The Anatomy of Type
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The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces
AKA The Geometry of Type: The Anatomy of 100 Essential TypefacesStudents and professionals in any creative field can benefit from a good typographic eye. The Anatomy of Type (published in the UK as The Geometry of Type) is all about looking more closely at letters. Through visual diagrams and practical descriptions, you’ll learn how to distinguish between related typefaces and see how the attributes of letterforms (such as contrast, detail, and proportion) affect the mood, readability, and use of each typeface. Nutritional value aside, the spreads full of big type make tasty eye candy, too.
The typefaces featured in the book are hand-picked by the author for their functionality and stylistic relevance in today’s design landscape. Along with several familiar faces (such as Garamond, Bodoni, Gill Sans, and Helvetica), you’ll also discover contemporary fonts that are less common — and often more useful — than the overused classics.
This website will be updated with news and resources related to the book’s content. Subscribe to the RSS feed or follow on Tumblr for updates.
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Type Detail: Wenting Zhang annotates web type Type Detail is an ongoing project by Wenting Zhang, inspired by The Great Discontent’s “100 Day Project” and The Anatomy of Type. Zhang annotates typefaces specifically available for web use using the same structure from our book, designed by Tony Seddon.
Thanks for the mention and link, Wenting! I only wish there was a place to add comments on your analysis.
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“The comments are historical, biographical, artistic, and commercial, and no matter how much you think you already know, you’ll learn something new on nearly every page.” -
The Anatomy/Geometry of Type is now available in French from PYRAMYD. I don’t know enough French to vouch for the translation (by Émilie Lamy) but Jean François Porchez tells me it’s pretty good despite a few missteps.
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Why Small Details Matter Tal Leming is a typeface designer who just launched a really good website for his Type Supply foundry — the kind of site that represents some of the best of what independent type makers are doing right now. Today he posted an in-depth background story on the making of his latest typeface release, Balto. In it, he articulates why small decisions, like the angle of terminals and openness of aperture (the sort of stuff described in The Anatomy of Type), really do matter:
These tiny things may seem like inconsequential details but they are very important. I teach type design and I like to tell my students that while these minuscule changes won’t be noticed by most people, they will be felt. Type design is a great example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. A small change like this will echoed by other glyphs and all of these can be multiplied hundreds of times across a single page. -
“It is a down-to-earth but playful and helpful tool for users in search of a distinctive typographic tone. A cautiously plotted but worthwhile attempt to shake type classifications to the core.” -
“There are many things I like about Stephen Coles’ recent book; the bright, clean design and the accessible structure allowing you to dip in and out; but most of all, it’s the lack of fluff or filler. … In highlighting and comparing the features that give each typeface its character, anyone exploring this subject can begin to make informed choices between similar typeface options.” -
“Stephen’s book couldn’t have come at a better time. It presents just what those new to designing with type need to know. This is a book that could, and probably should, become a staple for a generation of typographic designers” -
“The Anatomy of Type provides a glorious opportunity to taxonimize another everyday visual encounter. As your knowledge accumulates, and your vocabulary grows, you, too, will begin to appraise these fonts with a critical eye. You will gaze at them alongside Coles, nodding at his insights.” -
“Coles does a wonderful job of initiating the layman to the field of modern typography.” -
“The Anatomy of Type is a surprisingly accessible book that will appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in typography. This is an easy-to-use guide that rewards both light browsing and intensive study.” -
“It’s a very good book … packed with wonderful typographic insights. I think it will be around in designers bookshelves for a long time to come.” — Jim Parkinson, type designer and creator of countless publication logos, such as Rolling Stone -
Today, Thames & Hudson releases The Geometry of Type (the UK edition of the book published as The Anatomy of Type in the US). The covers and titles of these two editions are different, but the innards are the same. So don’t buy both. Unless you are a completist — in which case: collect them all!
For the Geometry jacket, designer Tony Seddon employed the curvaceous Pompadour by Andy Mangold. The typeface isn’t featured in the book (this prototype cover design was selected by T&H early in the project’s life) but it certainly makes a striking façade. Underneath the jacket, the printed laminated cover is neatly wallpapered with the names of typefaces featured inside. For a complete list of those faces, stay tuned.
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Further Reading: FontShop Typographer’s Glossary Back when I was with the creative team at FontShop, we built a little glossary to help customers become smarter font shoppers. That section of their site has grown into one of the most exhaustive sources of typography terms online, complete with handy illustrations and cross-references. We opened that page with a compact illustration of basic type anatomy (above). It’s pretty good — and set in one of my favorite typefaces, FF Clifford — but the set of diagrams in The Anatomy of Type is more clear and comprehensive.
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A spread from the introductory section of The Anatomy of Type
This image was generated from one of the book’s final PDFs, but we made one more edit before we sent the book to press. Can you spot the missing label?