Public lettering in all its forms—official inscriptions on buildings, commercial graphics, signs, epitaphs on tombstones, graffiti—is a fixture of urban life. In Public Lettering, Armando Petrucci reconstructs the history of public writing in the West and traces its social functions from the eleventh century through the modern period. Taking the city of Rome as a case study, Petrucci begins with a consideration of the first civic inscriptions after ancient times. Substantial chapters on the uses of public writing in the industrial revolution and the early twentieth century prepare the way for his provocative discussions of public lettering in the the contexts of fascism, post-war radicalism, and the student revolutions of 1968 and 1977. Throughout, Petrucci is concerned with the relations between the functions and styles of letters and the places where they appear. Writing, he argues, is one of the instruments of public power; display lettering is often the image and mirror of power itself, making the social use of written forms a type of conquest. Because of Rome's role as a “World-City,” Petrucci's interdisciplinary study has wide-ranging implications for our understanding of the social function of graphic design.

Learn how to master the medium—and how to go with the watercolor flow—to create one-of-a-kind lettered art and calligraphy that reflect your personal style. In this stunning follow-up to her highly praised and influential first book, The Art of Brush Lettering, lettering expert and workshop instructor Kelly Klapstein (popular on Instagram as @kellycreates) shares her secrets for mastering the essential techniques for creating lovely modern lettering and calligraphy with watercolor. Start with the basics, from choosing paints, brushes, and other supplies to preparing your paper for painting. Learn to handle watercolor paints with essential strokes and warm-ups. Explore painting letterforms in a variety of styles, from traditional to modern. Try a range of creative techniques, including blending ombrés and rainbows, creating pictorial letterforms, and combining watercolor with other mediums. Enhance your lettering with special touches by complementing it with handpainted backgrounds and simple illustrations. “Plenty of beautiful examples are included and they are really easy to re-create just by following the instructions which are always clear and concise. The letters with the beautiful colour transitions look so good. This is a very hands-on and practical book that I can easily recommend to beginners.” —Parka Blogs

The field of text technologies is a capacious analytical framework that focuses on all textual records throughout human history, from the earliest periods of traceable communication—perhaps as early as 60,000 BCE—to the present day. At its core, it examines the material history of communication: what constitutes a text, the purposes for which it is intended, how it functions, and the social ends that it serves. This coursebook can be used to support any pedagogical or research activities in text technologies, the history of the book, the history of information, and textually based work in the digital humanities. Through careful explanations of the field, examinations of terminology and themes, and illustrated case studies of diverse texts—from the Cyrus cylinder to the Eagles' "Hotel California"—Elaine Treharne and Claude Willan offer a clear yet nuanced overview of how humans convey meaning. Text Technologies will enable students and teachers to generate multiple lines of inquiry into how communication—its production, form and materiality, and reception—is crucial to any interpretation of culture, history, and society.