Elements of Typographic Style

Feature requests, and in-depth discussions of features and the way Mellel works

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ecbrown
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 4:07 am

Elements of Typographic Style

Post by ecbrown »

Dear Mellel users,

Mellel's style sets are simply awesome. There is so much flexibility!

I have been a Word/LaTeX user for many years, and I believe that they have "poisoned" me -- there is either terrible typography or excellent typography that is so complex that I can't grasp it or modify it.

How do I go about designing my own style sets from an artistic standpoint? It is possible to try to mimic a book that I like. Are there resources that provide hard numbers for attractive books/letters/articles, etc. with all of the elements (fonts, body text, title size, proper tabs, proper footnote symbols, etc.) spelled out?

Best regards,

Eric

P.S. The subject of this post is coincidentally the title of a book that I found on Amazon. There are a number of books on "typography" but I simply can't absorb this massive field in a short time.
Ori Redler
One of the boys
Posts: 342
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:45 pm
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Re: Elements of Typographic Style

Post by Ori Redler »

ecbrown wrote:Dear Mellel users,

Mellel's style sets are simply awesome. There is so much flexibility!

I have been a Word/LaTeX user for many years, and I believe that they have "poisoned" me -- there is either terrible typography or excellent typography that is so complex that I can't grasp it or modify it.

How do I go about designing my own style sets from an artistic standpoint? It is possible to try to mimic a book that I like. Are there resources that provide hard numbers for attractive books/letters/articles, etc. with all of the elements (fonts, body text, title size, proper tabs, proper footnote symbols, etc.) spelled out?

Best regards,

Eric

P.S. The subject of this post is coincidentally the title of a book that I found on Amazon. There are a number of books on "typography" but I simply can't absorb this massive field in a short time.
I guess the number of methods to go about designing a book and a style set is equal to the number of designers...
Ori Redler from RedleX
zoul
Knows everything, can prove it
Posts: 120
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:48 pm
Location: Boskovice, Czech Republic
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Post by zoul »

Go and read the Elements of Typographic Style carefully, it is a great book and contains all the information You need. The first eight chapters (that is about 200 pages) should give You enough information to make a decent document. Whenever You feel to be overwhelmed by options, take a deep breath, forget about the “art” and simply try to avoid making mistakes.
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