Methods of Book Design

This book explains how to design books for production. This is book design as industrial design. From the book, "The term book design is used here because it is familiar; my subject would be more accurately entitled edition design. The task is to design not a single book but a whole edition, the last copy of which will be no less well-made than the first." The book is from an age when the designer's product was a set of instructions to be implemented by specialist workers. However most of the lessons apply today; after all, print is one of the most established technologies, steeped in tradition. Typographic designers in the digital age need to carry this knowledge forward.

What possible relevance can a book about book design written in 1983 have? The answer is plenty when you consider that this is one of the classics of all time. Certainly the three or four chapters on the technical side of publication are of historic interest only - albeit worth reading for their own sake - but the other 16 chapters are as fresh and as relevant as if they were written today! In fact it is doubtful if another book like this will ever be written. Quark and InDesign have made us sloppy in our habits, and the real professionals, those who grew up with 'printers ink' in their veins, are dying out, and with them goes much of the accumulated wisdom of the ages. One has only to look at the shoddier of some of the recent publications to realize what a loss this will be. Certainly we have our 'Chicago Manual of Style' and Bringhurst's 'Elements of Typographic Style', outstanding publications both, but limited in their scope. However it takes Hugh Williamson's book to bring it all together. Not only is Williamson an excellent writer, but he was also brought up in a severe apprenticeship at Oxford Press, home of among some of the best book-layout artisans in the world, and this shows in every page. Hugh Williamson, alas, is no longer with us, but I hope this book will be re-printed for many years to come!