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Baskerville
The Biography of a Typeface (The ABC of Fonts)
Series: The ABC of Fonts
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Summary
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book will appeal to enthusiasts of design, typography, printing history, and those interested in Enlightenment figures and cultural heritage.
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See moreMore than a decade on from the publication of the Sunday Times bestselling JUST MY TYPE, Simon Garfield presents a new series of beautifully designed pocket biographies of iconic typefaces
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Description
The classic elegant English typeface, still widely used as a book text more than 250 years since its creation. Baskerville is a transitional design, poised between the first metal types and modern styles, notable for its combination of fat and thin strokes. When it was first used, there was genuine concern that it would damage readers' eyes.
John Baskerville was a maverick lacquer maker and printer in Birmingham, a flamboyant dresser, an important figure in the Enlightenment. Though it earned him little money, he was obsessive about both his typeface and its appearance on the page, a perfectionism culminating in his magnificent Bible. The story encompasses one of the first powerful women of the printing world, his wife Sarah Baskerville, and the many typefaces the Baskervilles inspired. It also examines why John Baskerville's body was dug up and buried many times before it was finally allowed to rest in peace.
Series: The ABC of Fonts
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Comic Sans
Comic Sans is one of the most used and most reviled typefaces of the digital age. How was it made? How could it spawn a movement to ban it and yet still be so widely promoted by educators? What does its accidental creator make of its contentious and singular history? This quirky and unique book considers how the computer transformed...HardbackSold Out -
Albertus
One of the most beautiful handcrafted typefaces in the world, Albertus is also one of the most enduring. The face of thousands of book jackets, and the chosen look for David Bowie, Coldplay, Star Wars and London street signs, Albertus is as warmly enticing on film posters as it is on memorial plaques. The story of the font is one...HardbackSold Out -
Baskerville
The classic elegant English typeface, still widely used as a book text more than 250 years since its creation. Baskerville is a transitional design, poised between the first metal types and modern styles, notable for its combination of fat and thin strokes. When it was first used, there was genuine concern that it would damage readers' eyes. John Baskerville was...HardbackSold Out
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399609272
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 09 November 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 20.0mm
Width: 136.0mm
Height: 204.0mm
Weight: 220g
Pages: 144
About the Author
Simon Garfield is the author of the international bestsellers Just My Type, On the Map and Mauve, while To the Letter was one of the inspirations for the theatre shows Letters Live with Benedict Cumberbatch. His study of AIDS in Britain, The End of Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham prize.
Also by Simon Garfield
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Just My Type
Just My Type is not just a font book, but a book of stories. About how Helvetica and Comic Sans took over the world. About why Barack Obama opted for Gotham, while Amy Winehouse found her soul in 30s Art Deco. About the great originators of type, from Baskerville to Zapf, or people like Neville Brody who threw out the...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
On The Map
Maps fascinate us. They chart our understanding of the world and they log our progress, but above all they tell our stories. From the early sketches of philosophers and explorers through to Google Maps and beyond, Simon Garfield examines how maps both relate and realign our history. With a historical sweep ranging from Ptolemy to Twitter, Garfield explores the legendary,...Paperback$3400Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Timekeepers
Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. The Beatles learn to be brilliant in an hour and a half. An Englishman arrives back from Calcutta but refuses to adjust his watch. Beethoven has his symphonic wishes ignored. A US Senator begins a speech that will last for 25 hours. The horrors of war are frozen at...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Mauve
1856. Eighteen-year-old chemistry student William Perkin's experiment has gone horribly wrong. But the deep brown sludge his botched project has produced has an unexpected power: the power to dye everything it touches a brilliant purple. Perkin has discovered mauve, the world's first synthetic dye, bridging a gap between pure chemistry and industry which will change the world forever. From the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Comic Sans
Comic Sans is one of the most used and most reviled typefaces of the digital age. How was it made? How could it spawn a movement to ban it and yet still be so widely promoted by educators? What does its accidental creator make of its contentious and singular history? This quirky and unique book considers how the computer transformed...HardbackSold Out -
Albertus
One of the most beautiful handcrafted typefaces in the world, Albertus is also one of the most enduring. The face of thousands of book jackets, and the chosen look for David Bowie, Coldplay, Star Wars and London street signs, Albertus is as warmly enticing on film posters as it is on memorial plaques. The story of the font is one...HardbackSold Out
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