There are some timeless classics such as http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_Architecture http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_

There are some timeless classics such as http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_Architecture http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5267912W/Vitruvius_on_Archite... and http://openlibrary.org/works/OL1417305W/On_painting_and_On_sculpture http://openlibrary.org/works/OL1417305W/On_painting_and_On_s... but some really good contemporary advice about data displays can be found in http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/ http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/ and for an introduction to typography you could do worse than the LaTeX Memoir Class manual http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/ http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/.