A text on the production and use of type in the first 150 years of printing. By focusing on type, Harry Carter goes to the heart of design, the point at which the material processes of printing meet the intellectual concerns of publishers and the nature of the texts they publish. Among the topics covered are: the diversity of letterforms (blackletter, roman, italic and more); the tensions between Latin and the vernacular languages; and the establishment of standards and norms in type design. This is a facsimile of the original edition of 1969, augmented by a new introduction in which James Mosley explains the significance of the book and gives a short account of Carter's life and work.