Dutch Type

There is probably no other country that boasts a type design culture as dense as the Netherlands. Considering the small geographical size of the country, the contribution of the Dutch to the development of type and typography has been phenomenal. In Dutch Type, Jan Middendorp presents a comprehensive overview of type design and lettering in the Netherlands, tracing back its origins to the ground-breaking work by punchcutters, type designers and lettering artists from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Partly based on dozens of interviews, the book also aims to give insight into the motives and methods of the first generation of digital type designers, featuring published and unpublished typefaces as well as sketches, studies and samples of unknown lettering work. Dutch Type shows how the advent of desktop type design has opened up an arcane discipline to a more spontaneous, inventive and democratic approach, while the relentless quest for quality and innovation has remained a constant. The 2018 reprint is a faithful reproduction of the original 2004 edition.