Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerland's--and therefore the world's--best and best-known graphic and typographic designers. His high ambition in this book, first published in German in 1972, is to provide a complete and systematic taxonomy of writing, a programmed investigation into the underlying structure of script and type; Gerstner writes that his book is meant to "encompass the aspects and possibilities of the alphabet in their totality."It is this systematic and programmatic approach that sets the book apart. Most ...
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Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerland's--and therefore the world's--best and best-known graphic and typographic designers. His high ambition in this book, first published in German in 1972, is to provide a complete and systematic taxonomy of writing, a programmed investigation into the underlying structure of script and type; Gerstner writes that his book is meant to "encompass the aspects and possibilities of the alphabet in their totality."It is this systematic and programmatic approach that sets the book apart. Most studies of typography and its larger graphic setting and context are concerned with the history of the development of writing and printing, or are collections of typographic models or typical examples, or are textbooks on layout and design. This one is organized into five sections that take up, in turn, Script and Speech--the relation between writing and language, different alphabets, reading directions (the eye follows directions and moves in a direction), style; Manual Graphics or craft--materials, tools, methods, procedures, reproductive techniques; Images--letter pictures, word pictures, sentence pictures, handwriting, size, proportion, type weight, form, harmony, texture, brightness, color; Function--as effected through dimensioning, spacing, grouping, layout, integration; and Expression--as achieved through coordination, articulation, emphasis, diversion, and the spirit of play.As a physical object, the book is more than a passive repository of examples of typographic display. It makes a dynamic and integrated typographic statement of its own and as a whole as it progresses and develops in accordance with its internal program. The book is nearly square and opens vertically rather than horizontally. Type is printed on only one side of the sheets, which are folded back on themselves along the outer edge to form double leaves, so that there is no distracting show-through "noise." There are words printed in blind embossing and stencil cutouts. And color is used with an elegant restraint, appearing only at the book's mid-section climax--its very sparseness amid the prevailing sharp black and white contributes a luxurious effect.
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Add this copy of Compendium for Literates to cart. $113.00, very good condition, Sold by Common Crow Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1974 by The MIT Press.
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Seller's Description:
Very good+ in very good jacket. White stamped black cloth boards in dust jacket, small square octavo [6" x 6"], 180pp., not illustrated. Book has mild soil and rubbing to boards, binding tight, previous owner's signature to front flyleaf, otherwise text clean and unmarked, with pages unopened at foredges. DJ has tears to spine ends and corners, joints and hinges rubbed, toning and rubbing, now in archival mylar wrap.
Add this copy of Compendium for Literates to cart. $117.00, like new condition, Sold by modlitbooks rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1974 by MIT Press.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in very good dust jacket. Text in English, German. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 180 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. First edition. Publisher's black paper-covered boards titled to upper cover and spine in white, in publisher's printed dust jacket. Neat previous owner's name to front free endpage, no other markings, a bright fine copy. Unclipped dust jacket with a one inch closed tear to rear panel, tiny nicks and chips to to corners and rubbing to joints. An elaborately printed work which includes die-cut leaves and multiple colored printing and various fonts and formats. Uncommon work by the legendary Swiss graphic artist Karl Gerstner.
Add this copy of Compendium for Literates to cart. $130.10, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Clarita, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1974 by MIT.
Add this copy of Compendium for Literature, a System of Writing to cart. $157.00, very good condition, Sold by Moe's Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1974 by MIT.
Add this copy of Compendium for Literates to cart. $178.94, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1974 by MIT.
