I’ve put this list together for my various students. It’s an introductory collection of a range of different materials on various subjects. It’s loosely structured into three categories, though obviously there is some overlap.
Approaches to type and extended context
Bringhurst, Robert, (2002), ‘Voices, languages and scripts’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 3–23
— (2004), The solid form of language, Kentville, Nova Scotia: Gaspereau Press
Christopher Burke, Eric Kindel, Sue Walker (eds), (2013), Isotype: design and contexts, 1925–1971, London: Hyphen Press
Chandler, Daniel, (2007), Semiotics, The Basics, 2nd edition, London and New York: Routledge
Coulmas, Florian, (1989), The writing systems of the world, Oxford & Cambridge: Basil Blackwell
Froshaug, Anthony, (2000), ‘On typography’, in Kinross, Robin (ed.), Anthony Froshaug: Typography & Texts, London: Hyphen Press
Harris, Roy, (1978), Communication and Language, An Inaugural Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford on 24 February 1978, Oxford: Clarendon Press
— (1996), Signs of Writing, London and New York: Routledge
Kinross, Robin, (1997), ‘Type as critique’, Typography Papers, no. 2, 77–87
— (2002), Unjustified texts: perspectives on typography, London: Hyphen Press
— (2004), Modern typography, 2nd edition, London: Hyphen Press
Larson, Kevin, (2005), ‘The science of word recognition, or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Bouma’, TYPO, no. 13, 2–11
Leonidas, Gerry, (2010), ‘A few things I’ve learned about typeface design’, on I love typography, retrieved August 19, 2012 from: http://ilovetypography.com/2010/03/25/a-few-things-i%E2%80%99ve-learned-about-typeface-design/
Neurath Marie, & Kinross, Robin, (2009), The transformer, principles of making Isotype charts, London: Hyphen Press
Noordzij, Gerrit, (2000), Letterletter, Point Roberts, WA; Hartley & Marks
Reynolds, Linda, (2007), ‘The Graphic Information Research Unit: a pioneer of typographic research’, Typography Papers, no. 7, 115–138
Whorf, Benjamin L., (1956), Language, Thought, Reality, MIT Press
Making and using type
Ahrens, Tim, (2009), Size-specific Adjustments to Type Designs: An Investigation of the Principles Guiding the Design of Optical Sizes, New York: Mark Batty Publishers
Baines, Phil, Haslam, Andrew, (2005), Type and Typography, 2nd edition, New York: Waston-Guptill Publications
Bigelow, Charles & Holmes, Kris, (1993), ‘The design of a Unicode font’, Electronic Publishing, vol. 6, no. 3, 289–305
Bringhurst, Robert, (2005), The elements of typographic style, 3rd edition, Point Roberts, WA; Hartley & Marks
Carter, Matthew, (1985), ‘Galliard: a modern revival of the types of Robert Granjon’, Visible Language, vol. xix, no. 1, 77–98
Dreyfuss, John, (1985), ‘A Turning Point in Type Design’, Visible Language, vol. xix, no. 1, 11–22
Dwiggins, William A., (1940), WAD to RR: a letter about designing type, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard College Library
Haralambous, Yannis, (2004), Fontes & Codages, O’Reilly Editions
Hudson, John, (2000), ‘Windows Glyph Processing: an OpenType Primer’, on Microsoft typography, retrieved May 21, 2009, from: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/Glyph%20Processing/intro.mspx
— (2002), ‘Unicode, from text to type’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 24–44
Knuth, Donald, (1985), ‘Lessons Learned from Metafont’, Visible Language, vol. xix, no. 1, 35–54
Legros, Lucien Alphonse & Grant, John Cameron (1916), Typographical printing surfces, The technology and mechanism of their production, London: Longsmans, Green and Co.
