The book was designed and constructed by hand from start to finish. It includes an essay and a selection of 25 typefaces with five categories: Old Style, Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif, and Sans Serif. The essay used in the book, “Twentieth Century Type Specimens” by David Pankow & John Dreyfus, is about the history of type specimens.

The layout system is based on halves. The type specimens are displayed on the top half of the right-hand side and the essay is laid out on the bottom half of the page. Excerpts from the essay are presented on the left half of each spread as typographic compositions, which express the meaning of the selected text. The color scheme uses tints and shades of black, and a series of five accent colors that identify the categories on the right-hand pages.