Week 5

Presentation on Book Typography¶

What is Typography?¶

• Typography is Design for reading
  • Readability

Typefaces vs. Fonts: Difference?¶

A lot of people use the terms “typeface” and “font” interchangeably. But they’re two very distinct things.

A typeface is a set of typographical symbols and characters. A font, on the other hand, is traditionally defined as a complete character set within a typeface, often of a particular size and style. Fonts are also specific computer files that contain all the characters and glyphs within a typeface.

Choices¶

• Commercial constraints balanced with aesthetic desires
• Using consistency within a series / or indeed an organisation.
• Book structure / components

Title page¶

This would usually consist of the title of the book, the author/editor and the publisher name and logo. The design would be simple but can make use of the same style as the cover (the typography and arraignment). Images are not often used and the title page is normally in black and white only.

The Frontispiece¶

This is opposite the title page and would only display an image with a caption.

Imprint¶

The Imprint Page is the page that appears on the back of the Title Page. It contains everything we need to know about who wrote the book, who the publisher is, how we can contact them, where the book was printed, what the ISBN is, etc.

What is a colophon?¶

The word “colophon” comes from the Greek “κολοφών” meaning “summit” or “finishing touch.” Around the turn of the 20th century, private and commercial presses began including colophons in the back of their books and listed different technical and material information about the book: the front, paper type, binding process, cover material, etc. This simply adds another layer of recognition for the publisher and the work that went into turning the story into a physical book.

Please see further details in this document: Attention to Detail in Typography with InDesign