Graphic Design Books

This book is the one that should have been written for Java Media Framework, if only that API had ever lived up to its expectations. If you want to add media to your application, and you are using Java, Quicktime is your best bet. However, note that if the Quicktime for Java API doesn't seem very Java-like or object-oriented at first glance, then that's probably because it's not. That is because with Quicktime for Java you are not working with pure Java. Instead, you're invoking a flat C API to create and manipulate C or Pascal data structures using a thin Java wrapper. If you can live with that and you still want to use Quicktime for Java, this book is the essential guide and tutorial you need to get up and running. The book does not waste your time with API printouts or a Java programming language tutorial. Instead, like all books in the Developer's Notebook series, it gets down to business quickly by demonstrating working Java code for a number of useful tasks when working with media.

First, it tutors you on how to set up Quicktime for Java on a Windows machine. This task is more complex than you would think, and this book hits the mark on the subject. Next, it shows you how to play movies and audio files from your Java program. Next, the book tackles the editing of movies from a Java application. This includes topics such as cutting, pasting, going to specific frames of a movie, and "flattening" a movie. In Chapter four, the programmer is introduced to working with Java components and importing and exporting graphics. In chapter five, the user is introduced to working with QuickDraw, the Apple-originated drawing API. This is essential, since QuickDraw is what is used to work with captured images. Thus in this chapter the reader is taught how to transfer data between images and a movie. Next, the art of capturing both video and audio is explored, including capturing audio and video to the same file. The chapter is rounded out with the code for a motion detector. Chapter seven is devoted entirely to audio media. There are particularly timely topics here, such as how to read information from MP3 and from iTunes AAC files, how to provide basic audio controls, and how to build an audio track from raw samples. Similar information is provided in a separate chapter for information specific to video media.The final chapter discusses the effects available in Quicktime for Java, as well as how to add text captions and timecodes to your media.

All in all, I think the Developer Notebook format works well for this subject. At the beginning of each chapter there is an outline of the topics to be covered. For each topic there is a "How Do I Do That?" section that includes a short piece of Java code that performs the specified task. There is also a sample of the output you would expect to see on the screen that should result from executing the code. Next there is a paragraph entitled "What Just Happened?" that explains the code just shown, and finally each topic usually ends with a "What about.." section that answers common questions you may have about extending the code just shown. All code in the book can be downloaded from the book's website at O'Reilly and Associates.

This book is essential reading for anybody who needs to understand how to code with Quicktime for Java, and it is far better than any other publication on the subject that I have encountered. Amazon does not show the table of contents for this book, so I do so for the purpose of completeness:
Chapter 1. GETTING UP AND RUNNING WITH QUICKTIME FOR JAVA
Setting Up QTJ on Windows
Embedding QuickTime in HTML
Preflighting a QTJ Installation
Compiling QTJ Code
Opening and Closing the QuickTime Session
Playing an Audio File from the Command Line
Chapter 2. PLAYING MOVIES
Building a Simple Movie Player
Adding a Controller
Getting a Movie-Playing JComponent
Controlling a Movie Programmatically
Showing a Movie's Current Time
Listening for Movie State-Changes
Moving Frame by Frame
Playing Movies from URLs
Preventing "Tasking" Problems
Chapter 3. EDITING MOVIES
Copying and Pasting
Performing "Low-Level" Edits
Undoing an Edit
Undoing and Redoing Multiple Edits
Saving a Movie to a File
Flattening a Movie
Saving a Movie with Dependencies
Editing Tracks
Chapter 4. WORKING WITH COMPONENTS
Specifying a Component's Type
Exporting Movies
Exporting Movies to Any Installed Format
Importing and Exporting Graphics
Discovering All Installed Components
Chapter 5. WORKING WITH QUICKDRAW
Getting and Saving Picts
Getting a Pict from a Movie
Converting a Movie Image to a Java Image
A Better Movie-to-Java Image Converter
Drawing with Graphics Primitives
Getting a Screen Capture
Matrix-Based Drawing
Compositing Graphics
Chapter 6. CAPTURE
Capturing and Previewing Audio
Selecting Audio Inputs
Capturing Audio to Disk
Capturing Video to Disk
Capturing Audio and Video to the Same File
Making a Motion Detector
Chapter 7. AUDIO MEDIA
Reading Information from MP3 Files
Reading Information from iTunes AAC Files
Providing Basic Audio Controls
Providing a Level Meter
Building an Audio Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 8. VIDEO MEDIA
Combining Video Tracks
Overlaying Video Tracks
Building a Video Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 9. MISCELLANEOUS MEDIA
Creating Captions with Text Media
Creating Links with HREF Tracks
Adding Timecodes
Creating Zero-Source Effects
Creating One-Source Effects (Filters)
Creating Two-Source Effects (Transitions)

