Kompendium für Alphabeten

_Systematic presentation of lettering principles and alphabet structures

_Precise analysis of form, modulation, and proportion

_Wide range of experimental and classical alphabets

_Inspiring reference work for typographers and designers

This voume is a “systematics of writing,” an ordered inventory of its possibilities, nothing more and nothing less. The first edition appeared in 1972. Back then, the blurb read: "This compendium provides parameters for the programming of electronically controlled, computer-controlled typography for a not-so-distant future." Now, the future has become present with a vehemence that no one could have foreseen.

Today, the more than 500-year-old black art has completely changed its preconditions. Digitalization has prevailed, and lead has become obsolete. All conceivable freedoms have become technically possible. This opens up new categories of design and carries the risk that long-established typographic virtues and rules will become trivialized and disappear. The compendium is more relevant than ever. Its fourth edition is intended—according to its author's intention—to help alleviate the widespread fear of the new technology and, more importantly, to make meaningful use of its unlimited possibilities.