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In recent articles I’ve been talking about how important typography is to good book design. When looking at the submissions to the first e-Book Cover Design Awards, no area stood out so clearly as a challenge for amateur designers.
Combined with this is the widespread belief among anyone with a drop-down menu of fonts that creating good typography is just a matter of picking the right name from the list.
Cover design failures, in general, are often traceable to typography deficit disorder.
So I’m always on the lookout for resources you can use to make your covers look a whole lot better. Here are three that will teach you a lot, or just give you an excuse to spend a few minutes admiring the wizardry of type designers and the graphic artists who use those typefaces.
Letterhead Fonts
The motto here is
“Uncommonly Good Letters for Your Ocular Amusement.”
Although this site from an amazing digital type foundry is focused more on typefaces that are useful in signage, logos and other types of graphic design, there are also examples of book covers.
But just taking in the typefaces and the massive gallery of samples that show real-world uses of their type will amaze you.
Don’t miss the tutorials that show exactly how some of the effects are created. And try out any fonts you like with the typetester
Here are just a few of the more than 700 sample files in the Gallery:
I Love Typography
Probably the premier typography website that I know of. John Boardley has gathered a community of type designers and graphic artists and many of them contribute articles. Just reading the list of recent articles is enough to make you want to call in sick.
The aim of the site, in Boardley’s words, is
“to make the subject more accessible, to bring the study of typography to the masses.”
With over 80,000 followers on Twitter and an avid community of type nerds, I Love Typography is the place to hang out if you want to learn from professionals.
Boardley is also behind the very popular iPhone and iPad app, The Font Game, as well as a new magazine, Codex, The Journal of Typography.
But the third site I have for you today is another effort by John Boardley:
We Love Typography
I don’t know if Boardley also has the domains HeLovesTypgraphy.com or TheyLoveTypography.com but there does seem to be a lot of room for expansion.
In this case, it’s brilliant. We Love Typography is
“an image, video, & text ‘bookmarking’ site that is wholly dedicated to type-related content.”
What this means: You go to the site and you’re presented with a somewhat whimsical search bar that says, “Please find ______ quickly!”
You can put anything you want in the search bar, and the site will return search results of images that are somehow typographic. There are over 18,000 images so far, although that seems likely to increase.
Here are the first six hits I got when I searched on the word “ribbon.” Watch out you don’t lose the afternoon searching through the images, they are fascinating.
More Resources and Goodies
Also check out Typenuts for free iPhone and iPad wallpaper files from many great graphic designers.
For another bonus, see this video about the typesetting machine that changed the world, the Linotype. This is an excerpt from a feature film scheduled to be released in 2012.
I’m looking forward to checking out the websites you recommended. I could get lost for days I’m sure. :)
Thanks, Joel.
Joel you are the BEST!!!
Thank you for your posts, advice and encourage.
Thank you again…
The American taste in typography and book cover design is different to UK taste, but the passion for fonts is what matters. For me, it’s not just the cover, but the inside of a book that counts. Gutters, leading, margins, x-sections, serifs/non, colour, drop caps, folios, headers – all these factors can make a book easy and delightful to read, or aggravating and hard work. Most readers don’t know why, but from my experience as a publisher, they appreciate it very much when we get it right.
Love that last one particularly. And I definitely agree – typography is the biggest issue by far in self-published book covers.
I love type faces/fonts! I’m a graphic artist and I love it when the client doesn’t have a fixed logo and I can fly with my fonts.
There are so many great fonts on the web; a lot of them are free.
X-Fonter is a great free font manager. It shows all your fonts, installed, uninstalled and you can swith them around.
“These 3 Typography Websites Will Change How You Took at Type.”
Joel,
Eh? how you took at type?
brendan
Yes, but you take second place to christopher (see above). Thanks!
i love all these posts about type. now i have more places to spend time drooling… thanks joel
you have probably already mentioned it, but i loved the movie helvetica even tho i actually dislike the typeface helvetica, but it was a fascinating look at how pervasive and yet hidden type is in our daily lives.
as always, helpful and fun.
ph
Hi Paula. I’m looking forward to Helvetica, I haven’t managed to see it yet, thanks for the recommendation. See you at the library.
Aaagh! I can’t even spell my own name now…. :(
You guys are hilarious!
Typos are like mice in the house–they’re going to get in, you can’t stop them, and once they’re in it’s almost impossible to get rid of every last one.
I like that one about mice Victoria, so true! Drives new authors nuts, but I just tell them to keep a proof copy of the book near their desk because people will be writing in about the typos for months to come.
I agree. Typos are like mice, they chew into everything I write. Being dyslexic makes it 10 times worse. After paying a copy editor, my recent column in a local magazine still had typos!
After changing editors, I feel happy and hopeful to get those mice into a live trap full of peanut butter and cheese.
Great post. I probably don’t love typography quite as much as you but I found it a fascinating topic here and on my technical communication course. Can I suggest you look (or is it “took”?) at spelling in a future post? (see your post title :) sorry but it had to be said).
Well, will you took at that? And I even have someone who proofreads these for me every day. Thanks, christopger.
Fascinating material. My level of typographic nerdiness grew a few notches. And this is always a good thing.
Loved your recommendations.