This book is great!

This notebook makes all the QuickTime supported formats available to a Java developer. Like all the books in the notebook series, plenty of code, plenty of information to get up and running.

I really liked the information on reading the tag info from MP3s and AAC files, very useful.

Multimedia and Java made simple.

While at first I thought O'Reilly's new "developer's notebook" series seemed a bit hokey, this book is extremely useful. It's concise and to the point, but full of good examples and information. A plus of the small size is that it's more to-the-point and cheaper than a typical O'Reilly book (which very often seem to ramble on and on about marginally useful information, seemingly in order to justify their $45+ price tags).

With this type of walkthrough book I usually expect to see just the basic features of the technology explored. This book goes surprisingly in-depth, covering topics like adding effects to playback, transforming movies during playback, overlays, and a wide variety of topics.

All that is crammed into a trim 200 page frame. This is achieved by concentrating mainly on the code, and effectively using a minimum of images. That's a trick given the graphics intensive nature of the topic.

This is not a book for beginners, it's a fast-paced walkthrough for experience developers who want something less referential than the JavaDocs.

With Apple changing QuickTime for Java so anything you made when
use QTJava under MacOSX Java1.3 no longer worked under Java1.4 these required changes to most of your older QTJava code- if you wanted to have your code now run under Java1.4. Apple also moved classes to a new packages so to make the developers nightmare complete. BUT DONT WORRY! This book will show you workarounds for them missing classes (sequence grabbing is back! what a gem). Also covers all your needs as a new developer to the powers of QTJava. Time to make your very own QuickTime player in a few hours! You won't believe the stuff QuickTime can do under the hood. This books covers just more and more stuff as you go though it.

For me this QuickTime for Java book will be sitting next to the older most excellent book from Bill Stewart. I hope all books become as clear and well written as this one from Chris Adamson- top work. Sample code all over the shop; step by step stuff. Cuts to the tasks you will have to tackle without lengthy messing around. Brilliant buy if you want to do cool hardcore design media in java. Or just play a nice sound track in the background of your killer application - maybe u want to make the next video editing studio app, or your own media player, or a streaming server, or a image editor, or or or; you want ta take a ride?

Then again don't buy it! I wont have a job to go to in the morning! :).

This book contains a wealth of information on the history and evolution of symbols. And it has the widest range and depth of symbols and their variations. With my degree in neuroscience and psychology, I also appreciated the insights and reminders about the deepest aspects of sybol/sign recognition.

The type and layout may need to be refined, but this is a real book, about real design--not just another portfolio piece by some design firm/publisher coalition that makes glossy books.

I have been a professional designer for a few years without having gone to design school. This is one of the most valuable books I used to gain the knowledge I use in my profession.

This book contains a wealth of information on the history and evolution of symbols. And it has the widest range and depth of symbols and their variations. With my degree in neuroscience and psychology, I also appreciated the insights and reminders about the deepest aspects of sybol/sign recognition.

The type and layout may need to be refined, but this is a real book, about real design--not just another portfolio piece by some design firm/publisher coalition that makes glossy books.

I have been a professional designer for a few years without having gone to design school. This is one of the most valuable books I used to gain the knowledge I use in my profession.

This has to be one of the greatest design books ever written.

