Computer Graphics Books

This text is written for photographers that want to make their images look there very best. Unlike introductory texts, Mr. Galer's book goes into the very soul of Photoshop Elements (PSE) to find hidden features that give pictures a WOW factor. Here are a few examples. In introductory text, the student is introduced to the unsharp mask filter and given some suggested settings. In Galer's text, the student is introduced to some unique masking techniques created with the high pass, and threshold filters to locate edges. He then combines that technique with paint masks and the magic erasure tool to isolate just those areas that will benefit from edge crispness. The results are stunning. Galer also has a technique for making high dynamic range (HDR) photos using some add-on layer styles that are available in the companion DVD.

A number of introductory texts concentrate on color correction and marginalize the importance of luminosity and tone. In Galer's text, there are a number of advanced techniques on levels, contrast and preserving shadow that are used to allow photos to look their best.

Speaking of the DVD, it not only contains all the images used in the lessons but many additional background photos of sky and sea and other landscapes that the user may access to enhance their own projects. Unlike many introductory books on PSE the photos are of high quality (lots of pixels) and all the lessons on the DVD are also included in the text. The lessons are quite good and Galer's English accent lends credibility and authority to his narrative.

What you won't find in the book is any serious mention of the Organizer, quick fix or photo creations (with the exception of a lesson on panoramas). In summary, this is an important book on the advanced features available in PSE that every serious student should own.

One of the best books out in the market about using Photoshop Elements 4.0 (PSE4) to edit pictures. Comes with a DVD containing pictures to practice on, and some movies to watch while the author explains a specific technique. There are some techniques included in this book that I've not seen included in any other book. Examples are clear and concise, and with accompanying pictures at each stage. Stress is on using techniques to work on pictures that will not harm the pictures or the pixels themselves. These techniques include learning all about gradients and making some for yourself that increase contrast, or using adjustment layers, and making masks to affect the contrast, learning how to get the most efficient use out of the levels settings, among other things. Take part of a gradient sample in PSE4 and use it to create beams of light coming out of a storm cloud! Great book. This book teaches you how to work on pictures with many different techniques--techniques that do the least harm to the original working photo--techniques that allow you to take care of small subtle details that are usually ignored, but that make your work more believable. Highly recommended.

Of all the tutorial manuals I have on Photoshop Elements I think this one is the best. While not exactly at a beginner level, it can still be of value to a novice. The great thing is that it pretty much avoids the 'first face the stove' approach that most all books of this nature feel required to do. The lessons on color correction and turning a color photo into black and white are particularly great!

This outstanding book provides many step by step instructions for editing photos with photoshop elements. Along with common instructions such as croping as straightening photos it includes blurring backgrounds and the use of masks for special effects.
Everything is made simple. Have a problem recreating the effects in the book? Simply view one of the included movies and watch the author perform the functions step by step. This included movie feature is GREAT!
Watch to movie and you should be able to find a step that you omitted when using the book. Useful content, well written, included DVD for chapter movies. The complete book for anyone wishing to enhance their photos.

I have completed several Photoshop course books and found all of them to be very good and useful. So I had a reasonable knowledge base when I discovered this book. I found that in this book, the author has covered the most useful Photoshop examples yet. The text and video projects complement each other perfectly and are seamless. Not only does the author explain every step of the project, but he also does the most important thing: he tells you why he is doing it. This book has propelled my knowledge of Photoshop Elements 4.0 to a very high competent professional level. I cannot express my absolute delight with my new skills.

This book covers everything you need to know to write a ray tracer with
advanced features like photon mapping, volume scattering, path tracing,
etc. The scope of the material it covers is stunning. It starts from the
basics of topics like 3D geometry and ray/object intersections and then
builds up to explain reflection models, advanced texturing techniques, and
then light transport algorithms.

It has excellent discussions of the theory and underlying math of physical
rendering blended (rather well) with very very useful practical
implementations of the theory. The leap from theory to implementation is
often difficult to do, and to do well or efficiently even more difficult.
(The ray acceleration code alone is worth it's weight in gold.) This is an
indispensable book for anyone who wants to write their own ray tracer or
learn more about the latest techniques used in photorealistic rendering.

