BOOKS

http://www.lynda.com/bookstore/

How to order Lynda Weinman’s books on Web design. Current releases include “Designing Web Graphics”, “Deconstructing Web Graphics” and “Coloring Web Graphics.” Lynda is THE authority on browser-safe colors and low-bandwidth graphics, so put her books on your MUST read list. Crystal Water’s “Web Concept & Design” is also available from Lynda’s site.

Lynda’s first book is now available as “Designing Web Graphics 2.” She has updated and expanded upon a lot of the information in the first edition. Plus she has added a section on Web design as a career and on pricing Web design services.Suzanne Stephens

 

http://www.killersites.com

Another great source for creative inspiration and technical esoterica is David Siegel’s “Creating Killer Web Sites, The Art of Third-Generation Site Design.” With this book, as with his “High Five” awards page and his “Web Wonk” pages, Siegel continues to push designers to go beyond the ordinary, to strive for exceptional quality. Suzanne Stephens

 

I recommend these books devoted to the art of graphic design:

Cutting Edge Typography” 
All of the “Graphis” books 
“Designers on Mac” 
“Covers & Jackets” 
“End of Print” 
“In Your Face: The Best of Interactive Interface Design” 

Daniel Donnelly

 

A great reference book that covers forms well is “HTML--the definitive Guide” by O’Reilly & Assoc. This is a must-have reference next to your desk, in your book-bag or briefcase, bedside...whatever. Randy Warshaw

 

http://www.dannyg.com/recentwriting.html#JavaScript Bible

If you are looking for JavaScript references, Danny Goodman writes one of the best (or THE best in my opinion ;-)) books out there: “Danny Goodman’s JavaScript Handbook” about to be renamed “Danny Goodman’s JavaScript Bible.” It comes with a SamsNet CD with the usual stuff on it. On his great Website for the book he posts not only example source code files but updates to his book and pointers to other resources on JS. sry, Phoenix Rising

 

Positively the best book on CGI (Perl) I’ve ever seen is “Creating Cool Web Pages with Perl” by Jerry Muelver. IDG Books, ISBN 0-7645-3018-6, cover price $29.99. It comes with Perl for Wintel on CD as well as other utilities, and errata. This book assumes no programming experience, and no heavy Unix experience. I had the pleasure of proofing it while it was being written, and my SO wrote the forward. That may sound like I have a bias, but having several hundred dollars worth of Perl books on my shelf, this one is definitely the most used. Ann Navarro

 

“The Photoshop Bible”
(The 4.0 bible is due to be released by IDG on 12/27/96)
Author: Deke McClelland
ISBN 1-56884-158-2

A very good reference book. Covers almost any aspect of Photoshop that you need info on. It skims over some important areas but it is an invaluable resource for beginners. A "must have" book. Chris Peaden

 

“Photoshop Artistry: A Master Class for Photographers and Artists”
(No word on 4.0 version)
Authors: Barry Haynes & Wendy Crumpler
ISBN 0-7821-1774-0

This is the BEST book I’ve ever laid my hands on regarding Photoshop. It has an enormous amount of information on Levels & Curves and color correction in general. It is written as a class/tutorial and comes with a CD with all images necessary to conduct the exercises. This book is VERY effective! It is only the second book I have ever found that documents the option-key trick with levels. It doesn’t have a lot of fancy pictures that make it “look” like a good book. It has very effective and relevant images & graphics that illustrate the topics. This is THE book to get. Chris Peaden

 

http://www.peachpit.com

Either of Robin William’s books, “The Mac Is Not A Typewriter” or “The PC Is Not A Typewriter” should be required reading before obtaining a license to operate a desktop publishing system. They’re primarily aimed at print, but contain invaluable information that you can translate to HTML design and to Web graphics. If you’re still using inch marks instead of curly quotes and apostrophes, you NEED to read one of these books! Suzanne Stephens

 

If you are typography hungry, check out Erik Spiekermann’s books “Rhyme and Reason” and “Stop Stealing Sheep.” They cover just about everything as far as type rules, customs, and rules-of thumb, plus more in-depth discussions of typefaces and history. They are also fairly short (an hour’s read) with plenty of diagrams and samples. Of course, this is typography for print, but I think most of the rules apply almost anywhere. Darrel Ausrin

 

http://www.amazon.com

Did you know that you can review books on www.amazon.com? I’ve been looking for good Web, design, Java, Shockwave, Photoshop books, and it’s really really helpful when I can read reviews written by readers of the book, instead of going soley by the publisher’s hype. I thought I might suggests that when you read a good book, that you go to Amazon and write a little review and rate the book, so that others can benefit from your recommendations. Lynda Weinman

 

http://www.peachpit.com

I would recommend the book “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” by Robin Williams. This is a great book for beginners (for which I include myself) - even though it isn’t a computer or Website design book, it has design basics. Kathy Hunsicker

 

These are some of the most used references on my shelf. “Being Digital” by Nicholas Negroponte (MIT Media Lab) isn’t a design book, per se, but a fascinating snapshot of the history and future of the digital revolution. A must read for anyone remotely involved. Some of the things these people at the MIT Media Lab have actually done are right out of the pages of 1960s science fiction.

“Being Digital”
“Graphic Design Cookbook”
“Photoshop Wow Books”
“HTML & CGI Unleashed”

Todd Palmer

 

Each of these books has formulas for setting hourly rates and project fees:

“How to Make Your Design Business Profitable”
Joyce M. Stewart
North Light Books
$21.95

“The Designer’s Commonsense Business Book”
Barbara Ganin
North Light Books
$27.99

North Light’s catalog: 1-800-289-0963 Suzanne Stephens

 

http://webreview.com/books/newmedia

Two more excellent books from O’Reilly are “Gif Animation Studio” by Richard Koman and “Shockwave Studio” by Bob Schmitt. Each includes a CDrom with demos and helpers. The Color Conversion program included with the GIF animation book has become one of my favorite tools. I keep it open in its own browser window when I’m working on Web design projects. It provides a quick way to find the RGB or Hex values for the colors in the Netscape color palette. Suzanne Stephens

 

http://www.gag.org

The Graphic Artists Guild’s “Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines” is essential reading for any designer. I’ve just ordered the Ninth Edition and am hopeful that it will cover issues facing designers who use computers better than the edition published in 1994. Frankly, I would be surprised if they’ve gotten it together where Web design is concerned since the 1994 edition barely even touched on computer-based design. But even if they don’t, this book will be an essential reference. Sample contracts are included, plus pricing info gathered through surveys of GAG member designers. It’s $29.95 plus shipping and handling and is free to Graphic Artist Guild members. If you can only buy one book about business practices, be sure it’s this one! Suzanne Stephens

 

 

Suzanne Stephens SStephens@opendoor.com

 

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