Just My Type

British journalist Simon Garfield writes a set of essays on popular typefaces and the part typography plays in everyday life. He traces type from the days of Gutenberg to adventurous digital fonts, and from a time when few people knew font names to the pull-down menus that put type choices in everyone's hands. Chapters ask why people dislike Comic Sans, explain the difference between legibility and readability, lay out font etiquette and consider whether a font can look German or Jewish, masculine or feminine. Sections he calls fontbreaks tell the histories of single typefaces, and other stories cover Barack Obama's use of Gotham, the long T in the Beatles logo and how Helvetica took over the world.

Web designer Marius Ciuchete Paun included it in his list of books for young people interested in his career path.