This book mixes detailed algorithm descriptions with actual code in a book that never loses sight of the "big picture" of physically based ray tracing and image synthesis. Although it is very well written and is not a dry academic book at all, it would help if the reader is already familiar with basic computer graphic techniques, linear algebra, calculus, and optics in order to get the most out of this book. It was never meant to be a replacement for Foley & Van Dam's classic book on computer graphics, even though the first few chapters go over basic computer graphic material. The book includes a website where the source code of the authors' renderer can be downloaded. This code is very well organized and commented so that if you wish to lift individual pieces from the entire software package you can with just a little bit of work. I highly recommend this book to the programmer who wishes to implement physically based rendering in his/her own code or wants to know about the practical implementation of image synthesis techniques. Amazon does not show any details about the book here, so I shall explain the contents in the context of the table of contents:
CHAPTER 01. INTRODUCTION
This chapter talks briefly about all kinds of topics related to ray tracing. It also talks about how to understand the code in the book and the book website.
CHAPTER 02. GEOMETRY AND TRANSFORMATIONS
This chapter is pretty basic computer graphics stuff. It talks about coordinate systems, vectors, arithmetic, scaling, dot and cross products,etc. Applying transformations via matrices is also discussed as well as the representation of points, vectors, normals, rays, and bounding boxes.
CHAPTER 03. SHAPES
More basic computer graphics continues with discussions on spheres, differential geometry, cylinders, and disks, paraboloids, triangles and meshes, and the representation and bounding of all of these shapes.
CHAPTER 04. PRIMITIVES AND INTERSECTION ACCELERATION
This chapter is about accelerating the speed of your graphics through grid acceleration, tree construction and representation, and object instantiation.
CHAPTER 05. COLOR AND RADIOMETRY
XYZ color system is discussed along with radiometric integrals including integrals over projected solid angles, integrals over spherical coordinates, and integrals over area. Beginning in this chapter the math becomes more advanced.
CHAPTER 06. CAMERA MODELS
Projective camera models are discussed along with orthographic, perspective, and environment camera models. This information will already be familiar to students of computer vision.
CHAPTER 07. SAMPLING AND RECONSTRUCTION
Frequency domain techniques are discussed starting with the Fourier transform and ideal sampling and reconstruction. Also, antialiasing techniques are explained.
CHAPTER 08. FILM AND THE IMAGING PIPELINE
This chapter talks about topics such as luminance, photometry, bloom, and imaging pipeline stages.
CHAPTER 09. REFLECTION MODELS
The various reflection models are discussed including specular, Fresnel, Lambertian, Oren-Nayer disfuse reflection, and the Lafortune model.
CHAPTER 10. MATERIALS
Matte, plastic, bump mapping, and other material effects are explained very well.
CHAPTER 11. TEXTURE
We return to frequency models some in this chapter. The texture sampling rate, filtering functions, and mapping in spherical, cylindrical, and planar form are explained. Procedural textures are also discussed including the famous Perlin noise, marble, and windy waves.
CHAPTER 12. VOLUME SCATTERING
This chapter is considered more advanced material, and discusses volume scattering processes, absorption, emission, in and out scattering, phase functions, exponential density, and volume aggregates.
CHAPTER 13. LIGHT SOURCES
All kinds of light sources are described including point lights, spotlights, texture projection lights, distant lights, area lights, and infinite area lights.
CHAPTERS 14 and 15 both discuss Monte Carlo integration techniques including improving efficiency.
CHAPTERS 16 and 17 are about light transport. The first chapter is about surface reflection and the second is about volume rendering.
CHAPTER 18. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION includes a design retrospective, a discussion of abstraction versus reality, and design alternatives including triangles only and streaming computation.
APPENDIXES- These include sections on utilities, scene description interface, input file formats, an index of code fragments, an index of classes and their members, and finally an index of identifiers.

I do ray tracing and GI for a living. When I got started on my ray tracer I was struggling with several basic issues. Even though I tried to locate all the published material on those subject there was still significant gaps. Issues like 'how to shot photons', what about all these 'cosines'. How do you actually implement a kd-tree. I read Shirley's, Jansen's, Glassner's and Advanced Global Illumination and a lot of the older Siggraph papers. PBRT came out just in time to rescue me. It contains the only complete implementation of a photonmap.

It's strong point is a complete running GI engine. However the literate programming style used in the book meant a lot of time I cannot read a subject by itself. The use of abstract interfaces sort of force you to use the class browser to follow the logic. You pretty much have to read it from the beginning. The quality of the code contained goes beyond the usual standard of code published as examples. It contains a rather sophiscated random number generator. Its treatment of LDS plus sampling and recontruction in general is excellent. It is the only source that shows how to implement Li's algorithm to generate random rays to sample a sphere. Same goes for Malley's. Shirley and Chui's concentric sampling method is hidden in the appendix of a old Siggraph paper.

The book also has code to sample and model most of the common light sources. Which is surprisingly non-trivial.

I highly recommend this book but it does require a certain level of commitment to get the most out of this book. The chapters on sampling, ray differential, texture filtering, light transport I consider must reads for all graphics programmer even though you might not be working on ray tracing.

I cannot praise this book more than the others already have. The book is about producing high-quality images using raytracing. It basically walks you through the creation of a fully-functional raytracer, discussing all the different algorithms and techniques that are needed along the way.

It's written in the context of their particular implementation of a working raytracer, using the fweb programming/documentation system, where basically the program source and the documentation are written as one document. I've always thought this was academic nonsense as far as writing real code in a production environment, but it turns out to be an EXCELLENT way to write a book or code intended for a learning environment.

