Practical and hands-on in approach, this text/exercise manual speaks clearly to beginning students of graphic design about the complex meeting of message, image, and history that is typography. Focused on intent and content, not affect or style, it makes informed distinctions between what is appropriate and what is merely show. Filled with examples, exercises, and background information—and designed itself to reflect good typographic design—it guides students systematically to the point where they can not only understand but demonstrate basic principles of typography, and thereby strengthen their own typographic instincts.