Elements of Typographic Style – Robert Bringhurst

Small, brick-like, dense. At first glance, a comprehensive technically impeccable run through typography history and modern best-practice. At first glance, a touch dry you might think. Wrong. On starting reading though the text comes alive, enthusiasm and joy in the very best of typographic history streams through in smart, friendly writing – Bringhurst is a poet as his day job and it shows.

If you are stuck in a world where Helvetica is considered the height of cool clean readability, prepare to have your world turned upside down. If you only own one book on typography, this would be it.

Available in a new hardback edition, as well as plenty of second hand earlier editions.

Also see the fantastic Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web showing how best to use modern CSS to implement each detail.