The author of this book clearly, concisely and at the same time maximally informatively explains how to work with font and text, what a letter, typography, typesetting and modular grid are, what their history and place in modern design are.

The book contains many illustrations, rules, visual examples (including terrible "font crimes"), valuable advice, practical exercises and fun facts.

The idea to write this book arose as a result of unsuccessful attempts to choose a suitable textbook for my course at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where I have been teaching since 1997. Some publications on typography focused exclusively on the classics, while others were too encyclopedic and oversaturated with technical details. There were books where the author cited only his own works as examples. There were also those in which the material was extremely simplified and presented in a condescending manner.

"I was looking for a calm and clear book, where design and text work together to help assimilate information. I was looking for a small and compact book, concisely and thoughtfully written, a guide that is easy to hold. I was looking for a book that would reflect the diversity of typography, past and present, from which students would draw historical facts, theory, and ideas. Finally, I was looking for a book that would reflect the entire spectrum of visual communication - from the printed page to the monitor...

In short, I had to write my own book."