Intended to provide scientists and engineers at synchrotron radiation facilities with a sound and convenient basis for designing beamlines for monochromatic soft x-ray radiation, this text will also be helpful to the users of synchrotron radiation who want to help ensure that beamlines being built are optimized for the experiments to be performed on them. The primary purpose of a beamline is to capture as much of the light of the source as possible and then to transfer the desired portion of that light as completely as possible to the experiment. With the development of dedicated, brilliant synchrotron radiation sources, the first half of the task has been greatly simplified. The beamline designer must contend with the second half of the problem -- conserving the brilliance of the source through an optical system which monochromatizes and focuses the radiation.