Signs and Symbols: their design and meaning is a rare book in the realm of graphic design texts. It is one of the few that I have ever read that offers an expert practitioner's meditations and speculations on the roots of the visual symbol.
It is also about the only graphic design book with which I have ever found it worthwhile to argue. In the early 1920's Paul Renner laid out fourteen rules for typography, the first of which is that non-conformation to the rules is acceptable as long as they are considered. Frutiger's book is similar in that he doesn't offer formulae or recipes. Instead, Frutiger posits first causes-some of which I disagree with-and builds an argument for intelligent understanding and practice, something virtually absent from the discussion of all applied design. This book provides a singular contribution by a world renowned practitioner of the discipline of a personal, highly informed perspective of the origins and visual parameters of written language.

A book all about form: the essence of design. This is definitely something every real designer should read at least once and by the time I finish it I'll probably have learned as much about typography/design/marks/form as a year's worth of my design program.

The Spectrum series is a collection of contemporary and fantastic art illustrations. I recommend it to anyone looking for discovering interesting work and contemporary artists. The work ranges from cover illustrations, paintings, sculptures to some toys, action figures and graphic novel work. The selection is usually very well done. I think the sculpture section is not as good as the graphic and painting area.

It is interesting to notice in the volume 10 the diversity of techniques presented. There are some pure digital art, but most of it is made of traditional media, or a mix with digital tools and some other technique. I imagine that the next volumes will gradually include some more digital art. From this series I ended up finding some artists I looked for entire work monographs like the sci-fi ilustrator Stephan Martinieri.

This is a wonderful book and I would recommend this to anyone interested in sci-fi/fantasy art. This book is even better than it's predessesors also. I think anyone who enjoyed the other spectrum books will enjoy this.

I recently purchased Spectrum 9, 10, and 11. These books are absolutely wonderful, and I would recommend them to any artist or fan of fantasy/sci fi art. They are extremely well put together, of high quality (reproduction wise), have a large number and variety of artists, and contain some of the most beautiful works of art I have seen. Some of the subject matter can be disturbing or somewhat sexual in nature (certainly nothing explicit, but not exactly innocent either), so I wouldn't recomend them for the very young (12 or under?) if you are a parent. These books are worth every penny and highly recommended.

I've been picking up the Spectrum collections since # 7 and I've notice an improvement both in quality and variety in the artwork presented.Within its 176 pages you'll find 300 plus reproductions. The book is divided into seven sections displaying work from advertising, book, comics, dimensional, editorial, institutional and unpublished sources.A cornucopia of styles and approaches grace SPECTRUM 10's pages. From the photo(sur)realism of Paul Bonner's watercolors portraying Orks and Minotaur to Kinuko Y. Craft's Pre-Raphaelite inspired BEAUTY AND THE BEAST to Brom's patented creepy/sexy gothic leather bound babes to Peter d Seve's delightful character studies in pencil for Disney Studios' Treasure Planet you'll find an eclectic cross section of SF/fantasy/horror illustrators working today. Jon joster (winner of the Gold Award in the comics' category) is my favorite here with his retro robots and expressive compositions.Only one thing irritates me in this book, and the only reason I gave 4 stars out of 5: these are the resin statuettes of comic book characters found in the "dimensional" section. These kitsch saturated figurines have no other purpose than to serve as "must haves" for pathological collectoholics and slightly mar this book for me. (Sorry about the soapbox spiel-guess I'm now assured of getting a good number of "I did not find this review helpful" votes.)Dispite this one caveat I highly recommend this beautiful book to anyone who appreciates fine illustration.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy artists have always seemed like illustration's poor step-children, often ignored (and sometimes sneered at) while the historical and Western painters wore the mantel of respectability. Thank goodness Spectrum came along to point out to the naysayers that Art is Art and that the practitioners of "fantastic" art are as gifted as anyone working today (if not better).

