Elements of Lettering (1922) — Hardcover Reprint

? PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Hardcover binding takes longer than paperback. Please allow 3–4 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

Frederic W. Goudy was America's great type designer — the creator of Goudy Old Style and more than a hundred other typefaces — and Elements of Lettering (1922) is his study of the letterform itself. Where the trade manuals teach the brush, Goudy teaches the letter: its proportions, its structure, and the principles that make a Roman capital beautiful whether it is cut in stone, drawn by hand, or cast in type.

The book is Goudy the craftsman thinking aloud about his material — the alphabet as a design object, the relationships between letters, and the discipline of drawing forms that hold together as a family. His authority was unmatched: no one in America knew more about what makes a letter right, and these pages distill the judgment behind a lifetime of type design. His examples carry the authority of the drawing board rather than the lecture hall: every principle is shown in letters you can study, copy, and learn from directly.

For the modern lettering artist and designer, the 1922 Elements is a master class in seeing letters — the perfect complement to the brush manuals. Study it and your letters gain the structural soundness that separates decoration from design.

For type designers, graphic designers, lettering artists, calligraphers, and students of typography. Goudy on letterforms — from the man who drew America's letters.

Details: 6×9" hardcover (case laminate), black and white interior, cream paper.

?? Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1922 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1922 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1922 book with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.