S Jackson Rockwell

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Rockwella type specimen bookEdited and Design by Sheldon Jackson

2010 GDES1314.01

The Elements o Typographic Style Second Edition

By Robert Bringhurst


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HEAD INGS

THE GRAND DESIGN

THE GRAND DESIGN

THE GRAND DESIGN

THE GRAND DESIGN

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The Elements

o TypographicStyleThe

Elements oTypographicStyle

The Elements

o TypographicStyle

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TheElements o

TypographicStyle

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1.2 TACTICS

1.2 TACTICS1.2 TACTICSitalic

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4

1.3 SUMMARY1.3 SUMMARY1.3 SUMMARY

1.3 SUMMARY

1.1

FIRSTPRINCIPLES

1.1FIRSTPR

INCIPLES

1.

1FIRST

PRINC

IPLES

1.1

FIR

STPRINC

IPLES

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24

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1.2 TACTICS18

S

haping

the

pa

ge

goes

hand

in

h

and

with

choosing

the

type,

and

b

oth

are

perm

anent

typographical

p

reoccupations.T

he

subjectofp

age

s

hapesand

prop

ortionsisaddressed

in

greater

detail

in

chapter

8.

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/12

Some o what a typographer must set, like some o what any musician must play,is simply passage work. Even an edition o Plato or Shakespeare will contain acertain amount o routine text: page numbers, scene numbers, textual notes, thecopyright claim, the publishers name and address, and the hyperbole on the jacket,not to mention the passage work or background writing that is implicit in the text

itsel. But just as a good musician can make a heartwrenching ballad rom a ewbanal words and a trivial tune, so the typographer can make poignant and lovelytypography rom bibliographical paraphernalia and textual cha. The ability to doso rests on respect or the text as a whole, and on respect or the letters themselves.

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Selecting the shape o the page and placingthe type upon it is much like ramingand hanging a painting. A cubist paintingin an eighteenth-century gilded rame,or a seventeenth-century still-lie in a

slim chrome box, will look no sillier thana nineteenth-century text rom Englandset in types that come rom seventeenth-century France, asymmetrically

positioned on a German Modernist page.

14

P h th


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I there is more than one text as in countless

publications issued in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium

and other multilingual countries - how will the separate

but equal texts be arrayed? Will they run side by sideto emphasize their equality (and perhaps to share in

a single set o illustrations), or will they be printed

back-to-back, to emphasize their distinctness?

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light8/9.5

No matter what their relation to

the text, photos or maps mustsometimes be grouped apart romit because they require a separatepaper or dierent inks. I this isthe case, what typographic cross-

reerences will be required?

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These and similarquestions, which

conront theworking typographer

on a daily basis, mustbe answered case bycase. The typographic

page is a mapwo the mind; it is

requently also a map

o the social orderrom which it comes.

And or better oror worse, minds andsocial orders change.

Letterorms have tone, timbre, character, just as

words and sentences do. The moment a text and a

typeace are chosen, two streams o thought, two

rhythmical systems, two sets o habits, or i you

like, two personalities, intersect. They need not live

together contentedly orever, but they must not as

a rule collide.

Ty

pography

is

the

art

and

craftofhandling

these

doubly

meaningful

bits

of

information.A

goo

dtypographer

handles

them

in

intelligent,

coherent,sensitive

way

s.When

the

type

is

poorly

chosen,

what

the

words

say

ling

uistically

and

wha

t

the

letters

imp

lyvisuallyare

dis

harmonious,

di

shonest,

out

of

tune.

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I the text is long or the space is short,

or i the elements are many, multiple

columns may be required. I illustrations

and text march side by side, does

one take precedence over the other? And does the order or degree o

prominence change? Does the text

suggest perpetual symmetry, perpetual

asymmetry, or something in between?

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Again, does the textsuggest the continuousunrued ow o

justifed prose, or thecontinued irtationwith order and chaosevoked by ush-let raggedrightcomposition? (Therunning heads andsidenotes on the odd-numbered pages othis book are set ushlet, ragged right. Onthe even numberedpages, they are raggedlet. Letward-readingalphabets, like Arabicand Hebrew, areperectly at home

in ragged-let text,but with rightward-reading alphabetslike Latin, Greek orThai, ragged-letsetting emphasizesthe end, not thebeginning, o the line.This makes it a poorchoice or extendedc o m p o s i t i o n . )

Perhaps theprinciple shouldread: Give ulltypographicattention especially

to incidental details.

