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THE ABC'S OF TYPE. Allan Haley. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1990. 128 pages, $29.95 (hardcover).
TYPOGRAPHIC MILESTONES. Allan Haley. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. 146 pages, $29.95 (softcover).
"The more you know about typefaces, the better you are able to use them." Thus says Allan Haley, executive vice president of the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) and author of these o books. Haley contributes o major columns to the typographic world, the first appearing in Step-By Step Graphics, a high-quality arts journal. The ABC's of Type contains articles originally written for this journal. The other column appears in U & lc, a free typographic journal published by the ITC. Typographic Milestones is a compilation of articles that first appeared in U & lc.
The ABC's of Type is one of the most practical books I have ever read, especially for technical communication. Haley covers all of the text and display faces that we use in our daily work: Avant Garde, Baskerville, Caslon, Galliard, Garamond, Gill Sans, Goudy Old Style, Helvetica, Optima, Palatino, Souvenir, Times Roman, and Univers. For each of these faces, he gives us (1) their attributes, which enable us to distinguish one typeface from another, (2) their background, which places them within the typographic spectrum, and (3) considerations for use, which gives practical design information such as type mixing, white space, and size considerations.
Here are just a few of the typographic tidbits scattered throughout this helpful book: Sans serifs were originally called "grotesques" because they were considered ugly. Gill Sans, however, is beautiful because its creator, Eric Gill, was a calligrapher. Square serifs were developed early in the 19th century for the purpose of advertising; one square serif, Calvert, was designed by Margaret Calvert, one of the few women type designers.
Often we see typefaces without noticing what they are, even though we may know them. For example, did you know that Adidas...