How to Boss Your Fonts Around (2nd Edition)
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Description
Fonts can make or break a layout, and good designers know it. Knowing what a bitmapped font is might not seem like a big deal...until you go to print it. The author, Robin Williams, explains how a font that is bitmapped will have very different results on a printer than one that is not. How to Boss Your Fonts Around will also show you the merits of investing your time in organizing your fonts through a font manager. In a day when there are now "Beat Generation" fonts for the Mac, good font use and management is essential. Williams, Mac expert and the author of bestsellers such as The Non-Designer's Design Book and The Little Mac Book, goes into great detail on the origin and creation of great fonts. Did you ever wonder why so many fonts are named after big cities (such as New York and Geneva)? Turns out, they're all in the same font family, and knowing the characteristics of that grouping will enhance how you use them. Williams provides a full glossary of terms, and the book is rich with visual examples. She treats fonts as the tools they are, showing the reader all the necessary care and maintenance to allow for great design and for the text to shine through. --Jennifer Buckendorff
Book Description
Fonts. They seem to have a life of their own. And they can cause no end of heartache to the harried desktop or webtop publisher. Perfectly lovely documents on screen can suddenly transmogrify into a perfect nightmare when printed. So how can you control these willful beasts? Get a copy of this book and end your power struggle with fonts forever. How To Boss Your Fonts Around has been completely revised and updated for the Second Edition. It's a must-have primer on font technology and font management for anyone who works on a Macintosh. It's updated for Mac OS 8, and includes all new coverage of how to work with and manage fonts for the Web. You'll learn to identify and work with all the different kinds of fonts available, from PostScript to TrueType to Type 1, bitmapped to screen, outline to printer, resident to downloadable and more. There's coverage of Adobe Type Manager, ATM Deluxe, Suitcase, Master Juggler, Font Reserve, new font management tools and utilities, installing fonts, and solving font conflicts. A detailed reference section answers common questions and problems, tells you how to acquire fonts, and offers an amazingly detailed glossary. This is the essential troubleshooting guide to taking control of fonts and learning to use them efficiently and effectively.
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29 out of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Mac-Oriented BookMonday, September 03, 2001
Although the Amazon editorial review calls Williams a Mac expert, it doesn't make clear that this book is pretty exclusively Mac-oriented. Some of it will be useful to Windows users, but there are surely other, similar font books on the market more useful for Windows users. If I had realized this before I started making notes in the margins, I would have returned it.
8 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Everything you wanted to know about fonts...Thursday, June 14, 2001
As a typesetter in a large corporation I found this book very helpful when I recently had to organize our fonts on 12 computers. It clearly explains the difference in the various types of fonts and how to use them properly. It also covers in detail all the different type management software (ATM, Suitcase, etc.). After speaking with several designers, it appears that fonts can be the single biggest nightmare and this book would be an asset to any designers library.
13 out of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Not so good...Tuesday, September 26, 2000
I bought Robin's book aobut 2 weeks ago and I have read it over and over. I found that the book was not helpful in getting my fonts organised. I am left with fundamental questions unanswered and a lot of frustration. I am still looking for a book that will show me how to sort my fonts what to keep what to throw and how to do it. This book has some good back ground informationon the benefits of ATM, and the history but what about open fonts, and master fonts? It's dated and not helpful.
25 out of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Probably the best writer on typography around.Thursday, September 02, 1999
Except for her mild endorsement of grunge (why have we spent hundreds of years designing typefaces that are both readable and beautiful only to have a generation of" designers" design deconstructed faces that are likely to be used only once in a lifetime), Robin Williams is probably the most articulate and literate writer on typography around, digital or traditional. She is sensitive to those qualities that have somehow been lost on those who have been brought up facing a monitor rather than a type book, type case or drawing board. Too many people in business have been led to believe, and accept the idea, that a typist is automatically a typographer/designer. Every designer who has grown up on the computer should have all of her books at their side, along with Strunk & White, Fowler's Modern English Usage, Roget's Thesaurus and a good dictionary.
15 out of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent design and crash avoidance techniquesFriday, June 20, 1997
"He who dies with the most fonts wins," is a fact of life for a lot of desktop designers for print and the web. However, having tons of fonts of every weight, format and variety gobbles up lots of system memory, and corrupted or conflicting fonts cause crashes. This book tells all on how to get your collection under control, and keep your fonts organized, in good shape, and zipped in place for when you need them.
This book is also well written, and will keep you alert and interested, which is most refreshing because I've found many how-to design/computer management books must be read with toothpicks propping up your eyes.
It's also just the right length, concise and everything is clearly, not condecendingly, explained. It's a must read for any Mac designer, from the newest newbie to the most advanced.