A Pocket Guide to Combining Typefaces

by Tim Brown

Combining typefaces is challenging and fun, but it takes practice. Successful combinations are partly a matter of good taste, which can be tough to develop. And finding typefaces that work well together often takes more time than we (or our managers, or our spouses!) think it should.

This pocket guide will give you a framework for efficient practice, lead you to founts of knowledge and help you judge the work you see, including your own work. It will encourage you to be selective, patient and reasonable, focusing on web contexts and your design goals.

Who should read this book?

This pocket guide is for designers and developers who want to make better choices about type, build typographic expertise, and say smarter things about fonts in use – without wasting any time. The point here is to get your job done, and grow your skills along the way.

Topics

PART 1: TYPE

Some background on type and typography, covering designers, anatomy, families, classification and the jobs that typefaces do.

PART 2: CONTEXT

A brief look at web compositions as coordinated chunks of typeset elements, shifting among many states simultaneously.

PART 3: CHOOSING TYPEFACES

Strategies for selecting typefaces based on real design goals, to truly understand why a combination works or doesn’t.

PART 4: JUDGING COMBINATIONS

Practical advice about identifying successful typeface combinations by using them and looking at them carefully.

PART 5: CRITIQUE

An appraisal of five different sites’ type choices and typesetting, noting the relationships between their successes and the strategies and advice in this guide.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Website Design

63 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Микола · Rating 3 out of 5]

Невеличка брошура про підбір шрифтів. Лаконічно викладено базові принципи, до всього додаються корисні лінки (на сайти чи книжки).
Вона, звісно, орієнтована на латинку, а ще більше на шрифти колекції Adobe
(бо саме там працює Тім Браун), але методи роботи універсальні.

Серед порад: читати текст, з яким треба буде працювати (і тестувати підбір на реальних зразках), порівнювати на різних рівнях: композиції в цілому, ритму шрифтів, будови літер.

Цікаво: типографія рухається від сторінки до екрана, тому ідеться не про полосу/сторінку/розгорт, а про фрагменти (chunks) тексту, які можуть адаптивно міняти взаємне розташування, розміри (і в тому числі, шрифти, одні для великого екрану, інші для мобільного).

[Emanuel Serbanoiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short format it's the main advantage of this book. I would recommend it to someone who has some time at his disposal and can really pay attention and doesn't mind to go in rabbit holes (the guide has a lot of useful links)

[Nigar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice and short. A lot of useful links and typeface combination examples.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great little pocket guide.

Don't expect to finish reading this and immediately know how to combine typefaces, it merely serves as a brief guide and people new to typography might even be left a little overwhelmed. However, Tim references plenty of great external resources to help you expand on the various methods covered.

Definitely worth checking out if you're remotely interested in typography. I personally never really bother to combine different type, but after this quick little read, I'll be reconsidering that the next time I design something.

[Jason]

Another great book from the pocket guide series. I think they just keep getting better. As with many other books in this series, this one gets you oriented to the topic, gives you a little theory, a little practical knowledge, and then points you in the right direction for further study. I'm excited to get started pairing some typefaces! Highly recommended.

[Mateus Pinheiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book delivers it's promise: A pocket guide to combining typefaces. It just scratches the surface of type combination, but that's what pocket guides are supposed to do.

If you have a spare hour at the train or on a plane, get this book. You'll have a starting point on how to combine typefaces for your next project.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more from this. Chapter 4, the part on actually combining typefaces, really could have used some additional explanation and examples. Some of the images seemed weirdly cropped or too low-res, I'm not sure if that's just the Kindle version, the ipad kindle app, or what.

[Davor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice handbook which I plan to consult whenever I'll have a hard time deciding on typfaces for a project at hand.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice, but insubstantial. good set of links to other literature and some good practical tips.

[Georg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and useful with a useful combination of information and tasks that the reader should carry out in order to gain the maximum benefit of the book.

[Eystein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great re-introduction to type. 1 hour to read, and references to keep you going for a good while.