Editorial Review

Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Read more

Reviews (298)

A must read for anyone involved in website creation
An infinitely quotable book which takes you through the fundaments of designing websites that customers will find easy to use.Easy to use websites of course being successful websites.
The Title Says It All
I've read a lot on usability, and this is the single-best source I've seen. Every site designer and developer has to read this book. In fact, everyone on the decision food chain in your organization at least needs to be aware of what Krug teaches us. I will forever use usability testing often and early in the process now. Remember, it doesn't matter how cool your application or website is--if people can't use it, they will get frustrated and leave. Please--give us all a better experience!

definitely not a waste of paper :-)
This is a wise book, intentionaly kept small to be qucikly digestible. Very cleanly and simply the author describes where are the problems customers/users encounter while browsing the web, and how web contents designers should avoid making users think (more than absolutely necessary) while trying to do something on one's pages (look for/report/buy/pay/etc). The best book I have read in years.
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Subjects:  1. Computer - Internet    2. Computer Books: Web Publishing    3. Computers    4. Design    5. Internet - Web Site Design    6. Internet - World Wide Web    7. Web site development    8. Web sites    9. Computers / Internet / Web Site Design    10. World Wide Web (WWW)   

Reviews (42)

Good but over-rated
Good but it could be much better. The selection of books on this topic is poor to begin with. But this happens to be one of the best in that underserved category.
A Refreshing Approach to Presentations
I ran across this book while researching a college workshop on perfecting presentation, dealing with public speaking and effective use of PowerPoint. As one who has suffered through numerous electronic slides that did little or nothing to augment the speaker's efforts, I was delighted to see this fresh and innovative approach. I believe this process works best, however, when one's speech is primarily persuasive in nature. Although these ideas helped me set up a strong introduction and conclusion, in a recent lecture I resorted to bullet points for the material I felt the students had to master. Perhaps as I get more used to Atkinson's technique, I'll better about using it in lecture. However, the business applications seem quite worthwhile. My students' workshop presentations that used his techniques were highly engaging. I highly recommend this book and the supporting web site.

Powerpoint Presentations that POP
If you do any kind of powerpoint presentations, this book is a must read.It provides insight into why you don't want to have your audience reading while you are presenting.It also provides you options and resources to make your presentations better, more informative and credible. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business Software - MSOffice    2. Business Software - Powerpoint    3. Business presentations    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Graphics    6. Computer Graphics - General    7. Computer programs    8. Computers    9. Computers - Accounting Packages    10. Graphic methods    11. Microcomputer Communication Software    12. Multimedia systems in business presentations    13. Presentation Software    14. Computers / General   

Reviews (42)

This is the book you need, stop looking...
Im a college student, ive taken multiple classes that were supposed to "teach" us software via textbooks and this is by far the easiest book to follow. I have no formal experience with the software, i just bought it recently because this is the last year i will be able to take advantage of a student discount on software, and i thought it would come in handy... ive burned thru the first 1/2 of the book in 3 nites, prolly 2 hours a nite.. Its not tedious at all, very straight forward and color illustrated step by step... They give you the keyboard shortcuts, as well as the pull down menu commands upfront, and it guides you through the things you will actually use without alot of b.s. i will be ordering the rest of the series on adobe software to learn the rest of the web bundle, probably the best $45 ive spent on textbooks yet.

Well organized and easy to understand
I've tried learning photoshop many times before, but each book I read made me loose interest. This book is fun, and arranged in a way so that lessons are neither too long nor too short.

Get Deke McClelland's instruction books instead
Adobe's instruction book are: very basic, and . . . boring.Get Deke's books--you'll be glad you did. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Adobe Photoshop (Computer software)    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    5. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - Other Applications    9. Desktop Publishing    10. Desktop Publishing - General    11. Interactive & Multimedia    12. Microcomputer Graphics    13. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    14. Photoshop   

Editorial Review

Provides a rapid and thorough exposition of the JavaScript programming language, as well as an in-depth reference section covering each JavaScript function, object, method, and even handler. Experienced programmers will quickly find the information they need to start writing JavaScript programs. ... Read more

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Reviews (226)

The one JavaScript book to rule them all...
I'm a technical trainer, and we've decided to distribute this book as part of our Ajax courseware.We've reviewed many other JavaScript books, but we keep coming back to this one.
Best JavaScript Reference!
This is the 5th edition of this almost thousand page book (992), and has been pretty much the gold standard for JavaScript reference books.I have the 4th edition that came out a few years ago and it was worth upgrading to this new 5th edition.
The Bible
It's called "The Definitive Guide" for a reason. Covers everything from simple variables to complex AJAX coding. Beginners may be a bit overwhelmed by it, but I would still recommend any O'Reilly guide as it's the one you'll actually use as your skills increase.. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. JavaScript (Computer program language)    5. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    6. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    7. Web servers    8. Computers / Languages / Programming    9. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    10. Java & variants    11. JavaScript, Ajax, DHTML, HTML, scripting, css, dom, httprequest,    12. Object-oriented programming (Computer science   

