements on a printed page, including the artful use of white space to set off text and enable reflection.

Why is typography important?

Setting beautiful type that conveys the tone and theme of written words is an aesthetic match of form and content, style and meaning. In his masterful (and exquisitely designed) work on typography, The Elements of Typographic Style, polymath Robert Bringhurst observes that “when the type is poorly chosen, what the words say linguistically and what the letters imply visually are disharmonious, dishonest, out of tune.” Good typography, says Bringhurst, “should perform these services for the reader:

• invite the reader into the text;
• reveal the tenor and meaning of the text
• clarify the structure and the order of the text
• link the text with other existing elements
• induce a state of energetic repose, which is the ideal condition for reading.”

Typographic services: What we can do.

We pay close attention to typographic detail and to even, professional typesetting, using Adobe InDesign to customize letter and word spacing one paragraph at a time. The result is a harmonious textblock, unity on the page, and a book that is comprehensively designed for reading pleasure.