This strikes the perfect balance between explaining the theory thoroughly and showing how the ideas can be implemented in a real, functional raytracer. They avoid the trap of many other book that focus on a particular implemention, by not getting too bogged down into pecularities of their system.

The source code itself also stands out as a strong point. There are so many books out there with poorly written and unorganized code that you'd never want to read, much less try to work in. The code is well organized, and the coding style easy to read. It's one of the few books I own that contain source code where I actually read the source code and it added something to my experience. I wish everybody who wrote about programming was actually a decent programmer and not just a mathemiticion.

This book has academic rigor and but also well-written explanations. I'm still learning a lot from it. I expect to refer to it frequently over the next years as we (in the video game industry) take more concepts from raytracers and apply them to real-time graphics, as the processors get more and more powerful.

You probably should not be an absolute newbie when it comes to basic 3D math and things like vectors and basic graphics concepts before buying this book. The authors use some calculus, too, if that scares you off.

Although it is not possible here, I am fairly sure this book deserves such rating. This is truly remarkable work and is likely to become a classic text in the field of computer graphics.

It is not a survey-type book, instead of trying to describe every possible method out there, the authors have concentrated on a few selected techniques, that are not only good (modern, fast, easy to implement, etc.), but also have some pedagogical merits and can serve as a gentle introduction to the world of ray tracing and digital image synthesis. Despite focusing on selected areas, the authors managed to squeeze here in an amazing amount of material. Among other topics, this book covers: subdivision surfaces, ray-primitive intersection acceleration techniques (3D DDA and kd-tree), color and radiometry, anti-aliasing, tone mapping, physically based reflection models, texture mapping (including texture anti-aliasing using ray differentials), area lights and HDR Image Based Lighting, volume scattering and much more.

A large part of the book has been devoted to the light transport and Monte Carlo techniques. One can find there an introduction to the theory of Monte Carlo estimation (including selected methods for reducing variance and computation time, like Russian roulette, multiple importance sampling or stratified sampling) and explanation of important light transport equations (rendering and transfer equations).

Finally the authors have described (and implemented) several solutions for the rendering equation: Whitted-style recursive ray tracing, direct illumination estimation, path tracing, irradiance caching and photon mapping.

However, it is not only the vastness of the material covered in this book, that causes this volume should be praised so highly. Perhaps, the style, in which this book has been written, is even more impressive. For each of the topics, the authors start with what is usually known as "dry math and theory", and then show how it is supposed to work as an algorithm (including its dirty details) and finally they explain how to turn this algorithm into C++ code. Each of those transitions concentrates on a small portion of the problem, so it is still easy to understand. Anyone, who had to turn a SIGGRAPH paper into something that works, will immediately recognize what kind of gem this book is - it actually shows how to do it!

This brilliant blend of theory and practice is one of its brightest spots, for learning the theory and math formulas is one thing, but writing a working, robust implementation is completely another.

Those, who prefer studying sources, will get source code of a very good, physically based, extensible ray tracer (called pbrt) with the best documentation one could ever imagine. Documentation that gives the rationale for almost every line of code. It shows not only how they did it, but also why they did it that way.

It is not the only book, that one will ever need - computer graphics is a vast topic - too big to be covered in a single volume, even as huge as this one. However, it is certainly one of the books that everyone interested in photorealistic rendering should buy. The price of this book is really low, if you think about it as of an excellent, first-rate computer graphics course.

Aimed at students, researchers and people interested in computer graphics algorithms, it is an indispensable book for anyone willing to write his own photorealistic (not necessarily physically based!) ray tracer and learn more about computer image synthesis.

I have all RenderMan books on the market.
This one is impressed me!
The authors explain step by step and that make readers understand RenderMan more.

Same as other reviews, lacking of CD is the shame.
However, overall still be very good to me.
And if you consider the price is very worth for money.
That's why I think this book should be given 5 stars.
Hopefully, There will be more good RenderMan books available soon.

Tee

The RenderMan Shading Language Guide is an excellent resource. It contains numerous examples of shader code, to help get you started with writing your own shaders. I was happy to see the robust section on illumination models, with some sl code provided for most of them. I found the section that had common functions (like gamma() and remap()) very helpful, and appreciated the disscussion on more sophisticated components of the shading language (like subsurface scattering and global illumination). In addition, for the user who is new to the process of writing and compiling shaders, a number of pages are devoted to explaining how to achieve these goals. All in all, I would highly recommend this book to any user who wants to learn how to write his/her own RenderMan shaders.

I caught wind that this book was coming out well before it actually came out and could hardly contain my excitement. I had it ordered before it was even off the press.

Let's face it, trying to learn Renderman online is like trying to ride a bike with a flat tire. You can go, but not very fast or very far. I own several other renderman books but found them to be a bit out of date and lacking in areas. Since leaving school and entering into the industry I had actually been considering writing a Renderman book myself. I am glad to say that now I don't have to!

