This reference is a fascinating and complete guide to using fonts and typography on the Web and across a variety of operating systems and application software. Fonts & Encodings shows you how to take full advantage of the incredible number of typographic options available, with advanced material that covers everything from designing glyphs to developing software that creates and processes fonts. The era of ASCII characters on green screens is long gone, and industry leaders such as Apple, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle have adopted the Unicode Worldwide Character Standard. Yet, many software applications and web sites still use a host of standards, including PostScript, TrueType, TeX/Omega, SVG, Fontlab, FontForge, Metafont, Panose, and OpenType. This book explores each option in depth, and provides background behind the processes that comprise today's "digital space for writing":

• Part I introduces Unicode, with a brief history of codes and encodings including ASCII. Learn about the morass of the data that accompanies each Unicode character, and how Unicode deals with normalization, the bidirectional algorithm, and the handling of East Asian characters.

• Part II discusses font management, including installation, tools for activation/deactivation, and font choices for three different systems: Windows, the Mac OS, and the X Window System (Unix).

• Part III deals with the technical use of fonts in two specific cases: the TeX typesetting system (and its successor, W, which the author co-developed) and web pages.

• Part IV describes methods for classifying fonts: Vox, Alessandrini, and Panose-1, which is used by Windows and the CSS standard. Learn about existing tools for creating (or modifying) fonts, including FontLab and FontForge, and become familiar with OpenType properties and AAT fonts.

Nowhere else will you find the valuable technical information on fonts and typography that software developers, web developers, and graphic artists need to know to get typography and fonts to work properly.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Great book lots of errors though - 2008-01-19
Reviewer Rating:
This is a terrific book for the technically minded person either designing type or dealing with its use from a technology perspective. I read the English translation and found the writing good and informative. My problem is that there appear to be numerous typos particularly in the hundreds of code examples. This may only be in the translation since I have not seen the original French. I hope the publisher can give it a thorough proof reading!

politically correct fonts - 2008-12-12
Reviewer Rating:
On page 29 the author claims that ASCII was adopted "a few months after the assasination of President Kennedy" on June 17, 1963. I don't why the author would make such a careless and impertinant reference but it calls to question the proof readers at O'Reilly and the quality of the research that forms the basis for buying this book. Can I trust the information on Unicode if they can't bother to look up their facts? How many other things did they just make up and put in print?
The reader is repeatedly referred to as "her" as a sop to political correctness. This is a computer book and not the editorial page. These girls should have married a doctor.

A labor of love - authoritative book on subject - 2008-12-07
Reviewer Rating:
I've read and reread this book a number of times. It is now dogged eared, book marked, and tagged more than any other book in my library. It contains great anecdotal stories, unmatched technical information, and is clearly a work of true devotion. If you are a designer, typographer, or IT support for font intensive workflows, this book is required reading for mastery of the subject. Run to get this book. Another glowing example of the quality books released by O'Reilly.

Thick book, sometimes already outdated, not didactic - 2008-05-14
Reviewer Rating:
It's a good book, it's a thick book.

But it does not deserve 5 stars. Three main problems:

1) it is too thick and often goes in far too many details

2) some of the material is out-of-date: for instance how to create keyboard drivers under Mac OS.

3) It is not didactic, Yannis obviously wants to impress his colleagues and his readers, not necessarily be understood by the below-average geek like me. Where is a simple introduction to OpenType before going in all the gory details?

This being said the book is interesting and some chapters are fascinating.

Comprehensive book on fonts and encodings - 2008-12-16
Reviewer Rating:
I doubt I will ever read this book cover to cover. However, I am sure I will look things up in it on many occasions. And, there are a number of introductory sections I plan to read immediately.

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