Jan Tschichold Quotes

The works of ‘abstract’ art are subtle creations of order out of simple contrasting elements.

Type production has gone mad, with its senseless outpouring of new types… only in degenerate times can personality (opposed to the nameless masses) become the aim of human development.

The sanserif only seems to be the simpler script. It is a form that was violently reduced for little children. For adults it is more difficult to read than serifed roman type, whose serifs were never meant to be ornamental.

The book designer strives for perfection; yet every perfect thing lives somewhere in the neighborhood of dullness and is frequently mistaken for it by the insensitive.

White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.

We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.

Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.

Readers want what is important to be clearly laid out; they will not read what is too troublesome.

My errors were more fertile than I ever imagined.

Perfect typography is more a science than an art.

Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private press editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings.