POSTS

Importance of Typography

The question

Last week a member of UK TUG asked me, by email, what were my top 5 beautiful books produced using TeX. I think you might be interested in my answer. Here it is, lightly edited.

The answer

Thank you for your email. Your question surprised me, probably because my experience and history is different from yours.

The book Concrete Mathematics (by Graham, Knuth and Patashnik) is for me special. I found that its typography greatly improved my reading experience. In particular, the special fonts used made it easier to read slowly, when the reading experience demanded that.

Of the math papers I've read, I'd say that the three which influenced me the most were

  • Serre: Faisceaux Algébriques Cohérents
  • Grothendieck: Sur quelques points d'algèbre homologique
  • Bayer and Billera: Generalized Dehn-Sommerville relations […]

They were published respectively in 1955, 1957 and 1985. None of them used TeX, although the last might have been computer typeset. Last month I saw handwritten notes being effectively used for an online presentation of research.

As an author, I'd say that good tools encourage good work. Included in this is allowing aspects of the typography to be changed, to suit the nature of the content. Often, I prefer typography to be a bit like seasoning in food, or shoes on the feet. If shoes or seasoning draws attention to itself, perhaps it's too much or wrong.

Virginia Woolf wrote of Jane Austen:

of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.

As a reader, I'd like to have a better experience with online papers. I have a 40 inch 4K monitor (actually a TV), so I've plenty of space on my ‘vertical desktop’. But not the software that makes good use of that space.

You mention calligraphic treasures. I have some old second hand books, whose physical aspects are important to me. I also have bought-new books, eroded through repeated reading, I have repaired. I admire the books produced by Kelmscott and similar private presses. I've little interest in the Folio Society, largely because paperbacks are cheaper. Lately, I've bought large format art books, particularly second-hand.

You mention DEK's 5 volume series on Computers and Typesetting. Three of these books are the literate sources (of TeX, Metafont and Computer Modern) as printed books. Today computer displays are so much more capable than in the 1980s. I'd very much appreciate a modern version of literate programming that works well for reading on large 4K monitors (such as the one I have).

Thank you very much for your question. Finally, the unusual and much admired Ron Graham died on 6 July 2020.