Spectrum 10 is chocked-full of beautiful and imaginative work by veterans and fresh faces alike. Personal favorites include the previously unpublished gallery paintings by jillion-times-Hugo-winner Michael Whelan, the Expressionist-flavored space ships by John Berkey, the monsterously proportioned toy robots by Eric Joyner, and the fantasy scenarios of Paul Bonner. There's art for films, paintings for books, sculptures (which I personally enjoy seeing), and work from comics; serious, mature pieces followed by wonderfully whacky and whimisical images. There's really something for everyone. It's fun to go through the book and compare the judges' selection of award-winners in each category with what *I* think should have won.

And thank goodness someone has finally acknowledged Michael Kaluta (#10's Grand Master Award recipient) as one of the most worthwhile illustrators working today. Kudos to the Spectrum Board!

About the only downsides are the occasional typos and several pages with cramped lay-outs, but all-in-all a must-have book for anyone with an imagination--and at a bargain price at that!

This book is a must have for anyone who is a fan of refreshing and exciting contemporary fantastic art.
Underwood publishing has made many outstanding tomes pertaining to the subjects of artist of substantial merit. But in my opinion The Spectrum editions are superior examples of just how diverse and penetrating artist of this kind really are. Cathy and Arnie Fenner are two of the most knowledgeable and humble, editor fan collectors in the world. They have a deep understanding of what makes a good presentation of this genre and roots that go extremely deep into Science Fiction and Fantasy. I bought this book with idea of trying to step closer to completion, but what I found was another assault on my senses, and a interesting realization that most of the work inside was pre-digital. My how times have changed, I thought. There are some very profound differences in this the 2nd volume, that I think anyone who has read drooled and loved over the years will enjoy. Go get it!! And if you want to here some incredible insight into what it take s to put it all together, check this interview out they did with us on SiDEBAR.
http://www.sidebarnation.com/my_weblog/2008/10/ep-69-labor-of.html

The only one I missed (because of moving to the Netherlands). Happy to see a reprint finally of this book. The series is complete now (until next issue arrives of course). Every annual has been worth it and this one's no exception, even after 12 years!

This book with it's supurb collection of fantastic art comes to us reprinted from the 1995 edition of the same name. Here are 200 plus color illustrations from that era and cover the range from magazine covers, book dust jackets, or in many cases the book itself. Here are art works to illustrate stories or advertisements.

Spectrum 2 has been long out of print, after all, Spectrum 13 should be in your book store soon, and Spectrum 14's entry forms are now available. Each issue of the annual tends to go out of print fairly quickly, and I suspect this reprint will also. If interested, I suggest ordering your copy fairly quickly.

The mission of the organization is 'To promote the fantastic arts and provide an annual showcase for contemporary artists.' They have done a supurb job, not only with the annuals, but with museum exhibits and exhibits at shows around the country.

I have collected all but 1 of this great series and would have to say that this was probably my least favourite. My main issue is the lay out, with the size of a lot of the pictures being too small with lots of white space around them. I suppose it was only the second one in the series and they rectified this in later versions.

That said, it still have some great art in it and I would recommend it to anyone interested in sci-fi art

Over 134 pages of full color glossy fantasy and sci fi artwork. The same high quality selection as the other spectrum series books. Has a digital work of "death" (Neil Gaiman's story character) and many popular book cover artists throughout.

This book arrived in great shape (better than expected)and fast! I was so glad to find this book and so happy that I now own it. Thank you for the excellent service.

great book for those serious about artist bookmaking and have some prior knowledge of how things are put together.

I was pleasantly surprised. I expected a book full of bookmaking methods from a review I saw on another site but as another reviewer here points out, it strives to make the reader think first, and then, after understanding what they are trying to achieve, THEN make books. Inspirational.

This volume, rather than just providing dry (or gluey) how-to instructions on how to MAKE a book, offers readers new ways to THINK about what a book IS, how to make a book expressive beyond the reader's expectations. Smith is clearly a deep thinker, but not without a sense of humor. He is able to rip apart the structure of the book by examining our preconceptions, and he is then able to assemble a new vision of what the word BOOK means, and he is THEN able to draw on his impressive skills to actually assemble the book that serves up that vision, or to show practitioners how that can be done.

