Description: Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the traditional structure of publishing began to change dramatically, due to the radical alterations in the technologies of typesetting and printing. In the first instance, typesetting changed from hand- and machine-set metal types to photo, bitmapped, and then digital iterations; and in the second instance, printing changed from the relief process (letterpress) to offset lithography. At the same time, book design—emerging from the aesthetic blight of the nineteenth century—renewed itself both along traditional lines as well as being influenced by the general trends in art, particularly by the Modernist Movement. The convergence of these trends, both artistic and technological, brought about an unmooring of the book from traditions that reach back to the first essays of Gutenberg, and indeed back further still to the conventions of the manuscript.

A Grammar of Typography is a comprehensive guide to traditional book design that is both practical and historical. Interspersed with discussions of digital typesetting and page layout are broad historical views of the tradition of the book along with specific reference to the printer’s grammar or manual, the industry’s own codification of its usage, from Joseph Moxon in the seventeenth century through Theodore Low De Vinne in the nineteenth.

In addition, there are chapters on house style, proof-reading, copy-editing, paper, binding, and appendices on typographical ornaments and Greek type. The book ends with an annotated bibliography and an index.

Praise for A Grammar of Typography

Books attempting to instruct … on the intricacies and challenges of book design have been issued for centuries, but none have appeared in recent decades with the reach, depth, or attention to modern applications as this sweeping study…. For anyone … wondering where and how to begin designing a book that is elegant, legible, and visually appealing, this over-500-page guide is the bible.

―David R. Godine, Godine At Fifty (Boston: Godine, 2021)

Though published less than a year ago, Argetsinger’s magnum opus is already destined to become a classic in the field.

―Jerry Kelly, One Hundred Books Famous in Typography (New York: The Grolier Club, 2021)

To anyone who works with type, I recommend you acquire this book. Students studying the art of typography can find no better source for all the information needed to learn the craft. For professional designers, I consider A Grammar of Typography mandatory.

―Jerry Kelly, Printing History: The Journal of the American Printing History Association (Nos. 27-28, n.s., 2020)

Argetsinger has created what will be considered the definitive work on the subject of the history and application of book design.

―Fine Books & Collections

A born classic…. How can you not love a book with an introduction titled ‘The Hidden Soul of Harmony: The Classical Tradition. A Practice in Search of a Theory‘? Although Argetsinger claims ‘this is primarily a practical manual, not a scholarly treatise,‘ one would be hard-pressed to find a more philosophical look at ‘marks of quotation,’ ‘font editing,’ or ‘horizontal space.’….Open it anywhere and start reading.

―The Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library

I heartily recommend this book…. One can easily predict that hundreds of typography instructors will add this book to their university courses’ syllabi.

―Dan Reynolds, Fontstand News