Publisher: Schmidt Hermann Verlag
Language: German English
ISBN-10: 3874396835
ISBN-13: 978-3874396837
Product Dimensions: 28.4 x 2.7 x 30.6 cm
Release Date: 2005
Price: sold
Layout: Otl Aicher, Monica Schnell
Typeface: Rotis Semigrotesk, Rotis Antiqua
Typography is the mirroring of speech.
But spoken language is transient.
As soon as our tones die away, so too does language. Through writing, language attains a temporal and a spatial dimension. Writing can be randomly moved
about, far beyond the confines of spoken language. And it can also be preserved indefinitely.
Typography is the pictorial equivalent of language. By extension, language is what typography is judged by.
Language is measured in terms of comprehensibility. Just as typography ought to be measured in terms of legibility.
Ought to be.
It is more difficult to take a compelling photograph of an object – be it an apple or a nude – than it is to mount a spotlit display of it. And it is more difficult to produce legible type than to create an alluring textual structure, an aesthetic delight, a landscape of letters, a work of art.
These are the problems this book concerns itself with.
It is not a book on typography as art but on typography as communication. But maybe the ability to remove the obstacles to legible typography, viz. typography as communication, is art too.
ernst & sohn
edition druckhaus maack