"As the printing industry accelerates its transition from an analog to digital environment, it seems especially appropriate to celebrate the achievements of its color printing pioneers, writes David Pankow, Curator of the RIT Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Graphic Arts Collection. The book is intended to make the reader familiar with the history and identification characteristics of twenty-one historic printing processes. Each informative process description is illustrated by vibrant color reproductions, the majority of which were photographed from rare books held at the Cary Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology.

"To the layman, all printing types look the same. But for typographers, graphic artists and others of that lunatic fringe who believe that the letters we look at daily (and take entirely for granted) are of profound importance, the question of how letters are formed, what shape they assume, and how they have evolved remains one of passionate and continuing concern. Lawson explores the vast territory of types, their development and uses, their antecedents and offspring, with precision, insight, and clarity. Written for the layman but containing exhaustive research, drawings and synopses of typefaces, this book is an essential addition to the library of anyone s typographic library. It is, as Lawson states, not written for the printer convinced that there are already too many typefaces, but rather for that curious part of the population that believes the opposite; that the subtleties of refinement as applies to roman and cursive letters have yet to be fully investigated and that the production of the perfect typeface remains a goal to be as much desired by present as by future type designers. Anyone aspiring to typographic wisdom should own and treasure this classic."--Amazon description.