I liked the introductory history of typefaces; I had no idea that the first fonts were based on calligraphy. Aside from the movable type printing press being invented by Gutenberg, I was completely ignorant on the history of fonts. I was also unaware that there was any kind of resistance to an expanding font library, such as on page 25 with Edward Johnson’s quote regarding the dangers of exaggerating the alphabet
The section that shows the different elements of a letter was also very interesting. The only font related vocabulary I possessed prior this was the difference between serif, and san serif. Pointing out the various design elements of a font are especially useful, as I would often find myself trying to explain parts of a letter as the “top line” or the “circle part.”
I have really taken a liking to document design, but most of what I was doing wasn’t really based on any amount of theory, but more on what I thought looked “right.” After getting through much of the philosophy behind white space and linearity (give me a break) I was happy to get into the nuts and bolts of things like kerning, line spacing, alignment, word spacing, and then getting to see them in real world applications. As a future technical writer, I am always looking for ways to increase the readability of a text.
