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Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Audiobook7 hours

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts

Written by Simon Garfield

Narrated by Gildart Jackson

3/5

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About this audiobook

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product that we buy. But where do they come from, and why do we need so many? Who is responsible for the staid practicality of Times New Roman, the cool anonymity of Arial, or the irritating levity of Comic Sans (and the movement to ban it)?



Typefaces are now 560 years old, but we barely knew their names until about twenty years ago when the pull-down font menus on our first computers made us all the gods of type. Beginning in the early days of Gutenberg and ending with the most adventurous digital fonts, Simon Garfield explores the rich history and subtle powers of type. He goes on to investigate a range of modern mysteries, including how Helvetica took over the world, what inspires the seeming ubiquitous use of Trajan on bad movie posters, and exactly why the all-type cover of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was so effective. It also examines why the "T" in the Beatles logo is longer than the other letters and how Gotham helped Barack Obama into the White House. A must-have book for the design conscious, Just My Type's cheeky irreverence will also charm everyone who loved Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Schott's Original Miscellany.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherTantor Audio
Release dateSep 30, 2011
ISBN9781452674513
Author

Simon Garfield

Simon Garfield is the author of more than a dozen acclaimed books of non-fiction, including the international bestseller, Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, and a trilogy of edited diaries from the Mass Observation Archive, which includes the bestselling Our Hidden Lives. He lives in London and St Ives, with old maps lining the walls.

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Reviews for Just My Type

3/5

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  • 4/5
    Pop commentary on fonts. Cute but wish it went deeper.
  • 3/5
    Had a lot of interesting and sometimes amusing information. Would liked it better if they had always shown the font/character being discussed. Many examples, however. The foreward (by Chip Kidd) was fantastic with many illustrations from pop culture showing the effectiveness of various fonts.
  • 4/5
    This is a wonderfully entertaining and informative book. I wish I could retain all the information it contains. I enjoy learning about fonts but do not seem to have the discernment in everyday life to distinguish among many of them. The author of this book covers a lot of ground, including the history of type and printing, mini biographies of some of the most influential type designers, descriptions of the histories of selected fonts, and some cultural/psychological information about the use of fonts. Lots of fun.