I have been enjoying my copy of the book since december of last year. I admit that I was thrown off by all the refrences to the accompanying cd, as well as a few typos throughout. I was overjoyed however to find the website today! This is the book that I have needed for a long time. It is well worth what you pay for it.

I have read many technical manuals relating to the 3D Animation and Visual Effects industries, and I can honestly say that this is easily one of the best available.

Given the limited library of Renderman books, I'd call this an absolute must have for any Lighting/Rendering/Shader TD, or any artist or technical director involved in the look development and shot finaling pipelines.

Even if you haven't yet worked within a Renderman pipeline, this is the perfect publication to introduce you to, and bring you up to speed in, the Renderman Shading Language (RSL).

I've found that the majority of technical manuals suffer from a number of common flaws:

1. The information is presented chaotically, and with minimal use of examples or descriptions, resulting in a publication that would readable only by those that already know everything it has to teach.

2. The information is presented so laboriously that what should take a paragraph instead takes up three chapters.

The Renderman Shading Language Guide is perfectly paced for beginners and intermediate users alike, and indeed when I showed the book to a couple of highly experienced Renderman TDs, they were surprised by the sheer volume of information and ordered copies for themselves.

Everything is presented in short blocks with an easily readable description, examples, shortcuts and conclusions. There is no unecessarily complicated geek speek, and neither is the reader treated like a 4 year old.

Even though I barely remember my high school math, and in the most flattering estimation I'd be considered a competent beginner when it comes to the math involved in RSL, I found the examples relatively easy to follow for the most part. And in those parts where the math went well over my head, I found the simple descriptions and concise, well explained instructions to be all I needed to quickly understand the topic.

From cover to cover this book is crammed full of useful information. There is no wastage of space in these pages. It seems that every conceivable question is answered - every possible topic covered from introduction to an advanced level of understanding and a practical and immmediately useful conclusion.

And at the price? This book is a steal.

One very minor complaint I would make is in regards to the occasional typographical error. An equation or two is printed with "?" in place of "*" or another symbol, and there are a few spelling and grammatical errors. But as I said, it is a minor complaint.

Also, I would have liked to have seen more complete shader examples demonstrated in a step-by-step process, as while this book is overflowing with informative mini-tutorials, it all seems a little incongruous. It would have been good to see a few more examples where the information was brought together in real-world ways to create some amazing completed shaders. Perhaps in a sequel? ;)

All in all, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, from an industry Lead Lighting TD.

9.5/10

I'm quite pleased with the depth of this book. So many of the CGI titles I've bought that claim to be intermediate or advanced aren't. While the RenderMan Shading Language Guide assumes that you have no starting knowledge of RSL, it immediately dives into technical details without overwhelming the novice. For someone wishing to learn RSL (or even just shader theory), this book is wonderfully paced, containing a great depth of information, very well explained.

At the same time, this isn't a book for dabblers. To get much out of the RenderMan Shading Language Guide, you need to be willing to put some effort and practice into it. This is a textbook and needs to be treated as a subject of study, rather than a casual enhancement for playing with CGI. If RenderMan intrigues you, but you don't want to get too deep into the technical (and programing/scripting) aspects, you'd be better off getting Pixar's RenderMan for Maya and a Digital Tutors or similar training DVD. You'll learn more of the simple, day-to-day things and get started making renderings faster.

As another poster mentioned, the text mentions an included disk which isn't. The website doesn't have downloads either. That omission would knock the book down to 4.5 stars, but since I can't rate with half-stars, 5 stars more accurately reflects the value of the book than 4.

What an absolutely awesome book! Mr. Kohler did a wonderful job. I love this book and recommend it to everyone interested in retro gaming. It is packed full of useful and insiteful information. To top it all off, the book is in a fun, easy-to-read and enjoyable format. I can't recommend it enough.

I hope Mr. Kohler does a revised and updated edition of this book. The information in it is too good to be allowed to just fade away. I'll definately buy an updated copy.

Just one comment to the author Chris Kohler should he read this review: How about a hack about the Scot Adam's text adventure series for the section of your book on Text Adventure games? Scot Adam's was big in the early 80s.

Thanks!

A great reference for those who like to tinker with the hardware side of retro games. I found this book to be a very good reference, well thought out and very applicable to the hobby of retro gaming and will appeal to the enthusiast at all levels.

Chris Kohler's RETRO GAMING HACKS: TIPS & TOOLS FOR PLAYING THE CLASSICS tells how to emulate classic games on cell phones to computers, how to locate vintage game hardware, how to convert gaming tools, and how to write your own retro-style games in various programs. From playing old games on original hardware or making conversions, RETRO GAMING HACKS is for avid gamers who want to tweak the experience.

