Introduction
The most recommended book, in the field of font design and styles, The Elements of Typographic Style is a legendary milestone of Robert Bringhurst. Not only Amazon, but thousands of other web pages provide thorough reviews about the very book. Though the subject of the book is considered disproportionately impassioned and somehow nit-picky, unlike some fictions or biographies, the readers are loathed to set down saluting to the page-turner. The paper consists of a critical analysis of the aforementioned book in which we aim to not only summarize what the book is all about but how it is and could be used by designers for advancements in typographic designs today. This book is not only a milestone and an explanation to why and how different typographic styles emerged, but a clear insight, a reference guide and deals with typefaces, and their geometric and visual arrangements. In the later section of the paper, a few selected quotes from the book have been discussed for their thought-provoking sense and in-depth relation with writing and typing. Moreover, critics and opinions have been provided to weigh the attention given to core purpose of the book and with reference to author’s response comment, a prediction is made as to what should be expected in the other versions of the piece.
Popularly known for his book, The Elements of Typography, Robert Bringhurst is basically a Canadian author, poet, philosopher and translator (Swanick, 2015). More importantly, he is known universally for his translations of Epic poetical pieces into the English language. One might have no idea what’s there inside the book, however, would just be attracted to flip the pages reading only the titles of his books. A few of his masterpieces include ‘What is reading For?’ and ‘Tree of Meaning’. According to Margaret Atwood, Rober Bringhurst should be referred to as a polyglot, or a polylingual polymath making quite significant and noteworthy contributions to philosophy, cultural studies and poetry. Several awards have acknowledged his efforts, at the top is the American Printing History Association’s Award. He was even praised internationally for making contributory efforts in the local, regional and international content and context. Not only Haida Mythologies, but he is popular for translation of Arabic literature into English.
Definition of Typography
In its simplest forms, typography can be defined as a visual way in which written material is printed for use. Though, the book adds something extra to this definition and explains the existence of typography and typographic styles in an insightful and value-added way. In this book, typography has been defined as a craft for the endowment of human language, consisting of a visual form. This very explanation of typography makes it something highly important and indispensable. Furthermore, two senses can be drawn out of the book about the existence of typography, one being visual and other, historical. Though printed material accounts more for the sense of vision, the lines are drawn to history, since the book is not a mere set of guidelines, but a collection of tribal customary manners.
A question answered
the philosophical concept that every individual is a different being in traits, habits, behavior and preferences has been quoted in the very beginning of the book, which again challenges the presence of the book, since it is a rule book and there is no honesty in constructing a set of guidelines if different individuals would want to work differently. However, the answer to this question is forwarded mentioning the fact that typography is a shared concern, and so, a blaze can be followed and amended and revised for betterment.
The book is based on the use of fonts, font creation and the Science as well as Maths involved in their creation. Not only the present-day techniques for text layouts have been explained, but their historical aspects have been mentioned, from the era of clay to paper. The era of renaissance has been taken into the discussion when Gutenberg had invented the printing press and how the typographic styles journeyed from the mentioned period to date.
As per the foreword of the book, it is based on Stunk and White’s masterpiece as a benchmark. Though while comparing, Robert quotes that it is yet longer than the one mentioned. Justifications have further been given to explain why the book is lengthier.
Unlike the conventional books on design, The Elements of typographic Styles does not only deal with the set of rules but, guides on working around type. Fonts have been in detail examined. But, the number of fonts being examined is limited. For example, Times New Roman and Helvetica have been neglected and other fonts are organized in serif or sans-serif. A wider list would be helpful if concepts like axis, aperture and modulation were touched.
Language and style of the book
Though most of the topics in the book have been discussed thoroughly and better say, quite precisely, the information does not tend to be considered overloaded. The tone is direct and crystalline, yet very formal, elegant and polite. Undoubtedly, this is the reason this book enjoys an exotic place in the every designer’s library. Published in 1992 and updated ever since, the fact that it has four editions, explain much the acceptance of this book in the world of designing. As mentioned earlier, the book is subjected on a very dry topic and context. However, it has been set on such poetic metaphors that one can hardly remember the core topic. The specimens of creative writing are not only presented as lengthy paragraphs of descriptions and facts but contain more in-depth meanings which become more of fun while reading and understanding. It is thus easy to forget that the book had a core purpose of providing bibliographic listings and evidence to referenced style guides. Not only facts, but the book contains unmitigated opinions that explain the technicality of the specimens.
Careful and Attentive Detailing
Much attention has been given to even carefully selected details. Each approach, for example, Rhythm and Proportion, has been described with full ins and outs out of the topics and this trait makes the book commendable and competent for use by beginners. It guides them with the ABCD of typography, its different styles, and approaches, how they emerged, and why they matter. Another renowned typographer, who needs no introduction, Hermann Zapf crowned the book by calling it ‘bible’. Moreover, in one of his comments, he mentioned it as one of the must-reads of new entrants. The more detailed investigation leads to the fact that that the book deals with a wider scope. It really has presented finer points including details about micro and macro typography, selection of typefaces as well as page formats, type anatomy with its classification, use of analphabetic symbols like diacritics. Other than that, details annotated lists of designers, foundries, glyphs and terminologies have been provided. No wonder why it has been considered as the finest book written ever in the field of typography.