Frankly, I was blown away, first by his ideas and then when I read the copyright date. I can only imagine where he's been going since the '70s!

As a letterpress printer, as a photographer and user of alternative processes and media, I strongly recommend this piece to people who need a little shaking up, or who simply want to be amused and entertained.

I recommended this book to another artist interested in working with the book form and when I came to amazon.com to send a direct link I couldn't believe there is only one review for this book. This is a classic in thinking conceptually about the structure and sequencing of a book, as well as thinking conceptually about what a "book" is as an artifact and an artform.

Although the text is a little intuitive for linear readers at times, anyone who wants to explore the book as an artform must take a look at Keith Smith's work.

This book was a score! The fabric swatches are wonderful and Sally Queen has listed along with each type of fabric what its' uses were in the 18th century.

Sally's book is wonderful resource. The swatches of fabric are terrific to use for reference in purchasing period correct fabric. The information that accompany's each swatch is priceless to anyone that is interested in 18th century costume design. This book is also a perfect "follow-up", after attending any of Sally's seminars.

Textiles for Colonial Clothing is a good source book for anyone re-creating period clothing or who is researching period clothing. It contains a description of most types of fabric referred to in the 18th century, accompanied by a fabric sample of the cloth. This is helpful, since many of the terms used for fabric in the 18th century do not have the same meaning today. Anyone who is re-creating period clothing or who is researching period inventories should have access to this book as a reference guide.

First: the author is really serious about accuracy in reproducing textiles from historical dress, and this isn't something to pick up prior to whipping up a colonial-era dress for Halloween. Second: textile swatches are generous and encourage touchy-feely types to compare to modern textiles. Author has been working on this for a while, and has finally produced a reference guide to Georgian (aka Colonial) era fabrics, mostly those related to better women's wear but also a few worn by servants (I finally figured out what drougget is - that was really bugging me) and each swatch is on its own page, with technical information relating to that fiber type and its historical production and use, plus many have anecdotes and quotes to help create a real setting in which the textile existed. For any costumers passionate about historical recreation, or for museum curators or textile professionals, this will be the defining reference for the era. Principally refers to English and colonial American dress, which differs markedly from the rest of Europe. The author caught me fondling the sample book on display in the dealer's marketplace at the recent Costume College, and had I had the funds with me I would have bought a copy then and there, despite the fact that I am not a historical specialist. I'd recommend this book without reservation for anyone needing factual information about dress during the 1700's, from shifts to ballgowns.

This book is really useful in providing a few different views of the 'levels' of clothing worn in the 1700s (servant vs. middle class for example) as well as great swatches of modern fabrics that would be appropriate for colonial-era clothing recreations.

I absolutely love this book. It a clear favorite in my collection of Pulp and Pin-Up art!

Compiled by Douglas Ellis and an enthusiastically recommended addition to personal and academic American Popular History reference collections, Uncovered: The Hidden Art Of The Girlie Pulps is a risque presentation of the erotic art of the "girlie pulp magazines" the were published in the 1920's and 1930's. The predecessors to the "girly magazines" of today, some of these pulp magazine titles were so racy (according to the standards of the time) that they were seized in police raids. The informatively presented story of these magazines (printed and marketed simply because sex sells), is enhanced with an extensive gallery selection of full-color pin-up images and is what distinguishes Uncovered: The Hidden Art Of The Girlie Pulps as a unique book of erotica images that pushed the envelope of social mores of their era.

UNCOVERED is the kind of book that revives that old line people used to use with PLAYBOY magazine: "I don't know about you, but I just buy it for the writing." In fact, UNCOVERED is a perfect balance of pulp-magazine scholarship and wild pin-up style cover illustrations, impeccably reproduced in full color.
I've been following Douglas Ellis' work for quite a long time now, and it's always been first class. With this one, he's achieved the perfect balance of art and story, sharing the history of the '30s girlie fiction magazines and their creators with a breeziness that belies what must've been an incredible amount of research, and sharing also some of the rarest and most appealing pulp covers I've ever seen.
You don't have to know anything about pulp magazines to enjoy UNCOVERED. Anyone who enjoys classic pinup art or weird American pop culture will find this opulent book to be a great addition to his or her home library as well. Highly recommended.

