Books in Brief: Printing Types: An Introduction

Printing Types: An Introduction, by Alexander Lawson (Beacon, 119 pp., $9.95). A useful enough book, I suppose, for the booklover, the neophyte typophile or the curious person who knows he likes some typefaces and dislikes others, but really isn’t sure why. The chapter on type manufacture yesterday and today is well done and nicely illustrated. The bulk of the book is devoted to a chapter that dismisses earlier attempts to impose a classification system on the five thousand or so typefaces in use today, and offers Mr. Law son’s own proposal (a sensible enough one so far as it goes—but typography still awaits its Linnaeus). Lots of typefaces are illustrated, but nowhere nearly enough of them. An introduction, yes, but only that; and to charge ten bucks for so slender a thing ought to be an indictable offense.