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2bc772d
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Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.
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typography
language
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Robert Bringhurst |
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00abf9b
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By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well.
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Robert Bringhurst |
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2e2545a
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In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit like stale bread and mutton on the page. In a well-made book, where designer, compositor and printer have all done their jobs, no matter how many thousands of lines and pages, the letters are alive. They dance in their seats. Sometimes they rise and dance in the margins and aisles.
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typography
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Robert Bringhurst |
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7b2142d
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Literature represents the triumph of language over writing: the subversion of writing for purposes that have little or nothing to do with social and economic control.
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literature
writing
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Robert Bringhurst |
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6aee0bc
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If language is lost, humanity is lost. If writing is lost, certain kinds of civilization and society are lost, but many other kinds remain - and there is no reason to think that those alternatives are inferior.
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writing
humanity
society
language
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Robert Bringhurst |
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a53165e
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When you think intensely and beautifully, something happens. That something is called poetry. If you think that way and speak at the same time, poetry gets in your mouth. If people hear you, it gets in their ears. If you think that way and write at the same time, then poetry gets written. But poetry exists in any case. The question is only: are you going to take part, and if so, how?
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Robert Bringhurst |
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0a0ee33
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Wings are a constraint that makes it possible to fly.
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freedom
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Robert Bringhurst |
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25e57d5
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Essay on Adam" There are five possibilities. One: Adam fell. Two: he was pushed. Three: he jumped. Four: he only looked over the edge, and one look silenced him. Five: nothing worth mentioning happened to Adam. The first, that he fell, is too simple. The fourth, fear, we have tried and found useless. The fifth, nothing happened, is dull. The choice is between: he jumped or was pushed. And the difference between these is only an issue of whe..
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suicide
murder
demons
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Robert Bringhurst |
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97bce21
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If you divide the world into them and us, and history into ours and theirs, or if you think of history as something only you and your affiliates possess, then no matter what you know, no matter how noble your intentions, you have taken one step toward the destruction of the world.
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peace
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Robert Bringhurst |
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f68af4a
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The designer always has to leave room for the gods.
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Robert Bringhurst |
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105ae1b
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Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.
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Robert Bringhurst |
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e161b59
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A myth is a hypothesis about the personality of reality itself and not the personalities of individual persons, character types, or nations.
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Robert Bringhurst |
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9a79ddc
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Typographic style is founded not on any one technology of typesetting or printing, but on the primitive yet subtle craft of writing.
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Robert Bringhurst |
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72f7cdf
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When you die, your culture takes you in, and then, if you've given enough, your place is near the centre.
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posterity
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Robert Bringhurst |
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3bc2b92
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Logograms pose a more difficult question. An increasing number of persons and institutions, from archy and mehitabel to PostScript and TrueType, come to the typographer in search of special treatment.In earlier days it was kings and deities whose agents demanded that their names be written in a larger size or set in a specially ornate typeface; not it is business firms and mass-market products demanding an extra helping of capitals, or a pr..
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corporate-bullshit
typography
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Robert Bringhurst |
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f73107b
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Type designers are, at their best, the Stradivarii of literature: not merely makers of salable products, but artists who design and make the instruments that other artists use.
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stradivarius
typography
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Robert Bringhurst |
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f6feb54
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Actually, typefaces and racing bikes are very much alike. Both are ideas as well as machines, and neither should be burdened with excess drag or baggage. Pictures of pumping feet will not make the type go faster, any more than smoke trails, pictures of rocket ships or imitation lightning bolts tied to the frame will improve the speed of the bike.
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substance-over-style
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Robert Bringhurst |
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400dd7b
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Logograms pose a more difficult question. An increasing number of persons and institutions, from archy and mehitabel to PostScript and TrueType, come to the the typographer in search of special treatment. In earlier days it was kings and deities whose agents demanded that their names be written in a larger size or set in a specially ornate typeface; now it is business firms and mass-market products demanding an extra helping of capitals, or..
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spit-take
what-did-i-just-read
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Robert Bringhurst |
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59df2a3
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An ancient metaphor: thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner of yarns - but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver.
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storytelling
thought
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Robert Bringhurst |
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9c06b80
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if the poet becomes what-is, then what-is (and no one else) becomes the author of the poem.
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Robert Bringhurst |