Some of these 'hacks' I knew about, many i did not. But every 'hack' in here offered some level of detail that made my retro gaming experience just that much better.

The bulk of the hacks are focused on emulators - how to get them, how to use them, etc. Which means that you will be Retro-gaming on your PC. Before I nabbed this book, I thought that would be a slightly less than awesome experience. Mainly because the controls leave a lot to be desired (who wants to use a keyboard to play Satan's Hollow.) But thanks to one of the hacks, I now know where to go to get retro game controllers that fit right into your PC.

While retro-gaming on the PC is the the focus of the book, it by no means describes all the content. There is tunds of cruncy goodness in here on obtaining old platforms and cartridges, to hacking your old cartidges / games into your modern platform.

All in all a joy to read, and even more fun to implement. Pick it up! Its a good 'un.

Are you an avid game player, programmer or video game journalist? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Chris Kohler, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that shows you everything you need to know to get your retro game on.

Kohler, begins by showing you how to play the real thing, setting up classic game systems, fixing broken hardware, and getting good deals on buying games. Then, the author covers new hardware and software that plays old games, whether on an all-in-one joystick or on the PalyStation 2. He continues by covering MAME from all the angles, learning how to play classic arcade games on the PC and other platforms. Next, the author shows you how to play classic console games. Then, the author brings back those classic computers, showing you how to set them up or emulate them. He also shows you how to play with text adventures. Then, he shows you how to get DOS games to work properly under modern operating systems, or even get DOS up and running again. The author continues by showing you how to play at game design. Finally, the author shows you how to hack around inside games, exploring glitches and bugs to your advantage.

The author of this most excellent book shows you how to emulate classic games on everything from cell phones to computers. More importantly, after reading this book, you will have everything you need to have to rediscover classic games in style.

This is a great general resource for learning to use and program Director MX. I beleive the title is misleading, however, because it is not the only book you will ever need and because it is not just about using Director MX, it is about programming with Lingo as well.

Two things I like about this book are the coverage of Multiuser programming and networking. One thing I did not like that much was the slim coverage of 3D programming; nevertheless, for a general Director book, it is great and pretty easy to understand and follow.

The book covers all the software functions and almost all the lingo functions exists.
The code sources are good and clear, and the language the book written is clear to read and understand for none English native.

Thanks for this book!

I hope adobe will not kill director...

This is a great book on your way to understanding Director. Its a well designed and not too hard to follow book.

This is a great reference book - the author says it is not really meant to be read all the way through and it is described as not for beginners, but I think any Director user except perhaps the most advanced could benefit from this book either as a reference or complete read or both. I especially like all of the side notes scattered throughout the book, plus the troubleshooting and Did You Know? sections at the end of each chapter. His descriptions of some components of Lingo were the first I've read that I really understood. He also includes 7 bonus chapters and a Lingo reference on the CD! This book is packed with info, and even though it is now one version of Director behind the current one, I still recommend having it on your reference shelf. If you really use Director for either work or play, you won't regret it!

I really don't have to get into detail. This is the book you want to have when you need something to go back on and read. This is the 1st book that helped me the most i only used 4 books but this one was the one that made me go back and read up again and me as a person that hates to read, I learn a ton of stuff from this very book. I'm telling you right now no one here can tell you all the details this one book has but if you pick it up and read it you will see for your self that this book is worth more then it cost. He even has a mixure of games inside the cd its crazy. This book chills in my back pack when i need some lingo codes and which im back in director for the 3d field im just useing it to bring back the old codes which this book holds. All i can tell you is that this is a great book for director and perhaps one of the best i have encounter you won't regrate it trust me on that.

A very broad book on design, the content is insightful and thorough. The best part of this book is the timeline. I was especially inspired by the last entry. Why is the letter "i" upside down on the cover?

quite possibly the finest book i have ever been in the preface of

TYPE IN USE by Alex White transcends the trendy DTP "how-to" bookshelf with the real story on how to craft truly fine pages of typography! The first edition was the top selection for publication designers in The Designers' Bookshelf of The Design Center, but has been out of print for more than two years. Now this important work is back, and the editors at graphic-design.com agree -- Type In Use is the essential book for anyone who wants to really understand how to make typography do what it's supposed to do! . . . Alex writes: "Our job [as designers] is to compose elements to make them maximally interesting and comprehensible. 'Maximally interesting' does NOT mean 'Hey, Wow! Pop! Zoom!' It means revealing the content of the story instantly and efficiently." . . . Type In Use will train you how to accomplish that goal. You'll know where to put type on the page, and how to put it there. But unlike any other book in the past 25 years... Type In Use will tell you WHY! If your goal is persuasive, successful publishing, don't wait for this one to go out of print too... just click up there and buy it NOW. You will be very glad you did.

As a newbie to typography, I found "Type in Use" to be an excellent introduction to the field. It's written in a clear and concise manner; though it's straightforward and easy to understand, I didn't feel as though the information was watered down, either.