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In a badly designedbook, the letters

mill and stand likestarving horses in afeld. In a book de-signed by rote, theysit like stale breadand mutton on thepage. In a well- madebook, where design-er, compositor andprinter have all done

their jobs, no matterhow many thousandso lines and pages,the letters are alive.They dance in theirseats. Sometimes theyrise and dance in themargins and aisles.

Simple as it may sound, the task o creativenon intererence with letters is a rewarding

and difcult calling. In ideal conditions, it is allthat typographers are really asked to do and itis enough.

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/8

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11/11Literary style, says Walter Benjamin, is

the power to move reely in the length and breadtho linguistic thinking without slipping into banality.Typographic style, in this large and intelligent senseo the word, does not mean any particular style my

style or your style, or Neoclassical or Baroque style but the power to move reely through the wholedomain o typography, and to unction at every

step in a way that is graceul and vital instead obanal. It means typography that can walk amiliarground without sliding into platitudes, typographythat responds to new conditions with innovative

solutions, and typography that does not vex thereader with its own originality in a sel-conscious

search or praise.

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The typographer must analyze andreveal the inner order o the text,as a musician must reveal the innerorder o the music he perorms. Butthe reader, like the listener, should

in retrospect be able to closeher eyes and see what lies insidethe words she has been reading.The typographic perormancemust reveal, not replace, the innercomposition. Typographers,like other artists and cratsmen -musicians, composers and authorsas well- must as a rule do their work

and disappear.

regular 7.5/8Typography is to literature as musical

perormance is to composition: an essential acto interpretation, ull o endless opportunitiesor insight or obtuseness. Much typography is arremoved rom literature, or language has manyuses, including packaging and propaganda. Likemusic, it can be used to manipulate behavior andemotions. But this is not where typographers,musicians or other human beings show us their fnest

side. Typography at its best is a slow perormingart, worthy o the same inormed appreciation thatwe sometimes give to musical perormances, andcapable o giving similar nourishment and pleasurein return.

The same alphabets and page designs canbe used or a biography o Mohandas Gandhi and ora manual on the use and deployment o biologicalweapons. Writing can be used both or love lettersand or hate mail, and love letters themselves canbe used or manipulation and extortion as well asto bring delight to body and soul. Evidently thereis nothing inherently noble and trustworthy in thewritten or printed word. Yet generations o men

and women have turned to writing and printing tohouse and share their deepest hopes, perceptions,dreams and ears. It is to them, not to the extortionist nor to the opportunist or the profteer that thetypographer must answer.

In poetry and drama, a larger typographic paletteis sometimes required Some o Douglass Parkers


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ParagraphsThe original purpose o type was simplycopying. The job o the typographer wasto imitate the scribal hand in a orm that

permitted exact and ast replication. Dozens,

then hundreds, then thousands o copieswere printed in less time than a scribewould need to fnish one. This excuse or

setting texts in type has disappeared. In theage o photolithography, digital scanning

and oset printing, it is as easy to printdirectly rom handwritten copy as rom text

that is typographically composed. Yet thetypographers task is little changed. It is still

to give the illusion o superhuman speedand stamina - and o superhuman patience

and precision - to the writing hand.

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Typo

graphyisjustthat:

idealized

writing.

Writers

themselves

now

rarely

have

the

calli

graphicskillofearlierscribes,butthey

evok

ecountlessversions

ofidealscriptby

their

varyingvoicesand

literarystyles.To

theseblindandoften

invisiblevisions,the

typographermustrespondinvisibleterms.

Novels seldom need such signposts, butthey oten require typographic markers

o other kinds. Peter Matthiessensnovel Far Tortuga (New York, 1975;designed by Kenneth Miyamoto)uses two sizes o type, three dierentmargins, ree-oating block paragraphsand other typographic devices toseparate thought, speech and action.

