I've read a lot of books on type and this is the only one with a practical guide on how to create your own typefaces. I'm sure more people who read this book aren't going to start making their own metal type but the lessons learned in this book easily translate to the world of creating digital typefaces. After reading this it changed the way I design typefaces, completely. Now, instean of merely moving bezier control points, I imagine myself cutting metal and re-using counterpunches. Sometimes I "oversize" my counters a bit, as if I were hammering them in a bit more. If you're a type designer, or just interested in type, put this one in your shopping cart immediately.

This is a wonderful book. To write it, Fred Smeijers looked closely at printed books and type punches in museums. He read contemporary accounts of sixteenth century type making. And, informed by his experience as a digital type designer, he understood the problems the sixteenth century type makers faced and how they solved them. Some of these problems, like readability, economy and visual texture, are still with us.

Most remarkably, he also taught himself to make his own steel type punches - his practical experiments shone new light on the subject and showed the implausibility of some accepted accounts of how things were done.

The book is engagingly written. It's a visual delight too, with text set in the author's 'Renard' type and illustrated with his pencil sketches.

Mr Smeijers has crafted a fine book, as all three other reviews have noted. Incisive, insightful, instructive.

Look closely at the cover of this volume. After you've read it, and understand the counterpunch/punch process, you see that the entire story is told on the cover in a bit of brilliant graphic design.