Reviews (28)

Good Starting Point for Channel Work
If you're just learning about channels, and want to learn ways to make your images look better, this book is a good start. Scott Kelby is certainly one of the most prolific pundits in the PS world, and here he assembles techniques from many sources. Explanations are simple, the techniques are tried-and-true, and the writing is not bad (albeit a bit corny). You'll get a lot better at Photoshop by incorporating these techniques into your workflow. It is indeed NOT meant for Elements users, and assumes use of CS2, although most methods can be used in earlier versions with minor modifications.
Poor description
No part of the description of this item states that the book is only for Photoshop CS or CS2 users.Photoshop Elements 3 (which I have)is a software that is used widely and is still for sale in all software sales locations.
Great explanation of channels in Photoshop
I bought this book because I was confused about channels. Mr. Kelby does a good job explaining, and showing by example, how to work with channels in Photoshop. I read the reviews before I bought this book and noticed the criticism about Kelby's "cute" writing style and lack of detail. I bought the book anyway because I wanted the information. This is a good to great book if you want to know about channels. If you already know a lot about channels you'll probably be disappointed. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Adobe Photoshop (Computer software)    3. Computer Animation    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Graphics    6. Computer Graphics - General    7. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    8. Computers    9. Software - Photography    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    11. Photoshop   

Reviews (4)

Practically Worthless
If it didn't have a short precis of each mission, then it would be completely worthless. I was looking for something more along the lines of one of Andy Herd's FSX reviews found at Flightsim website.And Andy's reviews are free!I paid over $20 for this waste of time and paper.Does the writer, Bart G. Farkas, really think people buying this manual are looking to find out the basics of how a plane stays aloft?We wanted the FSX secrets, the down & dirty stuff that only a collaborator with the programmers could have written.What we got was a 2nd grade book report on the very basics of aviation.Save your money, or review a copy before purchasing. You've been warned.

Fledglin
Although the reviewers of October 14, 2006 rated this FSX Guide very poorly. they have inadvertently strengthened the product by giving a very useful and informative errata to the Guide. We applaud their specificity. We also look forward to an immediate, upgraded corrected FSX Guide from Prim Game Guides.

Poor quality
There are many typographical errors.Even worse, the airspeed info is often inaccurate.For example, on page 107, the Boeing 737-800 is listed with a cruising speed of 477 kt but when you read the next line it states that the maximum speed is 147 kt.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Games    2. Computer Graphics    3. Games    4. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    5. Games/Puzzles    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Games / Video & Electronic   

Editorial Review

PHP is far more than a cult language or open-source icon. It's a remarkably capable language that's well integrated with lots of technologies--notably mSQL and MySQL database servers--and quite easy to learn. Read more

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Reviews (41)

Solid Look At PHP Programming
'Programming PHP' by Kevin Tatroe is a solid look at this popular open source solution for generating dynamic web pages.Competing against the money solutions ASP and JSP, PHP will give you the same kind of functionality, but at a much lower price!Packed with over 500 pages of PHP goodness, this book will make you a better PHP programmer and teach you how to go all the way from defining the most basic of variables to performing database tasks and all sorts of other important tasks and tricks of the trade.I highly recommend this well-written and well ordered book, perfect for anyone that wants to learn and excel at PHP programming!!
Not the best, but decent
It's not the best computer language book I have ever read, by a long shot, but it did give me most of what I needed. I found a number of errors, including places where the example code differs from the text description. This is mostly the editor's fault. Also, there were a number of important details that were left out. This brings me to my main concern: it is not clear who this book was written for. A novice would be overwhelmed, I think, while a more experienced programmer like me may be frustrated with some critical omissions. On the whole, though, it did get the job done.

Programming PHP, 2nd Edition (PHP 5)
I'm assuming via the dates of the other reviews, that most of them are referring to Version 1.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Books: Web Programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Design    6. Information Technology    7. Internet - General    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. PHP (Computer program language)    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Web sites    12. Computer Programming    13. Computers / Languages / Programming    14. Computers / Programming Languages / General    15. Internet languages    16. Programming PHP, Rasmus Lerdorf, Kevin Tatroe, Php, web, database, mysql, dynamic, html, cgi, apache, database-backed, database-driven    17. Publishing on the Internet   

Reviews (10)

Covers every aspect of painter
This book does not focus on just one aspect of painter, such as painting photographs or raw illustration.It goes through each different use of painter in good detail.
Great Asset!
This book is a real asset for anyone, experienced or not. Easy tutorials, and many examples of what is possible in Painter IX.

