Don't judge THIS book by its cover. The cover designer managed to violate several of the carefully-explained rules author Lichty elaborates in this lucid text. The discussions of fonts, typography and page layout are clear to beginners and professionals alike, and written and illustrated with considerable wit. Profusely illustrated with both good and bad examples, this slim text ends each chapter with a bibliography to help the reader who needs more detailed information. Minor quibbles: the author's use of high-end Aldus Pagemaker and Quark XPress for exercises slights the users of lower-priced desktop publishing software; some examples using Microsoft Publisher would be welcome. And the author inexplicably omits all of Edward Tufte's seminal books on visual communications from his bibliographies. But if you can only buy one book on desktop publishing, this is the one to have.