Every designer knows that typography can make or break a visual project. But understanding the rules and knowing when to break them can feel overwhelming. That's where Thinking with Type becomes your trusted companion on the journey toward typographic excellence.
Typography isn't just about making text look pretty—it's about communication. The right typeface can convey authority, playfulness, sophistication, or warmth. This guide shows you how letters, words, and paragraphs should be aligned, spaced, ordered, and shaped to create meaning and impact. You'll learn to see typography not just as decoration, but as a powerful tool for visual storytelling.
Ellen Lupton has crafted the definitive guide that covers all typography essentials, from understanding typefaces and type families to mastering kerning and tracking. The book teaches you how to work within systems of typographic form while still leaving room for creativity. This revised edition includes forty-eight pages of new content covering style sheets for print and web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, small caps, enlarged capitals, mixing typefaces, and font formats.
Whether you're a seasoned designer, a writer looking to understand visual communication, an editor refining layouts, or a student building your foundation, this book speaks your language. The visual examples demonstrate how to be inventive within typographic systems, showing you what the rules are and—more importantly—how to break them effectively.
With helpful exercises and dozens of additional illustrations, Thinking with Type transforms abstract concepts into tangible skills you can use tomorrow on your next project. It's the typography book that grows with you, from your first attempts at layout to sophisticated multi-page publications.