At least half of the book consists of pictorial examples, which serve to illustrate the principles laid forth in the text. There's also a good deal of "white space," which demonstrates White's ability to practice what he preaches. As a result, the book isn't too heavy on actual text. Nonetheless, White has an envious ability to express himself succinctly, efficiently, and in as few words as possible - so the lack of actual reading doesn't pose a problem.

The book's divided into twelve chapters, with one each focusing on the following topics: text; headlines; subheads; breakouts; captions; department headings; covers; contents; bylines and bios; folios and font lines; web typography; and the history of type. White begins each chapter with a discussion of the fundamentals, and then turns to real-life examples to help illustrate his points. A short paragraph accompanies each picture, and all are arranged in an organized, pleasing manner.

I only have two issues with "Type in Use." The text which sits alongside the examples is printed in red as opposed to black (black is the color of the introductory text). I'm not sure if my copy of the book was flawed, or if this is a universal problem, but the red type on some pages appeared to be smudged and smeared, making it difficult to read. Even on those pages without blemishes, I found that the red type strained my eyes; there's just so much red that it becomes distracting.

Also, I was happy to see that White included a chapter on Web typography, but I would have been happier had the discussion been more in-depth. The final chapter, "The History of Type in Use," was wholly unnecessary and didn't contribute much to the overall discourse; White's readers would have been better served had be omitted chapter 12 and extended his discussion of the Internet. I realize that the book was written in 1992 and revised in 1999 - and six years may as well be six eons in "tech time" - but the Web chapter struck me as very out-of-date. For example, I had to smirk when he announced that Photoshop 5.0 had recently introduced "significant improvements" in the area of type; I don't think I even know anyone who's using a version earlier than 7.0! He also appeared to be agreeable to Flash animation, which today is so overused and abused that it has become the bane of web design.

Nonetheless, I would most definitely recommend "Type in Use" to both novices and experienced typographers alike.

- Kelly Garbato

Author, ePublisher, Web Mistress
Peedee Publishing / Hot Dog!, LLC

As a web designer, I always found adding typographical elements to my layout to be the hardest part. I would create a great looking page only to ruin it with a weak looking headline or inappropriately selected font settings.

I've looked for a good book to teach me typographical basics and decided to try Type In Use, even though it is geared toward print.

I have to say I've been extremely satisfied with my choice and have noticed a great improvement in my designs. The greatest proof of the change in me is how I began to look at the design of the book itself differently, analyzing it and seeing how Alex White practices what he preaches.

In each chapter, Alex begins by explaining a different part of the printed page and then showing and analyzing real world examples. There are chapters about text, headlines, subheads, breakouts, captions, department headings and more. This may sound a bit boring (devoting an entire chapter to captions?) but Alex manages to keep it all very readable with plenty of inspiring examples.

I've found this book to also be a great source of inspiration to my work after I finished reading it and I come back to it whenever working with any kind of type, online or offline.

The only weak point I found in this book is the chapter about Web Typography. I don't know if Alex aimed this chapter at people with no web experience at all or at web designers who want to learn typography on the web but he failed either way. The entire chapter in nothing more then a series of facts (some of them plain wrong) about writing HTML, designing sites, file formats, etc. Feel free to skip this chapter, the rest is gold.

I Thought I know how to work with Photoshop, but after I read this book I discovered that I didn't. This book was extermely helpful to me in building web site graphics, and has introudced me to many different techniques that I used in to build the effects that I need in short time; Everyone was amazed, and so was I. Most of the Books has very boring and useless Intrduction, this book doesn't. It was very useful to me ( I confess I was about to skip the first two chapters , but the writer urged the readers not to).

Although this book is useful, I was able to get all the techniques it offered in less that three days !

If you know your way well in Photoshop, don't buy this book. If you are a confused designer; you see these amazing designs and wonder How did they do it ?, then buy this book, and the best of luck.

I've been using Photoshop for years, but only recently for web graphics. This book totally opened my eyes to things I never knew it could do! I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get more out of Photoshop. It's written clearly, even though it has too many typos, and gets right to the point.

This book is simply great for an amateur photoshop 5 user. I know what I'm doing, but I wouldn't consider my a pro. However, with the aid of this book, I can create graphics for my web site just like a professional. This book is invaluable as a learning tool and as a reference.

I have only scratched the surface of Photoshop. The directions in this book are very clear, and easy to follow. Even for me who jumped right into the middle of the book. It's set up in a logical learning sequence and covers EVERYTHING for someone wanting to use Photoshop for their webpages. I admit, it was an impulse buy for me, but it has been worth every cent.

I Thought I know how to work with Photoshop, but after I read this book I discovered that I didn't. This book was extermely helpful to me in building web site graphics, and has introudced me to many different techniques that I used in to build the effects that I need in short time; Everyone was amazed, and so was I.

