Reading List: Typography

The art of typography—the design and arrangement of printed words—became widely recognized after Johannes Gutenberg introduced moveable type to printing presses in Europe in the fifteenth century. Artists and typographers throughout history have used fonts, type style, and design to communicate different beliefs and ideas, creating a visual culture that continues to influence how we interact with the written word in everyday life.

In this recommended reading list from the Frick Art Research Library, you can discover books highlighting the history of typography, its influence on art, and specific artists known for their typographic works.

Register to visit us in the reading room and explore these books and more from the library’s collections!

1. An A–Z of Type Designers

By Neil Macmillan (2006)

From Johannes Gutenberg (below) all the way to Vincent Connare, creator of Comic Sans, this book provides a general overview of some of the most recognizable typographers and their fonts. By organizing its content alphabetically as opposed to chronologically, the reader is able to see the juxtaposition of various type designers throughout history.

2. Type Is Beautiful: The Story of Fifty Remarkable Fonts

By Simon Loxley (2016)

Those unfamiliar with the history of typography may only know about typefaces from their names and not their creators. This narrative book provides the history of fifty fonts and is an ode to their positions and wide-reaching influence in graphic design and culture. Some notable fonts highlighted in the volume include Braille, Broadway, and London Underground.

3. Lettres Décoratives: A Century of French Sign Painters’ Alphabets

Introduction by Morgane Côme (2026)

Before the advent of vinyl lettering, sign painting was a staple in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century advertisements around the world. Pulling from popular French journals and portfolios from the time, this volume includes several alphabets that were available to and used by craftsmen. These examples not only display the finesse and beauty of manual sign painting—a dying art today—but also illustrate prevailing typographic influences in France.

4. How Many Female Type Designers Do You Know? I Know Many and Talked to Some!

By Yulia Popova (2025)

Women are often underrepresented in or completely excluded from the canon of typography. This third edition of Popova’s book provides biographies of nineteenth- and twentieth-century women type designers and includes fourteen interviews with contemporary female typographers. Examples of the featured women’s work are included throughout the book, giving the reader a sense of their diverse contributions to the field.

5. Ed Ruscha: Ribbon Words

By Dieter Buchhart, Glenn O’Brien, and Alexandra Schwartz (2016)

In 2016, the Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art gallery exhibited a selection of Pop artist Ed Ruscha’s typographic works, known as “ribbon words.” This accompanying catalogue provides images of each of the works that were shown, along with essays on Ruscha’s use of letters, words, and phrases and his influences from silent films to sculpture.

6. Diagramming Modernity: Books and Graphic Design in Latin America, 1920–1940

By Rodrigo Gutiérrez Viñuales and Riccardo Boglione (2023)

Diagramming Modernity provides insight into Latin American illustrated book culture in the early twentieth century, highlighting the differences between—and confluence of—regional styles. In addition to over 1,000 reproductions from first editions, this publication includes both geographic and thematic sections along with facsimile posters for the reader to unfold.

7. Moholy-Nagy and the New Typography: A–Z

Edited by Petra Eisele, Isabel Naegele, and Michael Lailach (2019)

This book was published in conjunction with a 2019 re-exhibition of the Hungarian-born Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy’s contribution to the influential New Typography show held in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau in 1929. This volume reproduces the 78 charts the artist produced for the exhibition, in a room titled Where is typography headed? The book also includes an abecedary of terms relating to Moholy-Nagy and his colleagues’ work, joining text and image.

8. Someday Is Now: The Art of Corita Kent

Edited by Ian Berry and Michael Duncan (2026)

Twentieth-century American artist, activist, educator, and former religious sister Corita Kent is best known for her boldly colored screen prints—many of which are showcased in this retrospective publication of her work, which accompanied a traveling exhibition of the same name. Kent’s methods and style reflect a spirit of activism that transformed everyday words into powerful works of art. Her use of typography is a prime example of the ways type expression can absorb and reflect the cultural zeitgeist.

All photos by Joseph Coscia Jr., The Frick Collection