This is an outstanding anthology of cover art from the depression-era "girlie pulps" by such highly worthy (and undeservedly obscure) artists as H.J. Ward, Norm Saunders, and Enoch Bolles, among many others. To the best of my knowledge there's no other great source of their work in print (especially Bolles), but they're very well served here, and very little of the work seen here is reprinted elsewhere. The text is diligent, thorough, well-written, and interesting, covering the rise and fall of the magazine niche-industry that produced these amazing visual works; it is scholarly and will be of great interest and service to students of the subject, but the broader appeal- pun intended- is in the more than four hundred color images. These are beautifully reproduced at a generous size, and on slick, high quality pages. The overall design of the book is also excellent.

I'd like to see another volume, perhaps including some of the interior art, if it's worth seeing. I've also been waiting for years for someone to do "The Art Of Enoch Bolles"- how about it, Mr. Ellis?

The author's review below is very informative and interesting, with much more information about this worthy book.

As the author of this book, I thought I'd post a brief description of it here. UNCOVERED contains over 400 pulp cover reproductions, all in full color. In addition, the history of these magazines -- their publishers, artists, writers and their struggle to survive -- is examined in 30,000 words of text, covering titles such as SPICY ADVENTURE STORIES, SAUCY MOVIE TALES, GAY PARISIENNE, VICE SQUAD DETECTIVE, LA PAREE STORIES, PARIS NIGHTS, SCARLET ADVENTURESS, SNAPPY DETECTIVE MYSTERIES and many others. Although there were many players in the field, during the 1930's it was dominated by the magazines of Harry Donenfeld, who would later go on to greater success with the company that eventually became DC Comics. Over 100 different titles (many very rare) are pictured, by 50 different artists -- among those artists heavily represented in the book are H.J. Ward, Earle Bergey, H.L. Parkhurst, Enoch Bolles, Peter Driben, Norman Saunders and George Quintana. Others whose work is reproduced include Gene Pressler, Zoe Mozert, Charles Wrenn, Worth Carnahan, Jack Greiner, Allen Anderson, R.A. Burley, Fred Craft, Archie Gunn, Cardwell Higgins, Seymour Marcus and Joseph Sokoli. Unlike the later pin-up magazine cover art of the 1940's and 1950's, most of this art has never been reprinted and has been hidden since its original publication. In choosing images for reproduction, I made an effort to try and avoid duplication of covers reproduced in other pulp histories. Each image was carefully scanned and cleaned, for the best reproduction possible.

I tried to do as much research as possible using period sources, such as the writer's magazines and newspapers of the time, and various books published by censorship groups. In the process, I've corrected some errors that had crept into previous pulp histories. Unlike most books of its kind, UNCOVERED is fully footnoted and indexed.

It examines in depth their war with censorship groups (particularly in New York City) which sought to shut them down, and which were often successful in causing these magazines to be banned from the newsstands and, in some instances, seized by the police as indecent and burned. These groups were ultimately successful, and though the girlie pulps burned bright for awhile, by 1940 their flame had all but been extinguished. Sold "under the counter" when first published, their art and story has remained hidden from then until now.

Though focused on the risque pulps of the day, I think that almost any fan of the pulps will find much of interest in reading UNCOVERED, as many of the publishers, writers and artists crossed over into "traditional" pulps as well. The tale of how some spicy pulp publishers continually changed company names in an effort to stiff their authors on overdue payments is, for example, also typical of some of the more mainstream pulp publishers. And contrary to popular belief, other spicy titles actually were at the top of the pulp food chain in payment rates. The spicy pulps were only one segment of the larger pulp industry that supplied reading material for a significant portion of the population during the 1920's and 1930's, but their heretofore untold story is intertwined with that of this larger industry.