Most of the Books has very boring and useless Intrduction, this book doesn't. It was very useful to me ( I confess I was about to skip the first two chapters , but the writer urged the readers not to).

Although this book is useful, I was able to get all the techniques it offered in less that three days !

If you know your way well in Photoshop, don't buy this book. If you are a confused designer; you see these amazing designs and wonder How did they do it ?, then buy this book, and the best of luck.

In a world flooded with basic introductory books on major 3D packages (cough*Maya*cough), Scott Spencer's 'ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Sculpting Techniques', while quite a mouthful is a breath of fresh air. This is not a book that focuses on a pure beginner. Understanding the concepts of a 3D environment and mild experience with ZBrush are huge advantages in getting the most out of this book. That is not to say this book is not accessible to those who are not proficient in ZBrush. It covers many of the basic concepts, but covers them in such depth, that it would be easily overwhelming to a beginner.
The book begins by explaining the relationship to traditional sculpting techniques, to those applied while digital sculpting in ZBrush. This is one of the great strengths of the book. It covers not only the technical aspects of ZBrush, but also the artistic, the true driving force and advantage of ZBrush. From this initial chapter, you will then be lectured on such topics as; Sculpting Techniques, Detailing, PolyPainting, ZSpheres, and Displacement mapping, among many, many other topics I will let you discover for yourself.
Another great strength of this book is the mini-tutorials from various other artists that are added into the already information-packed pages. Contributing artists include; Cesar Dacol, Ian Joyner, Jim McPherson, Zach Petroc, Alex Alvarez, Ryan Kingslien, and Fabian Loing. Having all of these different techniques and perspectives on the art of digital sculpting, adds a lot of knowledge and expertise to this book.
I cannot say enough towards the value of this book. It is hands down the best ZBrush resource available in print as of this time. I hope that Scott and company with continue to share their extensive knowledge of the arts and of technology with the digital art community.

I would recommened this book to anyone looking to advance their digital sculpting skills further, regardless if youre a beginner, intermediate or expert. This is a very thick and heavy book with some great tips, tons of which I had no idea you could do. The included cd has a bunch of lessons and video clips to help illustrate processes, along with the great pictures in the book.
Finally Zsphere hands were explained and demonstrated easily!

Very useful, and gives you a breakdown of traditional form to digital which is a must. The tutorials are helpful as well. But overall great book if you want to understand form and gesture, he also explains the interface of Zbrush and why the menus are organized the way they are.
Buy this book.

A great book with a wealth of production proven information!

Scott approaches topics from both traditional and digital stand point. The book is packed with info covering just about any topic the aspiring or experienced Zbrush artist could ask for. The additional information included from other professionals really completes a great book.

The trial and error time that this book will save is enormous - highly recommended!

A truly incredible book, written by a master of both traditional and digital character sculpture. This book contains lessons that go beyond the software drawing on Scott's experience in the industry and artistic and anatomical training. I've studied with Scott personally over the past few years and I've gained a great deal from his teaching. ZBrush Character Creation encapsulates his own style and ability as a teacher and includes many extras submitted by the best Zbrush artists in the world. This book is intended for intermediate users, Scott goes through the basics of the software very quickly so this is not recommended for people who are new to the software. If you know enough to get around the interface and create a simple figure then your ready for Scott's book.

So far so good. Realy well laid out. Just starting to explore it

I purchased this book to learn the basics of autocad map... a very similar program. The book is very easy to follow and detailed. Sykes does a great job of explaining all the autocad jargon and the step-by-step projects are perfect for becoming familiar with autocad tools. I haven't made it through the entire book yet, but I selectively read the chapters I needed to get me going within about 8hrs. Not too bad. Be sure to get the CD with the book as well as the reference card. I wished there would have been more info on how to layout the drawing for print and how to insert legends, scale, etc. but I suppose that is what the advanced book is for.
Overall, a very user friendly book if you want to become familiar with a not-so user friendly program. I look forward to purchasing the advanced book.

Pura vida.

For a student this book is the best. The step by step approach is excellent. I like the graphics and the pictures of what the screen looks like when I do the commands. Easy to follow and Sykes takes a difficult lesson and make it easy to understand.

This book is excellent! The step by step procedure, clear detailed graphics and the multimedia CD are all linked to each other which allow reader of any level to understand AutoCAD without any difficulty.

This is truly a step by step approach. It starts with the fundamentals. The progression from basics to advanced is very orderly. I have used this book to learn AutoCAD 2000 and now I highly recommend it as a text or a reference. I reach for this book when I need information or help with a command or sequence of commands that I have forgotten. The examples and exercises develop real understanding.

