Compendium for Literates

About this book

Karl Gerstner is one of Switzerlandsand therefore the worldsbest 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 Speechthe relation between writing and language different alphabets reading directions (the eye follows directions and moves in a direction) style; Manual Graphics or craftmaterials tools methods procedures reproductive techniques; Imagesletter pictures word pictures sentence pictures handwriting size proportion type weight form harmony texture brightness color; Functionas effected through dimensioning spacing grouping layout integration; and Expressionas 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 books mid-section climaxits very sparseness amid the prevailing sharp black and white contributes a luxurious effect.