First and foremost, this book has a definite audience: people who need to produce graphs for somewhat sophisticated audiences. This is not a book about producing graphs for mass marketing or other flashy arenas. While this point is implicit throughout the book, it is not often stated explicitly.

The biggest strength of this book, and what makes it worth the purchase, is Cleveland's discussion about the relationship between graphing and visual processing. We've all seen a thousand pie charts, for example, but it turns out that people are not good at visually processing pie charts. The way we process visually has implications for everything from line graph construction to color choices to deciding how to code data on XY scatter plots. Although this information does exist in other places, Cleveland brings it together concisely here. Some of the discussion can get a bit technical, however, so be warned.

This is a great first book to read to learn more about how to construct graphs, and it has enough references to point you to other sources if you feel you need more. I myself have purchased several other books about the visual representation of data (including Cleveland's other book "The Elements of Graphing Data"), but this is where I started, and the information in this book has enriched my understanding of those other books immeasurably.

Behaviour elucidation is done amazingly well. This book is even more powerful than Cleveland's "Elements of Graphing Data". Key words for what you achieve: incisive, powerful, salient behaviour eludidation. The principles of graphical perception from "Elements" are great (and themselves powerful) but this book invents and emphasizes yet more incisive visualizations. These new visualizations involve considerable computation IN SUPPORT OF CONSTRUCTING the graphs. But the GRAPHS -- and the behaviours they make manifest/salient -- are the point. As in "Elements", Cleveland is not just about the techniques as if they were rote procedure; he helps you build perspective too. This book, in a very real sense, (even explicitly so stated by Cleveland himself) is an alternative paradigm to the pervasive statistical inference paradigm. No wonder, then, that another reviewer (a Statistics student) learned so much he had never even seen before. Boy was "Visualizing" useful for a project I had on univariate data in multiple categorical groups (folding durability; 6 groups of data); Chapter 2 of "Visualizing" TRULY had me seeing things I NEVER would've otherwise. The book also guides you in the computations you need to get to the visualizations.

Goo

This book was recommended highly to me by a former university professor (and now consultant). It exceeds my expectations. The figures and acompanying explanations are very clear, as is the language throughout. Visualizing Data discusses several tools with which I was not familiar, and clarifies tools that I thought I understood (including box plots). I have taken several university statistics classes, but I believe this book would help anyone involved in displaying or interpreting data. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when your business depends on it, a well-defined plot or graph can be worth much more. Visualizing Data enables you to produce well-defined plots and graphs with confidence.

Simply the best book of its kind.

I loved this book. It is rare to have a computer book that you can read cover to cover but this is one. It is meticulously researched and written, with good questions and exercises at the end to test what you learned. The only thing I didn't understand was why there were only answers to odd questions, but it didn't really matter. Finally there were excellent online references for future learning. This is a classic.

As a Flash beginner, I found this book to be the perfect starting point: concise, clearly written, and full of practical advice for creating basic Flash animations.

Kay writes in an accessible and engaging style, walking readers through basic Flash concepts like vector graphics, the stage and timeline metaphors, up through more advanced topics like coding interactive behaviors and working with sound. Finally, he introduces readers to the basics of Actionscript, the advanced Flash programming language used to create more complex applications.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book for beginners like me who are interested in getting started with Flash.

The Web Wizard's Guide explains not only how to use Flash, but how to design with Flash. Tech-manual writers are notorious for leaving out context when describing a software interface, which makes learning most programs difficult. Kay's down-to-earth writing style simplifies the process. He uses practical, realistic examples to explain the concepts behind each menu command. He teaches you to know when to use Flash, and when not to use it. Read this book to learn good Flash design and keep the product manual around simply for reference.

I am a busy Art Director/Designer who, at last, is making the necessary transition from print to the web. The Web Wizard's Guide to Flash by Michael Kay has just become my most recent bible. I just love this book and can't put it down . . . it's like having your own web wizard always at your fingertips.

