16 March 2026
Experts from the University of Reading have contributed to a major new work in the field of typography. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Global Typography is a comprehensive overview of the study of lettering and font design from around the world and throughout history.
The editorial team comprised Profs Paul Luna, Fiona Ross and Sue Waker and visiting research fellow Dr Vaibhav Singh from the University’s Department of Typography and Graphic Communication and designer Aaris Sherin from St John’s University, New York.
The book forms part of the Bloomsbury Handbook series, which aim to offer single-volume works that ‘map the parameters’ of a discipline’s history, methodology and topics to guide students and researchers. Chapter topics span from the history of typesetting in 10th century China through to contemporary issues of legibility and digital communications.
Professor Walker, one of the book’s editors, said:
“This new handbook takes the broadest possible view of typography, defining it as ‘design for reading’. It considers all kinds of reading matter and visual communication systems; digital, environmental, printed, and produced by hand.”
Seeking to address a historical bias towards Western sources, the handbook features contributions from 43 authors covering a range of writing systems such as Arabic, Japanese and Korean, among others.
The book was launched at an event on campus on the 5 March, hosted by the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication and the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing (CBCP). In attendance was Louise Baird-Smith, Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Publishing, who concluded the event with thanks to the authors and editors.
Luna, P. , Ross, F. , Sherin, A., Walker, S. and Singh, V., eds. (2026) The Bloomsbury handbook of global typography. Bloomsbury Visual Arts Handbooks. Bloomsbury, pp528. ISBN 9781350336384
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