Ken Keseys novel Sometimes a GreatNotion (New York, 1964) seems to owlike conventional prose, yet it shitsrepeatedly in mid-sentence betweenroman and italic to distinguish whatcharacters say to each other romwhat they say in silence to themselves.

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nsed9/1

2

is sometimes required. Some o Douglass Parker stranslations rom classical Greek and Dennis Tedlockstranslations rom Zuni use roman, italic, bold, smallcaps and ull caps in various sizes to emulatethe dynamic markings o music. Robert Massinstypographic perormances o Eugene Ionescos playsuse intersecting lines o type, stretched and meltedletters, inkblots, pictograms, and a separate typeace oreach person in the play. In the works o other artists

such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Guy Davenport,boundaries between author and designer sometimesvanish. Writing merges with typography, and the textbecomes its own illustration.

I the text is tied to otherelements, where do theybelong? I there are notes,do they go at the side o the

page, the oot o the page,the end o the chapter, theend o the book? I thereare photographs or otherillustrations, should they beembedded in the text or

should they orm a specialsection o their own? Andi the photographs havecaptions or credits or labels,should these sit close besidethe photographs or shouldthey be separately housed?

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One o the principles o durable typography

is always legibility; another is something

more than legibility: some earned or

unearned interest that gives its living

energy to the page. It takes various orms

and goes by various names, including

serenity, liveliness, laughter, grace and joy.

Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphylike anything that lends its graceto language typography is an art

that can be deliberately misused. It isa crat by which the meanings o atext (or its absence o meaning) canbe clarifed, honored and shared, orknowingly disguised.

In1770

,a

billwas

intro

duce

dinthe

Eng

lis

hParl

iamen

t

with

the

ollow

ingprov

ision

s:...

allwomeno

w

hatever

age,

ran

k,

pro

ess

ion,

or

degree,

whe

ther

vir

gins,

mai

ds,orw

idows,

tha

tsha

ll...

imposeupon,

sed

uce,

and

be

tray

intoma

trimony,anyo

HisMa

jes

tyssub

jec

ts,

by

thescen

ts,

pa

ints

,cosm

eticwas

hes,

ar

tifc

ialtee

th,

alse

ha

ir,

Span

ishwoo

l,iro

ns

tays,

hoops,

highhe

eled

shoes

[or]

bo

lstere

d

hip

s

sha

llincur

the

pena

lty

ot

he

law

in

orce

agains

tw

itc

hcra

t...

an

d...

the

mar

riage,

uponconv

iction

,s

ha

lls

tan

dnu

llan

dvo

id.

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These principles apply, in dierentways, to the typography o businesscards, instruction sheets and postagestamps, as well as to editions oreligious scriptures, literary classicsand other books that aspire to jointheir ranks. Within limits, the sameprinciples apply even to stock marketreports, airline schedules, milk cartons,classifed ads. But laughter, grace and

joy, like legibility itsel, all eed onmeaning, which the writer, the wordsand the subject, not the typographer,must generally provide.

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The typographers one essential task is to interpret andcommunicate the text. Its tone, its tempo, its logicalstructure, its physical size, all determine the possibilities o

its typographic orm. The typographer is to the text as thetheatrical director to the script, or the musician to the score.

bold condensed 8/8

In a world rie with unsolicited messages, typography must otendraw attention to itsel beore it will be read. Yet in order to beread, it must relinquish the attention it has drawn. Typographywith anything to say thereore aspires to a kind o statuesque

transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunityto change, but a clear superiority to ashion. Typography at itsbest is a visual orm o language linking timelessness and time.b

old

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10/1

0

P A R A

This is the beginning, middle andend o the practice o typography:choose and use the type withsensitivity and intelligence. Aspectso this principle are explored

throughout this book and consideredin detail in chapters 6, 7 and 10.

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The unction o typography, as I understand it, is neitherto urther the power o witches nor to bolster thedeences o those, like this unortunate parliamentarian,who live in terror o being tempted and deceived. The satisactions o the crat come rom elucidating, andperhaps even ennobling, the text, not rom deluding theunwary reader by applying scents, paints and iron staysto empty prose. But humble texts, such as classifedads or the telephone directory, may proft as much as

anything else rom a good typographical bath and achange o clothes. And many a book, like many a warrioror dancer or priest o either sex, may look well withsome paint on its ace, or indeed with a bone in its nose.