Michael Kay has done a great job in presenting a lot of intimidating technical information in an accessible way. The instructions are direct and clear and the language of the text is simple and friendly--not loaded with dull or confusing tech speak. The format of the book relies on well honed step-by-step technical objectives which, when applied, give fantastic results.

Best of all, I have been able to use these lessons directly in my day to day layout and design process. After working through this book, my web pages are now alive with animated motion and pizzazz, finally breaking me out of the amateur design crowd!

I highly recommend this text as a must read for any web designer or student or teacher who wants to learn and apply Flash - fast - in a painless, easy-to-read-and-use format. It should also be made more available on book store shelves in general.

as a web design instructor, i've read many books on flash and i am always looking for new reference/learning material to recommend to students. this one covers all the important topics very well. from the basic screen tour up through the nitty-gritty of actionscript, this book does a fantastic job of breaking down a difficult set of topics for a beginning flash animator. i would suggest this book to someone just starting out with the program, or for a person who's self-taught and is looking for the 'correct' way to do something. definitely a good investment.

One thing I would like to clarify: Most of the films whose posters are in this book were done during the period where there was no X rating(which came in October 1968), but instead they were "adults only" films. Approximately 80% of the posters are of such films(many of which are considered lost or perhaps hidden in a basement or ???), usually companies like Something Weird video puts out these films.

There are some posters of XXX films in here(Deep Throat, Misty Beethoven, Debbie Does Dallas, a couple with John Holmes), but I would have liked to see more of those, hence my rating goes down a notch. I still recommend this book. (The most interesting poster to me was an "adults only" film with cowboy star Lash LaRue--I hope this film surfaces someday.)

Over 150 adult movie posters from the 60's and 70's are inside, all of them full page and almost every one in color too! Classic taboo fare like "Debbie Does Dallas" and "The Opening of Misty Beethoven" is represented alongside such forgotten wonders as "Lust Combo", "Room and Broad" and "Assignment: Female". Some posters feature photographic images while others have very nice art work that would appeal to fans of pulp paperback or magazine covers. Almost every one has a fantastic blurb designed to titillate and seduce the movie-goer into buying a ticket. As you gaze in wild wonder at each provocative image you come to realize that the posters are far more interesting than the movie could ever be! Many say things like, "A Film So Incredible You Must See It To Believe It!" I can't think of a more fitting description for this marvelous book! I wait patiently for Volume 2!

This book is to adult movie posters as Art of Rock is to music posters. The posters themselves are great, and the book is in itself a great reference guide to exploitation films of the era. These posters are not obscene by any means, and so even if you are not interested in adult films you may enjoy the posters based solely on their artistic originality and merit. They surely bespeak a more creative and exciting time in world culture. I advise listening to some good lounge music and sipping an ice-cold martini as you flip through this first-rate book. Truly, this will be a collector's item.

But I must add that I share a frustration with the other reviewers: Where is Volume II???? Once that is released and I have it on my shelf, I would like to extend my congratulations to the producers of this work: you did it right and created a valuable documentation of this aspect of 20th century social history, an interesting aspect indeed.

This book is fantastic. Nourmand and Marsh rock for compiling all these great old posters for this book. The book says it is Volume One -- is there a Volume Two yet?

Over 150 pornographic movie posters from the 60's and 70's are inside, all of them full page and almost every one in color too! Classic taboo fare like "Debbie Does Dallas" and "The Opening of Misty Beethoven" is represented alongside such forgotten wonders as "Lust Combo", "Room and Broad" and "Assignment: Female". Some posters feature nude or semi-nude photographic images while others have very nice art work that would appeal to fans of pulp paperback or magazine covers. Almost every one has a fantastic blurb designed to titillate and seduce the movie-goer into buying a ticket. As you gaze in wild wonder at each provocative image you come to realize that the posters are far more interesting than the movie could ever be! Many say things like, "A Film So Incredible You Must See It To Believe It!" I can't think of a more fitting description for this marvelous book! I wait patiently for Volume 2!