Overview

"How is a book designed? What do book designers think about as they turn manuscripts into printed books? In this unique and appealing volume, the award-winning book designer Richard Hendel and eight other talented book designers discuss their approaches and working methods. They consider the problems posed by a wide range of projects-selection of a book's size and shape, choice of typeface for text and display, arrangement of type on the page, and determination of typographic details for all parts of the book within manufacturing and budget limitations. As omnipresent as books are, few readers are aware of the ""invisible"" craft of book designing. The task a book designer faces is different from that faced by other designers. The challenge, says Hendel, isn't to create something different or pretty or clever but to discover how to best serve the author's words. Hendel does not espouse a single philosophy of design or offer a set of instructions; he shows that there are many ways to design a book. In detailed descriptions of the creative process, Hendel and the eight other designers, who represent extensive experience in trade and scholarly publishing in the United States and Great Britain, show how they achieve the most effective visual presentation of words, offering many examples to illustrate their choices. Written not only for seasoned and novice book designers, this book will fascinate others in publishing as well as all readers and authors who are curious to know how books end up looking the way they do."

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9780300075700

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Reviews

It is clear from the first glance that this is a book intended primarily for book designers, whether experienced or novice - although it will obviously also attract those readers and authors who have an interest in knowing how books end up looking the way they do. In it, the author and eight other book designers consider the problems posed by a wide range of projects: the selection of a book's size and shape, the choice of typeface for text and display, the arrangement of type on the page, and the determination of typographic details for all parts of the book within manufacturing and budgetary limitations. While it is undoubtedly true that a book's design has a pronounced bearing on its appeal to the reader - a good design will of course make any book more readable and the information it contains more accessible and easier to absorb - it is perhaps disputable that the level of detail in this volume - admirable though it is - will appeal beyond the professional and a very small number of readers who concern themselves with the minutiae of book design. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Richard Hendel is associate director and design and production manager at the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

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