Five hundred years of book design
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Five hundred years of book design
British Library, 2001
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 190) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
What decisions lie behind the way a book is designed? How are readers of books helped or hindered by the choices that a designer, publisher or printer has made in presenting an author's text to its intended audience? Are there any lessons we can learn from a study of books produced over the last 500 years? In this study of book design of the past five centuries, Alan Bartram looks at the successes and failures of his predecessors. Some classics of layout and production are examined, and Bartram looks with fresh eyes at a varied range of books published in Western Europe and America in that period. From the generally uncluttered layout of the Italian books of the Renaissance, the fashion changed to the more ornamental designs of the French. Later on the mass production of books during the 19th century resulted in a lowering of standards, which in turn left the field clear for the elegant books produced by the private presses of the day. The attention to detail given by theses private presses has had a marked influence on current designers and publishers, some of whose books are examined here.
This visual history of book design and production is intended for a wide audience - students of graphic design and the history of the book, bibliophiles, collectors and all who are interested in the visual communication of ideas
by "Nielsen BookData"