Photoshop CS3 is a very "deep" application, and I think that this book can be an excellent resource for virtually any CS3 user (especially those who classify themselves as intermediate users of Photoshop). The author does not assume that you have already read a user manual or other book. He covers in detail many of the tools in detail that are frequently used to color correct, mask and composite images, and do many other common tasks. "Hints" and "Notes" can be found throughout the book in small green boxes, and I found them very helpful. For example, in Chapter 10, the author explains in a Hint box how to apply sharpening settings from one image to a batch of images in Bridge.

Weinrebe supports his lessons with good screen shots throughout the book. Just a small selection of the tools that he covers very well (in a step-by-step fashion) are the Healing Brush, Lens Correction tool, History Brush, the Bridge and Camera Raw (including a suggested Bridge/Camera Raw Workflow), tinting with a color layer, batch renaming, converting to DNG, creating contact sheets, creating panoramas with Photomerge, and actions.

One of the most interesting parts of the book are the artist interviews. These Q&A sessions with such luminaries as John Paul Caponigro, R. Mac Holbert, Pedro Meyer, Graham Nash, Maggie Taylor and Joyce Tenneson generally run from about 4-7 pages and include fantastic imagery and insight about the artists' background, their art, what motivates them, and how they approach and use various technologies. I believe that this series of essays could easily be a very strong coffee table book on their own. They are a really special.

I also like the Chapter Reviews questions and Exercises at the end of each chapter, which can definitely help people to learn more about the Photoshop techniques that were covered in the chapter. Having all the exercise files on a CD in the book is also a nice feature. Also, it really helps that Weinrebe is a professional photographer who has been preparing files for clients for years. His work really shines throughout the book.

As a long time film photographer making the move to digital this book was a life saver. The step by step approach took the mystery out of photoshop.
The language was clear and the examples relevant.

The development of pigments by chemists changed the art of painting in the Renaissance. The development of film sensitivity changed the art of movie making in the 20th century. How will Photoshop and other image processing software change the art of photography?

This book provides instruction in the use of Photoshop, in an unorthodox manner. Most Photoshop books are organized along workflow lines, although a few work their way through each of the Photoshop tools and menus in order. Weinrebe follow his own order, dealing with light and shadow, curves, black and white processing, color tools and so forth before dealing with the tools used when first bringing images into Photoshop. Often a chapter introduces important techniques not related to the main one, as in the author's discussion of the use of the history brush in the chapter on curves. The author recognizes his approach is unusual, and suggests that readers go through the chapters in the order the reader needs.

The chapters include practical exercises that use images provided on an included CD.

The book recognizes the version 4.1 update to Adobe Bridge which is a component of Photoshop CS3, although I expect that the update was made available at too late a date for the author to do much exploration of its potential. (There has been a 4.2 update, but the changes seem to have improved code, without adding tools.) How else can one explain the author's dismissal of the new sharpening facility that allows for input sharpening, which is different from output sharpening?

Besides the instruction on using Photoshop, each chapter concludes with an interview with a famous photographer. Most of these photographers seem to specialize in montage, that is, the creation of pictures by combining images.

My biggest question was what happened to "the Art of Photography" mentioned in the title? Nothing in the material on technique goes further than to describe what controls and sliders create what effects on an image. No advice is presented in how to use Photoshop to create a picture that is more "artful" (whatever that means). The interviews are interesting but they don't include any information on how the artists used Photoshop to make their pictures more artful. I suspect that even Rafael received some instruction from his teachers on how to use the new pigments beyond how to apply them to canvas. Certainly, a few books on Photoshop have covered this terrain. I particularly found Rob Sheppard's "Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography with Photoshop CS2" to be useful.

I also have some small complaints about the book. The text always appeared to be one or two pages behind the related illustrations, leading to a lot of page flipping. Some instructional areas seemed to scant the tools being discussed. For example, the chapter on Adobe Bridge mentions how customizable Bridge is, but neglected to provide any details in how to do this.

Still, a photographer looking for an introduction to Photoshop will be able to get started with this book. On the other hand, those looking for a more detailed introduction might want to look at a favorite of mine, "Photoshop Artistry: For Photographers Using Photoshop CS2 and Beyond" by Barry Haynes. It doesn't cover all the changes made to Photoshop in its later versions, but it will provide an understanding of the software that may even include a little bit about injecting the artful into one's images.

the book is well worth the cost: it is well organized and presents all of the capabilities of Photoshop in a pseudo-textbook fashion that are easily understood. At the end of each of the 12 chapters, the author presents a review: questions that the reader should be able to answer and exercises covering the CS3 capabilities that had been explained in that specific chapter. Also, the author includes interviews with 12 noted creative photographers such as Maggie Taylor and Lois Greenfield.

Photoshop is incredibly feature-rich software, and frequently perceived as overwhelming. Weinrebe breaks it down into easily understandable bits while still providing useful tips for very experienced users.

And the interviews with renowned photographers add a unique element, opening - at least a little a bit - a window on their varying perspectives and workflows.

Well done. This book is a valuable addition to every photographer's reference library.