Useful Resources for Learning Typography Theory

13 Jun 2014

A recent question on useful resources for learning typographic theory had me digging through my old bookmarks to find the most useful. This post is designed as a future reference and a way to collect these resources together.

Butterick’s Practical Typography

http://practicaltypography.com/

An excellent resource by Matthew Butterick (https://twitter.com/mbutterick) who also created the legal specific http://typographyforlawyers.com/ resource. Practical Typography offers an excellent overview of typographic theory and is an excellent starting point for learning more about this area.

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web

http://webtypography.net/toc/

A web–specific version of the excellent Elements of Typographic Style book maintained by Richard Rutter. Very useful overview and intro to the more in–depth and non web–specific original.

Typekit Practice

http://practice.typekit.com/

Useful lessons and references regularly updated and maintained by Adobe Typekit.

Thinking with Type

http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/

Website to accompany the Thinking With Type book (http://amzn.to/1pRrh3V). While slightly dated now, the typographic theory is still relevant today.

Now Buy the Book

While all these are useful online resources, one of the best investments I can recommend when it come to learning typography is to purchase a copy of Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style (http://amzn.to/1itePlL)

Having a copy of the book to hand and seeing the typographic theory applied in print can really make a difference to really understanding what is happening and why.

Hopefully these resource will prove useful when looking to learn about typography.