CHOCK FULL OF INFO
This is an excellent book for PAINTER IX users. There are lots of inspiring paintings from many artists and generally good explanations of the processes used to create them. It does a great job of giving insight into PAINTER's extensive capabilities.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer graphics    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Fractal design painter    7. Fractal design painter (Computer software)    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Computer graphics software    10. Computers / Computer Graphics / General   

Reviews (9)

Adobe Illustrator CS2 Classroom in a Book
What is it about the Classroom in a Book series that I devour like ice cream in the middle of August in Texas? It has to do with the richness of the presentation, the simplicity of design and the total coverage of material that you don't get in the box with the CD, or more importantly buy direct online and dont have a manual.
Great
I got exactly what I ordered in a very timely manner.thank you

A quick guide to Illustrator
In a few words what are the capabilities to the package, with a nice companion of labs and examples. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - Illustrator    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Desktop Publishing    7. Desktop Publishing - General    8. Interactive & Multimedia    9. Microcomputer Graphics    10. Computer graphics software    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Reviews (5)

A comprehensive resource - but not for the novice
Truly Matt Pharr and NVIDIA are at the top of their game, and his "GPU Gems" series is certainly the only one of its kind for graphics professionals that are familiar with GPU's and shading languages already, and want to exploit them for the maximum speed and effect achievable using today's technology. It is not a "how-to" book on shading or GPUs or even advanced graphics. There are equations and code interspersed throughout the book, with bits of wisdom that are very instructive for the initiated. However, if you are a home-grown graphics programmer who knows C, or C++, or Java, and even some assembly language, plus you are familiar with image processing and computer graphics techniques, that will probably not be enough to get you through this book. I would say that this is a five star book for high-level professional graphics programmers who work with GPU specifics and shaders daily, and I would say it is a two or three star book for everyone else.
Excellent Second Book in the GPU Gems Series
This book is the second installment of the GPU Gems book series by NVIDIA. Just like the first book, GPU Gems 2 is a collection of articles by various authors from game development companies, academia, and tool developers on advanced techniques for programming graphics processing units (or GPUs for short). It is aimed at intermediate to advanced graphics developers that are familiar with the most common graphics APIs. The reader should also be proficient in C++. As with the first GPU Gems book, GPU Gems 2 is not for beginners. For professional graphics and game developers, however, it is an excellent collection of interesting techniques, tips, and tricks.
Pretty pictures
This book is targeted at people who have a good solid grasp of either OpenGL or D3D as well as a grounding in programming languages such as C/C++ or Java.While this much is obvious, the book is still painfully difficult to get anything useful out of.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computer graphics    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Microcomputer Graphics    8. Programming - General    9. Real-time programming    10. Computer graphics software    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    12. Software engineering   

Reviews (1)

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Do you need to edit and organize your photos? If you do, then this book is for you. Author Barbara Brundage, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that is intended to make learning Elements easier by avoiding technical jargon as much as possible, and explaining why and when you'll want to use certain features in the program.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Techniques - General    7. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    8. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    9. Computers / Other Applications    10. Photoshop    11. photography, digital photography, graphics, photo editing, image editing, photoshop, photoshop elements, photoshop elements 5, Adobe   

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Reviews (77)

Needed to do some Refresher Training
I have experience in HTML and CSS; however, I had not dealt with them in some time (five years or so). I needed to find a book that would get to the basics, yet at the same time NOT be so exhaustive that I would find myself dozing. Can anyone blame me for not wanting to be bored to death by wordy descriptions?
very good book
this is a very good book for beginners.TSTC Waco is using it for the intro class in the webmaster 2 year degree program. Covers HTML , XHTML, AND CSS STYLE SHEETS in detail. A lot of screen shots showing what the code should look like.Which, for a beginner is VERY IMPORTANT! If you do not know the code how else would you know that you got it right if something small is wrong.The only fault I have with the book compared to my first HTML book is there is not a quick reference card printed on the back cover.This is a minor thing but is handy for quick review.

Great Learning Tool for the non-technical
This is a true learner's guide to building standards-based Web pages.It includes a lot of information on common HTML and CSS traps and pitfalls as well as why common conceptions about style are often wrong.To help the reader actually learn the material in a fun and friendly manner it includes a lot of puzzles and exercises and other material that make it a joy to learn.This is truly a guide for the non-programmer that will have them quickly up to speed on how to design and build a web site.One of the virtues of this particular book is that the authors relate common problems and frustrations of users and how to avoid them in your website.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. HTML (Document markup language)    6. Internet - Browsers    7. Internet - General    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Programming Languages - HTML    10. XHTML (Document markup language)    11. Computers / Languages / Programming    12. Computers / Programming Languages / HTML, SGML, VRML, XML    13. Computers/Internet - Web Site Design    14. HTML    15. HTML, CSS, XHTML, web site, web page, web design, webmaster, FrontPage, DreamWeaver   