Illustrations and poetic examples
Another important, yet distinguishable character of the book is that it has used numerous times, different illustrations, tables, and poetic verses to explain the fonts and typographic styles to the readers. Though taken as a quality at once, it can be understood the other way round as well. On such a noble pursuit what typography is, the addressing topic should be direct and very formal. Instead of bombarding the book with such examples at different places, a few could have been used to not let the readers get bored, or decisively where it would have been really significant to quote such. For example, a comparison is made between musical performance and typography saying that it is so important for the literature as performance is important to composition. When one might finish reading, he would obviously be confused as to what was learned, either different poetic pieces or actually typographic processes. Yet acting as attractive and appealing agents of the book, the used metaphorical prose in the book might somehow distract the reader and deviate from the actual purpose of reading when he would give too much care and attention to understanding the practical aspects in between the philosophically-set lines.
Space for creativity
At different places in the book, it is mentioned that sticking around the same model principles is not required and one could always deviate to bring about a significant change. This justifies that the book displays more space for innovation, modernization and creativity providing references to the history and does not restrict the users, designers or even simple readers to restrict or limit themselves to the very boundaries or conventions. For example in the foreword, the author mentions that, depending upon the decided destinies and points of departure, different parts of the road could be used or even the entire road could be left. Another instance can be quoted where it is mentioned about breaking rules and breaking them in such a way that they become more beautiful.
Ignorance of WEB and DISPLAY typography
On a number of places, Bringhurst’s piece has been criticized for not accommodating to the modern needs. The word web has been used just twice or thrice in the entire book as the other similar terms, which mark the modern technology or display and screens. It would thus, not be an overstatement to say that the book primarily focuses on the print, but then, this becomes contradictory to the fact that it has been revised and updated, four times since published first. And that’s not all. There are other editions in between these discrete editions, like version 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4. in no way, is The Elements of Typographic Styles mentioned to be obsolete or outdated. Many other famous writers, like Tracy, Lawson, Kunz, Bosshard, Dowding or Ruder, have mentioned nothing about the monotype machines and the worldwide web (Meilleur, 2013). Bodoni has not even mentioned the Linotype machine once in the entire context. This fact is presented here to explain that all these books should be used for the guidelines pertaining to areas discovered during those times. All meant to mention here is that digital typography demands (and it certainly should get) more attention in present times which the book fails to give, moreover, phrases like print on the screen have been rarely used or dedicated any sections in the book.
Expectations from the coming versions
One might take the comments made by Robert Bringhurst’s promising notes as positive. It can further be stated that the upcoming versions would surely inculcate what was lacking in the previous ones. He has given a few justifications and assured that, though it would take some time, but such concepts would be applied to understand and solve queries of digital print as well. As a response to Maurice Mielleur’s detailed review, Rober Bringhurst said that he was right about the book’s emphasis on paper print and not on digital typography. However, he justifies saying that the book’s primary purpose was to share insights on typography and actual typography rather than graphic designing, advertisements, website development etc. he further clarified that web had actually not been ignored but was out of the coverage, or scope of the book itself. Online typographic platforms needed more time to develop, as they are not fully developed as yet. Providing references to maturity of monotype and linotype machines, he further assured that advancements would take place as CSS3 would prevail.
Conclusion
A very thought-provoking written piece, The Elements of Typographic Styles has been reviewed critically by a number of expert designers. While most of these include the ones who praise, there are designers and typographic stylists who have criticized Robert Bringhurst’s such work and have questioned the release of the fourth edition. They even challenge the overwhelming response the fourth edition got from the public and they highlight the fact that rather than the core purpose, the book is set more on historical aspects of typography and relations are drawn out of classical arts. It is thus the flow and prose in the book that many get addicted to reading it after a few pages. It fails to shed light on how typographic styles can further be made creative or amended for betterment. Other criticizing facts include ignorance to web and screen displays and overemphasis on printed text. Based on all the presented arguments, in favor or against, it can be opined that beginners should thoroughly go through the book to learn the importance of good typography, rather than completely depending on it to gain an understanding of the process, since the concepts have been provided in-depth and speak of the author’s confidence, judgments, expertise, experience and generosity, the descriptions don’t qualify to being called practical, are rather theoretical. Further research can be done regarding the application of book print typographic styles and processes on mobile and display technology. More than that, existing principles should be explained comprehensively for web designs and developments. It would not be an arrogant statement to comment that version 5.0 of this book should be carefully planned and be based more on modern eras and application of old onto new gadgets and reading stuff. This could involve information and insights about new browsers, specific reading apps, and devices.
References
Swanick, E. (2015). The Robert Bringhurst Archive. Sfu.ca. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from https://www.sfu.ca/aq/issues/april2015/features/the-robert-bringhurst-archive.html
Milleur, M. (2013). The Elements of Typographic Style, Version 4.0. Typographica. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from http://typographica.org/typography-books/the-elements-of-typographic-style-4th-edition/
