Front cover image for While you're reading

While you're reading

Even when readers consciously look at letters, there is so much that remains unseen. Letters create illusions on a grand scale by evoking in the minds of readers what authors have described, and on a small scale they are illusions in the myriad ways readers perceive details differently from their reality. This book is about everything that happens while you're reading--in front of your eyes and inside your head--and about what type designers, typographers, and graphic designers bring to the page to make reading happen. Renowned type designer Gerard Unger distills decades of design experience into playful, accessible text that reflects the range of his professional projects, from designing the fonts read daily by millions in USA Today to being responsible for the look of the highway and metro signs in the Netherlands. This fresh, first-ever English translation contains anecdotes and insight sure to delight the most seasoned typographers and designers, as well as beginners and those curious as to how reading happens.-- Book jacket back
Print Book, English, 2007
First edition View all formats and editions
Mark Batty, New York, 2007
223 pages, 12 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780976224518, 0976224518
149282097
Questions
Practical theories
Contrasts
Disappearing types
Faces
The process
Fragments
Convention
Reader's eyes
Type design
Dressage
Out of the ordinary
Looking & reading
Choice
Space
Illusions
Newspapers & serifs
Repertoire
Symbiosis
Reading
Translation from the Dutch of: Terwijl je leest