Leonidas, Gerry, (2002), ‘A primer in Greek type design’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 76–91
Mosley, James, (1997), ‘French academicians and modern typography: designing new types in the 1690s’, Typography Papers, no. 2, 5–29
Noordzij, Gerrit, (2005), The stroke, theory of writing, London: Hyphen Press
Smeijers, Fred, (2011), Counterpunch: making type in the sixteenth century; designing typefaces now, , 2nd edition, London: Hyphen Press
Southall, Richard, (1997), ‘A survey of type design techniques before 1978’, Typography Papers, no. 2, 31–59
—, (2005), Printer’s type in the twentieth century, Manufacturing and design methods, London: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press
Tracy, Walter, (1987), Letters of Credit, Boston: David R. Godine Publisher
Vervliet, Hendrik D. L., (2008), The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance, Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces, Leiden * Boston: Brill
World scripts
Banham, Rob & Ross, Fiona, eds., (2008), Non-Latin typefaces at St Bride Library, London, and Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, London: St Bride Library
Blair, Sheila, (2008), Islamic Calligraphy, Edinburgh University Press
Déroche, François, (1992), ‘The Abbassid Tradition: Qurʾans of the 8th to the 10th centuries AD’, in Raby, J. (ed.), The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London
— (2004), Le livre manuscrit arabe, Préludes à une histoire, Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Guesdon, Marie-Geneviève, and Annie Vernay-Nouri, eds., (2001), Art du livre arabe : du manuskrit au livre d’artiste, Paris: BnF.
Hanebütt-Benz, Eva, Glass, Dagmar, Roper, Geoffrey et al, (2002), Sprachen des Nahen Ostens und die Druckrevolution: eine interkulturelle Begegnung: Katalog und Begleitband zur Ausstellung / Middle Eastern languages and the print revolution: a cross-cultural encounter: a catalogue and companion to the exhibition, Westhofen: WVA-Verlag Skulima, 2002
Hunziker, Hans-Jürg, (1985), ‘Aspects of Arabic script reform’, Swiss Typographic Monthly Magazine, 104th year, no. 4, pp. 1–36
Milo, Thomas, (1989), Fragments from the Koran, Design into Art – Drawings for Architecture and Ornament – The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, Volume II, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, republished in Mela Notes, no. 62, 15–34 as ‘The Koran Fragments of the The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection’ (1995)
— (1998), ‘Authentic Arabic: a Case Study. Right-to-Left Font Structure, Font Design, and Typography’, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 8, no. 1, 49–61
— (2002), ‘Arabic script and typography’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 112–127
— (2003), ‘Ali-Baba and the 4.0 Unicode characters’, TUGboat, 24, no. 3, 502–511
— (2006), ‘Beautiful book, made to the highest Western standards’, Al-Computer, Communications & Electronics, May, 71–73
— (2008), ‘Computing and the Qur’ān, Some Caveats’, in Groß, M. K. (ed.), Schlaglichter: Die beiden ersten islamischen Jahrhunderte, 494–515
Mitchell, Terrence F., (1979), Writing Arabic, a Practical Introduction to Ruq’ah script, Oxford University Press
Nemeth, Titus, (2013), “Simplified Arabic, a new form of Arabic Type for hot-metal composition”, in Typography Papers, no. 9, 173–189
— (2009), ‘Complex Dutch Arab Complex’, TYPO, no. 36, 86–93
Ross, Fiona, (1998), ‘Translating non-Latin scripts into type’, Typography Papers, no. 3, 75–86
— (1999), The printed Bengali character and its evolution, Richmond: Curzon
— (2002a), ‘An approach to non-Latin type design’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 65–76
— (2002b), ‘Non-Latin Type Design at Linotype’, First annual Friends of St Bride conference, 24 & 25 September 2002, retrieved May 21, 2009, from: http://stbride.org/friends/conference/twentiethcenturygraphiccommunication/NonLatin.html
— (2002c), ‘Non-Latin typesetting in the digital age’ in Computers and Typography 2, compiled by Rosemary Sassoon, Bristol: Intellect Books, 42–53
— (2012), “The Type Design Process for Non-Latin Scripts” in Non-Latin scripts, from metal to digital type, 125–54. London: St Bride Library.
Safwat, Nabil F., (1996), The Art Of The Pen: Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. V), Oxford University Press
Tracy, Walter, (1964), ‘The Flourishing Reed’, Alphabet: International Annual of Letterforms, London: James Moran Limited, 139–146
— (1975a), ‘Advances in Arabic Printing’, Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), vol. 2, no. 2, 87–93
— (1975b), ‘Arabic without tears’, in (ed.) Smith, Brian, The Penrose Graphic Arts International Annual, Vol 68, London: Northwood, 121–126
Zhukov, Maxim, (1996), ‘The peculiarities of Cyrillic letterforms: design variation and correlation in Russian typefaces’, Typography Papers, no. 1, 5–26
— (2002), ‘ITC Cyrillics, 1992–’, in Berry, John (ed.), Language Culture Type, International Type Design in the age of Unicode, ATypI * Graphis, 45–62
— (2006), ‘Caractères sans frontières: Some design lessons of the msct project’, Letterspace, Winter-Spring, 3–7