Reviews (13)

A great buy!
I am a self-taught novice graphic/web designer and I bought this book hoping to be able to incorperate some flash into my works. I downloaded the free 30 day trial of Flash 8 Pro and started working on this book. It worked like a charm. I am half way through the book and I already feel that I have a decent amount of knowledge in Flash.
A Wonderful Learning Tool
I was incredibly happy with Mr. Kerman's book, which, through the heavy use of tutorials, allowed me to become comfortable using Flash very quickly.
Very good book
This is my first review of any book.I felt strongly enough about this book to write up a quick review.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Animation    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Flash    4. Computer graphics    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Design    8. Internet - Web Site Design    9. Web sites    10. Computers / Computer Animation    11. Image processing    12. Multimedia   

Reviews (46)

Oh my!
I considered myself an advanced Photoshop user until I read this book. Chapters on selection(8,9,10) and compositing (11,12,13) are simply amazing. If this book cannot satisfy your hunger for truly advanced concepts and techniques, no others on the market will. If you want to be a truely advanced -expert level Photoshop user, anything else is uncivilized. Oh my.

Great Book !
I love this book's layout (an ironically unusual benefit for design books), simple terms, practicality and real-world examples that allow you to follow along step by step.
Excellent Author
This book would help anyone seeking advanced techniques in Photoshop. It is well written in clearly understandable language. Katrin Eismann's other book, Restoration and Retouching is another example of an extremely helpful book. I place her books among the best in Photoshop books along with those written by Ben Willmore. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics    4. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. General    8. Miscellaneous Software    9. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    10. Photoshop   

Reviews (4)

Superb instructional book for my needs
I bought this book for two reasons (a) I needed an overview of IP and (b) I wanted to examine different pattern analysis algorithms with a practical twist.On both counts, as an non-IP researcher, I was very satisfied.The book is very well laid out, so well in fact that it would put to shame many of its rivals.It served my needs.I can't comment on whether it will meet the needs of a broader community.I would certainly recommend it based on my experience.

Practical and Useful
This book educates the reader in image processing and MATLAB.While I am experienced in both, I found the book to be an extrememly useful reference book for projects involving image compression and image representation.The book offered practical descriptions and useful code for computing the fast wavelet transform.It was especially useful in describing how the edges should treated.This is a big issue that other textbooks gloss over.I had never seen it described in a textbook, and it was described so well.
The best of its kind.
If you want to get up to speed on Matlab and plan to use it for image processing, this book is a must.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Other Applications    5. Digital Image Processing    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Matlab    8. Techniques - Digital    9. Applied optics    10. Computer Software Packages    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    12. Image processing   

Reviews (40)

You haven't mastered CSS until you've read this book.
After going through a round of book buying on Amazon (mainly Ajax and PHP books), I originally decided that this would be a 'glancer' at Barnes and Nobles. Having spent over a year designing full CSS w3c-compliant sites, I though there wasn't too much more I could learn on the subject. A day later I spent over an hour at B&N reading this book and then decided to purchase it. It's that great.
Not a good book
I've gone thru half the book, and I'm very disapointed to say the least.
A Perfect Step Beyond the Basics
To my web designer friends who are ready to move beyond DreamWeaver/GoLive and start doing things the "right" way, I have been recommending Dan Cederholm's "Web Standards Solutions" as the best beginner's CSS and HTML guide. I also tell them that they should buy this book, CSS Mastery, at the same time and start reading it once they have absorbed all of W.S.S.
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Subjects:  1. Cascading style sheets    2. Computer Books: Web Programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Design    6. Internet - Web Site Design    7. Programming Languages - HTML    8. Web sites    9. Internet   

Reviews (26)

A Must for Photoshop Users!
I have read several Photoshop books and watched training DVDs, but this book focused on my true interest, restoring old photographs. This book was more useful than all the other Photoshop training combined. I highly recommend this book.

Ms. Eismann offers Great Insight...
...into the complicated, sometimes inscrutable world of Photoshop. If you're aspiring to be a professional photographer or post-production assistant, probably the single best thing you can do for your career development -aside from practice, practice, practice- is make sure you own a copy of this book and Ms. Eismann's other work: "Photoshop Masking & Compositing". Study her techniques, apply them to your own images and re-apply them until you can look at an image and know right off which tools you're likely to use and how.
Very informative book
Well written. A lot of usuful examples of Restoration & Retouching using Photoshop CS2. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - General    3. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Conservation and restoration    7. Digital techniques    8. Microcomputer Graphics    9. Photographs    10. Photography    11. Retouching    12. Computers / Computer Graphics / General    13. Photoshop   

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Reviews (12)

Finally, an excellent book!
This is by far the best book I have ever bough