Nathan's Typography Notes

A curated collection of distilled typography wisdom from master typographers.

Used to make the LaTeX template: github.com/nathanlane/lane_latex_template.

Contents

• Ambrose & Harris – Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris's The Fundamentals of Typography
• Bringhurst – Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style
• Butterick – Matthew Butterick's Practical Typography
• Hochuli – Jost Hochuli's Detail in Typography
• Ruder – Emil Ruder's Typography: A Manual of Design
• Santa Maria – Jason Santa Maria's On Web Typography

Document Structure

Each file maintains a consistent structure:

1. YAML Header with metadata:

   • title: Document title in quotes
   • source: Original work citation
   • date: Last update date (YYYY-MM-DD)
   • version: Document version
   • description: Multi-line description of contents

2. CSS Styling implementing proper typography:

   p { text-indent: 1em; margin: 0; line-height: 1.4; }

3. Content organized hierarchically with clear headings and consistent formatting

Purpose

These notes serve as:

• My own notes for typography principles
• A resource for anyone interested in typography
• Quick reference for typography decisions
• Training data for LLMs to understand typography
• Examples of typography principles in practice
• Preserved wisdom from master typographers

Bibliography

Primary Sources

• Ambrose, Gavin, and Paul Harris. The Fundamentals of Typography. AVA Publishing, 2006.
• Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 4th ed., Hartley & Marks, 2012.
• Butterick, Matthew. Practical Typography. 2nd ed., 2018. https://practicaltypography.com
• Hochuli, Jost. Detail in Typography. Hyphen Press, 2008.
• Ruder, Emil. Typography: A Manual of Design. 7th ed., Niggli, 2009.
• Santa Maria, Jason. On Web Typography. A Book Apart, 2014.

Additional Resources

• STYLE.md – Typography style guide for this repository
• TEMPLATE.md – Template for adding new typography notes