Training & Tutorial Resources
for successful self-learning
Fred Shokwer
We get an average of 80 emails per month with people requesting learning referrals. They ask where can I go to learn this or that about design, photography, Photoshop, graphics, or other disciplines in the visual arts fields.What most don't realize is that for a very small price, there is a wealth of learning available in books.
A very common request we get is from people who will surf the web for hour upon hour, thinking they're learning something -- but in reality they're only getting frustrated. They'll send an email to me later to say they thought they saw or learned in the Design Center, but now cannot find it again. Or, they lament they saw it on another site and now it's gone -- can I help finding it.
With any of the following books, you have a resource right in your hand that you can use again and again -- keep it open -- and walk through the best tutorials and training the industry has to offer. So here, I've picked just a few of my favorites. . .
GRAPHIC DESIGN: From the Basics to the Practice of Design
Malcolm Grear
Renowned artist and design legend Malcolm Grear has permanently shaped the graphic design field with his work, writing, and teaching. His best-selling and now out of print book, Inside / Outside, has become a design student staple and offers unique insight into the design process by combining the practical with the abstract. -- design, desktop publishing, typography, design * Read More
CAD: No Experience Required
David Frey
AutoCAD 2007: No Experience Required is the perfect step-by-step introduction to the world's leading CAD software. Inside this clear-cut guide are concise explanations and practical tutorials that explain how to plan and develop a complete AutoCAD project. -- Graphics, Software, AutoCAD LT, Drafting & Mechanical Drawing, Software Books * Read More
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Art of RAW Conversion
Juergen Gulbins, Uwe Steinmueller
The Art of RAW Conversion teaches digital photographers how to work with the RAW files generated by a digital camera to produce the best possible image quality in finished photos. The authors (both experts in digital photography, file processing, printing, and color management) describe the conversion tools used to enhance RAW files and maximize photo quality. -- Photoshop, Reference, Web Graphics, PhotoDeluxe & Adobe Photoshop, Digital Photography * Read More
PHOTOSHOP: the Finishing Touches
Dave Cross
Photoshop Finishing Touches offers a treasure chest of creative finishing techniques -- from frames and border effects, color and artistic effects, presentation, sharpening, to creative cropping to dramatic lighting, stock photos, collage ideas, combining black-and-white and color, selective blurring, storybook layouts, PDF presentation, and more. -- Photoshop, Web Graphics, PhotoDeluxe & Adobe Photoshop
* Read More
AUTHORS / WRITERS: Publish and Prosper
DL Byron, Steve Broback
Publish and Prosper : Blogging for Your Business -- While personal blogs take up much of the blogosphere, blogs are quickly gaining popularity in business as an inexpensive and amazingly effective marketing tool. It's time for a practical book about business blogging: this is the first book to demonstrate how businesses are blogging and how you can use blogging technology to converse with your customers to build your brand and sell your products. -- Web, Culture, Meetings & Presentations, Technology & Society
* Read More
WEB DESIGN: Philosophy & current trends
Jeffrey Zeldman
In Designing with Web Standards, Zeldman explains how designers can best use standards--primarily XHTML and CSS, plus ECMAScript and the standard Document Object Model (DOM)--to increase their personal productivity and maximize the availability of their creations. (The first edition of this book was a DTG "BEST" selection! Must reading!) -- Web Site Design, Programming, Measurement, Reference, Web Browsers
* Read More
WEB DESIGN: Concept & Layout
Doug Addison
Web Site Cookbook covers all the essential skills that you need to create engaging, visitor-friendly websites. It helps you with the practical issues surrounding their inception, design, and maintenance. With recipes that teach both routine and advanced setup tasks, you'll get the clear and professional instruction you need. -- Web Marketing, Web Site Design, Web Programming, Web Authoring & Design, Internet Marketing
* Read More
WEB DESIGN: Production & Coding CSS
Rachel Andrew, Daniel Shafer
HTML Utopia : Designing Without Tables Using CSS . . . Tables are so 90s! HTML Utopia covers all aspects of using Cascading Style Sheets in Web Development, and is a must-read for Web Developers designing new sites or upgrading existing ones to use CSS layouts. Get rid of those old-school, table-driven web layouts -- get up to speed with CSS. -- Web, HTML - General, Internet
* Read More
WEB PUBLISHING: Getting your word out to the world
Steven Holzner
Whether you want to create your own RSS feeds or just would like to locate and add them to your Web site, Secrets of RSS is the book for you. In the Secrets of RSS, author Steve Holzner provides real-world guidance and advice to introduce you everything you need to know about effectively implementing and using RSS -- Web Site Design, Internet Publishing, Database Design
* Read More
MAC USERS: Designer's Guide to Mac OS X Tiger
Jeff Gamet
Written by design and prepress pro Jeff Gamet, this book focuses on the Mac OS X Tiger features that designers want and need to know to work efficiently and effectively with the operating system. You'll find chapters devoted to fonts, printing, creating and working with PDFs, managing color, networking, shifting between Classic and Mac OS X, Mac OS X's built-in design and productivity tools, system maintenance, security, and more. -- Mac, OS X, Tiger, Programming, MacOS, Macintosh, Macs
* Read More
The list goes on and on
I could list several hundred, but for now, any of the above books can bring you up to speed in your chosen area of design gently and quickly. Visit the Designer's Bookshelf for many, many more titles which have been painstakingly reviewed to offer you the very best for your buck. They do not review books that don't offer real-world solutions to your learning experience -- bad books are simply ignored.
Go for it... and ...
Thanks for reading...
Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine
Important Resources
MORE Photoshop, Photography & Multimedia books...
MORE Web Design & Content Management Books
- Design School? Training? Let's Go... How do you like to learn? Books? CD-Videos? DVD? Or surfing the web? There are hundreds of ways to learn graphic design, Photoshop and other facets of the visual communications industry, and here we take a look at just a few ways to learn graphic arts
- Deke McClelland's Total Training Series Reviewer Joyce Evans shares a brief look inside some of the best video training on the planet... with Photoshop expert Deke McClelland and the product called Total Training
- Learning Design: Today's Print Workflow Printing industries expert Gretchen A. Peck reports that as many as 90 percent of the digital files printers receive from customers are in some state of disrepair. Designers today must be prepared to accept new responsibilities, and think beyond design aesthetics -- Creating for Today's Print Workflow
- Web Learning: Web Content Strategy 101 - Your web content makes or breaks the profitability of your site. In this article, Joel Walsh shares tips and tricks on how you can develop a strategy to make the most of your site's content.
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