Typography for Everyone

There a hundreds of Web sites dedicated to improving typographic communication. Some are directed to graphic designers, some to students, some to Web designers, but today I ran across the first (to my knowledge) typographic guide dedicated to lawyers.

It took a graphic designer, turned type designer, turned lawyer to come up with the idea. Started by Matthew Butterick a civil litigation attorney in Los Angeles who, before he turned to the law as a profession, received a degree in art from Harvard University, focusing on graphic design and typography. After college, he worked as type designer drawing four typeface families for the Font Bureau; and from here he went on to run website development studio.

While Butterick clearly has all the credentials needed to write about typography for lawyers, the site also provides simple, straightforward guidelines to anyone who uses type and fonts in their profession. In addition to answering questions like "What is typography and why is it important?" Butterick breaks his advice into the three categories of "Basic," "Intermediate" and "Advanced" typography. Illustrations abound and there is an underlying sense of humor. Great stuff.

My only nit is Butterick's advice regarding Times New Roman – but that's probably because of my association with Monotype.

Go to the site (http://www.typographyforlawyers.com). Learn, enjoy and become a better typographic communicator.

Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs.