Desktop Publishing Books

An incredible source of insight and information even for a novice like me. The layout and flow makes this an easy read, interesting, and useful.
The insight is just what I was looking for. Thanks to the authors and editors. A great book!

"Thinking Animation" is a good overview and learning resource for anyone that wants to know how the magic of animation is made. It covers all the basic principles of animation, breaks them down and explains how they're used. It's not a step by step instruction manual of animation, though. If you're an animation student, no matter what the medium: hand drawn animation, flash animation, 3D animation, stop motion animation, etc, this book is an excellent 'text book' that covers just about everything.

This book is just fantastic, it was such a pleasure to read that I really hoped it would not end.

I found it different from other books on the subject as it gives you an overview about most processes in animation and helped me solidify some concepts that I was not sure about. It's not a technical book so don't expect step by step tutorials, which I think it's great as it wasn't intended to be. It's a book you can just enjoy on the couch with out trying to follow and press buttons.

I recommend this book to really any one who wants to have an inside look at the animation world, any one who really wants to get to grip with the terms and concepts of animation.

Best chapter was the one on acting as it really supplied some stellar advice and ideas.

I thought it was going to be Richard Williams's style book but it wasn't and in fact im kind of pleased. To me it's more like a book full of wise wisdom and tricks of the trade and really explains things in a clear cut way. If only I had this book when I first started out in the whole learning 3D thing 6 years ago this would have been my bible for deciphering most of the terms and understand what they really mean.

I really like the book has point of views from different people and how they approach their work. A really insightful book and helpful for people who have a 2D background and going to a 3D one, as there are so many terms in 3D that you don't find in 2D e.g. a graph editor and tweaking f curves. For those with a 3D background already I think book will help achieve more from their 3D animation.

This book would have really helped me a lot when I was do my dissertation called as it covers nearly every aspect I was talking about and would have saved me time, it was even helpful to see where Angie and Jamie had referenced there information from too.

All in all I think for some people as soon as they see too much text it might put them off as after all animators/creative are visual people. But on the other hand if your passionate enough and want to learn from the best or knowledge that's been past down from animator to animator its a worthy buy and for me its been a worthy buy - a book fully loaded with knowledge and wisdom, what more could you want, its like having the best animator sitting right next to you.

Being a professional animator, I was anxious to read this book. I finally got hold of a copy and was really impressed. The stage is set with a well researched history of the dynamically changing world of animation. Then the title theme comes into play in a very authoritative explanation of the art and craft of CG animation, with its roots in the traditional methods. What I liked was that the techniques discussed are not limited to any particular software package. A smart decision by the authors, as this book is not likely to ever go out of date. Adding spice throughout the book are anecdotes by various pros in the business, which are often quite humorous. THINKING ANIMATION is a must read for both practicing and armchair animators.

First part of the book while describing Distributed Systems, Middleware and EAI lays strong foundation for Web Services. Second part of the book provides an extensive reporting about Web Services Architecture, related standards, service composition and BPEL. Though at the outset this book looks like serving academic purpose but it also provides the great insight of the subject to the programming community.

This book is must have which draws detailed conceptual and architectural views on Distributed Systems, EAI and Web Services.

This book is a little more expensive than most of the flashy Web Services books these days but it is well worth the money. Set in small font and not wasting pages on chapters like "History of XML and SOAP" this book is dense in content on the architecture of distributed systems, including Web Services. We get to learn about the issues of distributed transactions and the differences between conversations, coordination and orchestration. The text is precise but nevertheless easy to follow. One of the best books I have seen on Web Services architecture.

You can find a sample chapter on the author's site:
http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/alonso/Web-book/Chapter-5.pdf

I am using this book for a graduate level class about Web Services. I like the books approach on giving you enough background about middle-ware evolution that makes it easier to understand what Web Services are trying to accomplish. Given that the actual technology (implementation details) change so much in this area the books approach makes a lot of sense. I also found explanations to be concise and clear.

Advice: if you are looking for a hands-on how-to book about XML this is not the book to pick up. Otherwise, if you are looking for a good fundamentals book that will help you paint a big picture of Web Services this book is great!

A very nice introductory book on Web services, much different from all the others on this topic.
Excellent overview of the problematics of service oriented architectures on the Web and of their relationships with their EAI counterparts (corba,rpc,..).

If you want comprehensive high level overview of today's enterprise software landscape, this is a must-read.

One of the best books which answers the question , Why Web Services?? Unique perspective on middlewares in general.

Do not expect any code examples or details of any particular middleware.

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.

If you know what you're doing already then this book will help you do it better. I probably picked up 25 things I'd either forgotten or never knew with this book. O'Rielly's are the best of the bunch.

I use this book absolutely every day, whether it be for doing cgi programming, javascript, html, or configuring a server. I wouldn't recommend the deluxe edition however, as it's just plain silly to read books on CDs!

I am consistently amazed at then depth and quality of Orielly's Nutshell series. Other Win 95 books costing at least twice as much don't cover even a fraction of this one. I considered myself extremely knowledgable about Win 95, but this book has taught me many new things. One example is the coverage of shell scripting in Win 95 which I haven't seen anywhere else. This book deserves to be at the side of anyone claiming to be a Windows 95 "guru". Kudos to Oreilly for both the unparalleled quality of their products and their resistance to price inflation.

It was refreshing to see a Windows 95 book that was (1) not too thick, and (2) not "For Dummies." There were 2 chapters I especially like: first, the section describing almost all of the commands for Windows 95, with command line switches! Of course most of us can't remember the switches that go with the commands. I also liked the section that explained the internals of Windows 95 (the 7 layers), because I was curious as to how Windows 95 was built, and now I have some idea.

My problem with this book (which is why I gave 4 stars) is that it has some typographical errors. To me, that's a major turnoff. (What can I say? I'm a perfectionist.) Despite this, I'm planning to buy this book (I first got it from the library), and I think anyone who knows how to use Windows 95 should get it.

I bought this book on the basis of O'Reilly's well-deserved reputation and the book's reviews here in amazon.com. Thanks for telling me about it!

I used to enjoy DOS but never really felt comfortable with Windows. Only the lack of applications for good old DOS and Win 3.1 dragged me kicking and screaming into Win 95, where I never wanted to be, and so I've actually taken up Linux, which is now my main desktop operating system.

Thanks to this book, I've begun to find Win 95 very interesting, even though Linux is still more exciting. I've been enjoying this book so much that I read it now at train stations and bus stops instead of that half-read Rushdie novel which took me a lot of effort to prise myself from last month.

Yes, this book points out a lot of Win 95 tricks that I didn't and couldn't be bothered to know existed. My friends know me as a Linux man. I can't wait to surprise them!

If you're not very knowledgeable on how to use, expand, personalize, and tweak Yahoo!, this book is for you! Author Paul Bausch, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will help you do just that, in ways you never dreamed possible.

Bausch, begins by showing you how to become a Yahoo! power searcher by taking advantage of meta keywords in order to return more relevant results. Then, he shows you some unique ways on how to use Yahoo! Web Services, including monitoring your commute for problems, watching TV schedules automatically for appearances by your favorite celebrities, and visualizing your music collection. The author continues by showing you how to use the hacks to reach out and touch someone. Next, he introduces you to the backdoor that Yahoo! has opened for developers. Then, the author shows you how people are using Yahoo! data in their own applications and have a bit of fun in the process. Finally, he shows you how to get listed and introduces you to other Yahoo! components you can plug into your site.

You can read this excellent book from cover to cover if you like, but each hack stands on its own. Here, the author intends to show you what's possible when you view Yahoo! as a platform and inspire your inner hacker to take a new look at Yahoo!.

Paul Bausch's YAHOO! HACKS: TIPS & TOOLS FOR LIVING ON THE WEB FRONTIER tells how to personalize and use Yahoo! In new ways, from using keyword shortcuts and advanced syntax to get more from search queries to customizing Yahoo! Mail, using its blogging features and file share programs, and even building applications using Yahoo! web services. Everything there is to know about customizing and tweaking Yahoo! is in this book.

This book contains a hundred hacks to get Yahoo to work the way you want it to work. These hacks include tips for getting the results you want from a Yahoo search, dealing with advertiser cookies, tracking your stocks, getting news feeds and news crawlers, using Yahoo groups, programming Yahoo using various languages including Perl, Java, PHP, and VBScript and even how to plot multiple points on map at the same time. Of course the biggest question for many people is how to get your site listed at Yahoo and there is even a tip for that. Yahoo! Hacks is a highly recommended book to anyone who uses Yahoo or wants to know how to really master it.

When Yahoo! was created in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo it was the simplest of web sites. Just a collection of web pages laid out in a simple unordered list, the entire Yahoo! web site was only a handful of pages with only a single, simple use: to list sites on the web separated out by the content they provided. Probably when someone today thinks of Yahoo! the first thing they think of is that it is a search engine. Well the 1st generation of the Yahoo! web site didn't even have that. There wasn't even a form field present, the only thing being a bunch of hyperlinks which navigated to more hyperlinks for the few sites that were in existence back in the day.

My what changes a decade brings.

When you think of the Internet today, probably the first couple of web sites that come to mind are eBay, Google, amazon and Yahoo!. It is safe to say that with thousands of employees and millions upon millions of revenue that Yahoo! is one of the greatest success stories on the web, and to think that only 10+ years ago this site was just a simple list that grew into so much more. Yahoo! has evolved to not only provide a way of searching the Internet, but it is now a portal site that provides News, Weather, Sports, Games... basically if you can think of something that you can find on the Internet then Yahoo! is a great place to go to start your web experience. There is so much to do and so many places to go when you use Yahoo! that it can become mind-boggling and that is where "Yahoo! Hacks" can be used to make your net experience the best it can be.

Providing 100 tips and tricks of how to best use Yahoo! to your advantage, Paul Bausch pulls no punches and doesn't skimp on the details. From learning how to use and customize 'My Yahoo!' to setting up and controlling your mail to setting your own personal TV listings, you can learn how to do this with this guide. From tracking your investments to created advanced searches that remember personalized settings to installing Yahoo! Messenger, you will learn the ins and outs with this book. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discussing all that Yahoo! Hacks has to offer. RSS, blogging, Calendar, sharing photos... the list goes on and on.

After reading Yahoo! Hacks you will soon feel like there is so much to offer from Yahoo! that you could do everything you needed to at one web site and never have to go anywhere else! Now with this guide you can get the most out of your Yahoo! experience and have fun while doing it.

This is what Hack books are supposed to be about!! For all Yahoo! enthusiasts out there who want to learn how to use Yahoo! to the fullest, this is the book for you!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." That quote might apply to Yahoo when you look at all the mindshare that Google has garnered of late. It's almost as if Yahoo is irrelevant and Google owns the search world. Not quite, and Paul Bausch's new book Yahoo! Hacks - Tips & Tools for Living on the Web Frontier reminded me of all the good and incredibly valuable things you can do with Yahoo...

Contents: Search; Services; Communicating; Web Services; Applications; Webmastering; Index

Like all Hacks titles, you have a number of cool tips and tricks that you can do using Yahoo as your technology starting point. In this case, there's 100 of them that cover a wide range of topics. For instance, tip #39 - Monitor Your Commute shows how Yahoo can provide updated traffic conditions overlaying a map of your driving commute. Even better, those traffic updates can be formatted in RSS and put on your My Yahoo page. I did that one right away. Tip #83 - Randomize Your Windows Desktop Background shows how, using Yahoo's web services API and some VBA code, you can create a random Windows wallpaper each day. Just hope you don't choose a search term that isn't "work safe". :) The whole Web Services chapter shows how you can access Yahoo's API using a variety of languages such as Perl, PHP, Python and a few others. Once you get the basic core structure down, you open up a whole universe of possibilities in terms of programmatic integration of Yahoo into your applications. This is really cool stuff...

I've been just as guilty as the next person of getting all "Google"-y eye'd at other search engines and forgetting the site that opened up a whole world of internet realities. Many of the things we take for granted now were ground-breaking ideas that Yahoo was pushing in the early days. Having two strong competitors in the search arena will lead to even more innovative thinking as they play off of each other. I can see how the Yahoo! Hacks title could go into multiple editions without even trying...

Excellent read with lots of code you can use immediately. If you've wandered away from Yahoo for other pastures, perhaps it's time to wander back and see what other options are out there. Yahoo Hacks will expand your thinking as to what you can do with search engines...

Although the title doesn't mention Victorian, most of these designs originate in that era. They have influences other than the typical complex Victorian fonts. But they can be effectively be used with fonts from the other Dover title "Victorian Display Fonts". Well drawn, Mac and Windows, Postscript and Truetype...and what a GREAT price!

Weirdly, these fonts are all Gothic (actually blackletter), whereas the Gothic book in this series contains some Celtic (uncial) fonts. I think that the books were probably produced at the same time and mislabeled. Nevertheless, both are well worth buying.

The fonts included in this book will surely make a nice addition to your type library. Dan Solo had a huge collection of great old and new type faces. You'll find 24 of them here. Some, you might already have, and some are so nice that I believe if you find one gem here, it makes the price worthwhile. The fonts are in both Windows True Type and Macintosh formats. The pages have the complete alphabets and a character chart. Be sure to notice the "extra characters" that are offered in some fonts.

This is an excellent collection of 24 fonts, with printed examples and indices of the special characters for Macintosh (access to Windows special characters is described in the ReadMe file). They represent a fine collection of Baroque and Gothic lettering, but very little of the material could really be called truly Celtic. Any church could spice up its documents for special occasions with this collection. The `sz' of German formal text appears in a variety of forms. Also present are many other accented letters used in various European languages but not always included in more current fonts. Try it! Use it! There is creative material here!

I find that anyone wishing to learn 3D and solid modeling should read,"3D Modeling in AutoCAD" by John E. Wilson. The book takes one from UCS positioning and rotation, to isometric projected drawings in no time. Watching your solid model drawing evolve after reading several chapters, gives one a sense of confidence. Not to mention, a better change of landing that autoCAD job.

As a 3D AutoCAD instructor, I am delighted with this book and as a textbook! My students are successfully able to 3-D model most objects, independently, without emphasis on step-by-step directions. Althrough this book provides step-by-step instructions as Chapter exercises; primarily, each Chapter explains the variety of modelling usages for surfacing and creating solids. This book guides the student with alternatives to solving 3-D modelling techniques.

An excellent reference with very thorough, easy to follow explanations and exercises. John Wilson is an exemplary instructor, laying a solid foundation, and then building onto it in a logical manner. If you have any difficulty understanding "Paper Space", for instance, read John's explanation - he makes it crystal clear.

This book by John E.Wilson provides answers for a reader at any level of expertise. It gives you clear examples of useful problems instead of dwelling on obscure ones. All options of a command are shown and explained so you really learn to use the software to full advantage. I really like the detail because I can now pick up the other areas I never understood. I especially like the chapter on rendering and applying textures. I tried some of the examples and the rendered parts look real, especially the transparent ones.

I have about half a dozen books on Photoshop and this is the "The best" book. I looked many books for interface designing, but found none, which appealed to me. Even there is only one example kind of interface (TV Example), but it covered well. This could have even batter value if the author could have explained why he is using this technique. He used many filters, but was hard for me to find out why. Overall it is an excellent book.

This is by far one of the best Photoshop books I own. For anyone who wants to get into Photoshop as a design medium, I highly recommend this. One look at the cover and you might think it's for children, but don't! You'll pick up lots of cool ideas with how-to's! Well worth the price.

This book is great for those of us who don't have time to lookup exactly how to do one simple thing in Photoshop. It allows visual learners to go through and actually use different Photoshop concepts, which is how I learn best. After going through the first 2 exercises I was able to create killer graphics in Photoshop which two hours earlier would have been impossible for me to do. Great book easy to read and follow! Buy it today! I'm in the process of redoing my webpage using photoshop graphics skillz I got from the book...

A great book for beginners to intermediate CG designers. It really opened up the various functions of Photoshop to me and the easy-to-follow steps give a perfect introduction to the Japanese style of CG art.

There are a lot of books out there that claim to be for photographers or digital photographers but Phiiip Andrews' approach to his latest book focus on the Photoshop Elements as an extension of your digital camera experence. Missing are endless pages of running reharsh of material that is well covered in the user manual. In its place you will discover well laid out explainations of the essential features in Elements that can transform interesting photos into prize winners. He could have devoted more space to Raw conversion but as a Photoshop Elements author I am aware of the cold hard facts that exteremely few Elements users actually use Raw format so any additional coverage of the topic would have been a waste of ink and paper. If you are a digital photographer that wants to move beyond the point-and-shoot world of vacation photos this is the perfect guidebook. I would be remiss if I failed to point out one major flaw in the book. While the photos in the book are beautiful, the author insists that the photos are colour. If you can overlook the fact that the author has a misguided devotion to the UK spelling of color you won't find a better book on this topic.

This book is more than just a Photoshop Elements software manual, it includes chapters on scanner and camera techniques and printing tips. Other chapters cover both basic and advanced tasks. Throughout there are sidebars with step-by-step workflows. The book is filled with color illustrations and screen shots. All versions of Elements are covered here but I'm not sure why this might be needed in an advanced book.
The arrangement of articles makes some things harder to find - for example the section about tinkering with the depth of field is in the chapter on Panoramas. Each section includes an indication of related techniques and difficulty level.
This book has to be compared to Scott Kelby's Elements 4 book. In general the Kelby book is more advanced - it includes a chapter on RAW processing for example where this Andrews book only has 2 pages. The Kelby book is better organized but it is limited to just advanced Elements procedures. If you are an intermediate user this Andrews book is probably the one you want.

The author has done an excellent job of leading you through different processes to fully use Photoshop Elements. You'll be able to understand "layers" and how to apply them without disturbing the original picture. By following the instructions, you will be surprised how adept you can be in giving photos new life (and some pretty nifty effects). After reading this book, I became a real pro with Photoshop Elements 4.0 (the version I use currently). If you buy one book to learn Elements, this is it!

I find myself wondering why manuals and 'textbooks' can't be written in this same easy-to-read style.

Philip Andrews has now become my 'author of choice' in regards to all things photographic or digital, or a combination of the two.

This latest book is done in his easy style - whether you're 'novice' or 'advanced' (or somewhere in between), he 'talks' to us all.

The added advantage of 'Advanced Photoshop Elements 4' is that it also gives you tips for earlier versions of Elements - and a 'novice' need not be afraid to read through it. So, whether you're just starting with Elements 4 - or still using version 2 - you're bound to pick up some time-saving (and / or creative) tips.

The big plus with Philip Andrews' style is that he caters to photographers (who create 'visually' - that is, they like to look at photographs, and photographic styles, and create graphic images). So his books are filled with photographs - and COLOUR photos at that (which is how most of us like to view images). But for the Black & White purists, there are B & W techniques, as well.

Whether you're involved with web pages - or puzzling through the 'mysteries' of printing - or pining for a great panorama (it explains about 'Nodal Points' - but simplifies the explanation if you DON'T want to know about technical details) - or correcting, or making, distortions - being more creative - or just finding out HOW all those tools in Elements work - this is THE 'textbook' or 'Bible' for Elements-users to have in their library.

This book helps ease the monumental transition from Avid to FCP. It is definitely a must for anyone going through the change, but becomes less useful once you get the hang of FCP. Once you are through the transtion, then get the book Final Cut Pro 5 for Mac, which answers the rest.

This book I could only find used, it is not easy to come by...

If you are ever forced to quickly learn Final Cut pro for the odd job where Avid is not a viable option, or you want to start editing your on stuff on the cheap, buy this, read it and practise it for a week and you will be a Pro at Pro, knowing everything there is to know, at least, where to find it and whether it is doable or not. It is a book written by an Avid editor for Avid editors who have to go through the same learning curve. You can be very surprised going through it on how similar the two editing systems are and most of all, how quickly you can synthesise the information and make it second nature. I fervently recommend this book being so well written, going always to the point and covering everything properly.

As an Avid editor and now learning FCP, I can recommend this book for helping to understand where everthing is. This book is a must unless you want to tear your hair out. If you know how it feels going from Media Composer to DS, then you will understand why you need this book and I might add others.

We have been an Avid only edit house for years, but reciently purchased two Final Cut systems. Most of the transition was pretty easy, but trying to figure out how to do some of the things in FCP that we did in our sleep on the Avid slowed us down a bit. This book draws great parallels between the two systems.