Yuri Gordon. A Book on Letters from Aa to Zz

This book is about (largely Cyrillic) letters, however, as you move forward through it, you have to recall the Greek and Roman roots of the Russian alphabet. The author speculates on why our writing characters are not as beautiful as their Latin relatives, and where a designer (not necessarily a professional type designer) is ought to step in to make them better. In passing, the author dwells briefly on the history of European writing systems.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the literal—letter-by-letter—analysis of the Russian alphabet along with all the things that a designer or a type designer should or should not do when creating characters. The author speaks about the form of the characters, links between them, graphic rhymes. The author suggests his own framework system for Cyrillic characters. Additional and decorative elements become the subject of separate consideration followed by proposals regarding their systematization. The author attaches great importance to the ongoing process of the Latinization of the Cyrillic alphabet, the aggressive penetration of new Latin elements into the Russian graphics.

Computer fonts, formats and tools a developer may use are compiled in a separate section. The book is meant for thoroughly trained designers who have mastered vector graphics software.