Ebook: Methods of book design: The practice of an industrial craft

Since its first edition was published in 1956, this book has been recognised as a classic work, and has become a basic tool for the practising book designer. It is a readable, lively, and authoritative description and discussion of the processes and principles which determine the physical characteristics of the finished book.

Writing for authors, booksellers, librarians, and the general reader, as well as for teachers and students of printing design and for publishers and printers, the author assumes no technical knowledge in his readers. He deals with such matters as the preparation of copy, the selection and arrangement of type, the designer's part in book illustration and jacket design, and the economics of book production; and he explains the materials and techniques of book production and their effect on the design of books. His analysis, for the benefit of the designer, of computer-centred digital photo-composition, based on his first-hand experience as a printer and typographer, is of particular interest and value. Hugh Williamson's theme is that a book designer who wishes to do good work today will need to understand the machinery, materials, and processes of modern industrial book production, and also the nature of texts and illustrations and the act of reading.

This third edition has been completely rewritten to cover innovations in book production tendencies and techniques over the last twenty years, in the light of the author's continued experience in publishing and printing.

HUGH WILLIAMSON was trained as a printer, but from 1947 to 1964 he worked in publishing on the design and production of books. At one time in this period he was designing and controlling the production of about a hundred titles a year; by the end of it, he was production director of a group of publishing firms. Returning in 1964 to the printing industry, he was closely involved in the transition from metal type and letterpress to photo-composition and offset printing. This edition of his book was published in the year of his retirement as a director of a group of printing firms.