Letterorms that honor andelucidate what humans see and

say deserve to be honored intheir turn. Well-chosen wordsdeserve well-chosen letters;these in their turn deserve to be

set with aection, intelligence,knowledge and skill. Typographyis a link, and it ought, as amatter o honor, courtesy andpure delight, to be as strong asthe others in the chain.

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/7

A novel oten purports to be a seamless river o words rom beginning toend, or a series o unnamed scenes. Research papers, textbooks, cookbooks and other works

o nonfction rarely look so smooth. They are oten layered with chapter heads, section heads,subheads, block quotations, ootnotes, endnotes, lists and illustrative examples. Such eaturesmay be obscure in the manuscript, even i they are clear in the authors mind. For the sake othe reader, each requires its own typographic identity and orm. Every layer and level o the

text must be consistent, distinct, yet (usually) harmonious in orm.The frst task o the typographer is thereore to read and understand the text;

the second task is to analyze and map it. Only then can typographic interpretation begin.I the text has many layers or sections, it may need not only heads and

subheads but running heads as well, reappearing on every page or two-page spread, to remindreaders which intellectual neighborhood they happen to be visiting.

condens

ed

6.5/7

G R A P H S

Writing begins with the making o ootprints, the leaving o signs. Like speaking, it is a perectly natural act which humans have carried to complex extremes. The typographerstask has always been to add a somewhat unnatural edge, a protective shell o artifcial order,

to the power o the writing hand. The tools have altered over the centuries, and the exactdegree o unnaturalness desired has varied rom place to place and time to time, but the

character o the essential transormation between manuscript and type has scarcely changed.

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1.2.3 Make the visible relationship


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isibleween the textnts a refectiontionship. extra bold 16

bold italic 18

1.2.1 Read the textbeore designing it.

1.2.6 Give ull typographic

attention even to incidentaldetails.

1.1.1 Typography exists to honor content.

1.1.3There is a style beyond style.

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IHEAD

SGNSUB

1.1.2 Letters have a lie and

1.2.6 Give ull typographic attention even to incidental details.

1.2.2 Discover the outer logic o

pbetween the text and other elementsa refection o their real relationship.

1.2.3 Make the visiblerelationship between the textand other elements a refectiono their real relationship.

1.2.4 Choose a typeace or agroup o aces that will honorand elucidate the character othe text.

1.2.5 Shape the page and rame thetextblock so that it honors and reveals


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dignity o their own.light 24

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the typography in the inner logic o the text.condensed 24

1.2.4 Choose a typeace ora group o aces that willhonor andelucidate thecharacter o the text.

textblock so that it honors and revealsevery element, every relationshipbetween elements, and every logicalnuance o the text.

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There are always exceptions, always excuses or

stunts and surprises. But perhaps we can agree

that, as a rule, typography should perorm these

services or the reader:

While serving the reader in this way, typography, like a

musical perormance or a theatrical production, should

serve two other ends. It should honor the text or its own

sake - always assuming that the text is worth a typographers

trouble - and it should honor and contribute to its own

tradition: that o typography itsel.

invite the reader into the text;

reveal the tenor and meaning

o the text;

clariy the structureand the order o the text;

ink the textwith other existing elements;

induce a state o energetic repose,which is the ideal condition or reading.

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c o l o p h o n

T h i s b o o k w a s c r e a t e d a n d d e s i g n e d b y S h e l d o n J a c k s o n

P r i n t e d a t S t . E d w a r d s U n i v e r s i t y i nA u s t i n , T X

C r e a t e d u s i n g A d o b e I n D e s i g n C S 5

T e x t r o m T h e E l e m e n t s o T y p o g r a p h i c S t y l e

S e c o n d E d i t i o n B y : R o b e r t B r i n g h u r s t

H P L a s e r P r i n t e rS a d d l e S t i t c h B i n d i n gR o c k w e l l T y p e a c e


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