Great Books

A lot has happened in the world of digital design since the first edition of this title was published, but one thing remains true: There is an ever-growing number of people attempting to design pages with no formal training. This book is the one place they can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help from trusted design instructor Robin Williams. This revised classic--now in full color--includes a new section on the hot topic of Color itself. In The Non-Designer's Design Book, 3rd Edition, Robin turns her attention to the basic principles that govern good design. Readers who follow her clearly explained concepts will produce more sophisticated and professional pages immediately. Humor-infused, jargon-free prose interspersed with design exercises, quizzes, and illustrations make learning a snap--which is just what audiences have come to expect from this best-selling author.

If you think web design is beyond your reach, or if you want your existing web site to look more professional, this thoroughly updated classic is the place to turn! In these pages, best-selling authors Robin Williams and John Tollett share the creative ideas, useful techniques, and basic design principles that are essential to great Web design-all in the context of the most current technology, software, and standards. Throughout, the authors' aim is to inspire you and spark your creativity rather than sedate you with pages and pages of code. To that end, you'll find loads of real-world examples, interesting illustrations, and the simple instructions you need to implement the techniques and concepts described in these pages.

The Non-Designer's Web Book is a pretty, full-color guide for aspiring Web designers. The authors first explain how to browse and search the Web and then discuss how to plan and post a Web site. Then they get you into the real work of designing Web sites, whether for business or personal purposes. The authors teach you basic design principles--covering such areas as alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast--and then discuss design issues that are specific to the Web: You learn about creating pages with careful attention to color, graphics, typography, tables, and more. Finally, you learn how to test, fix, upload, update, and register your site. The book isn't an HTML primer, but you do get a few tips on tweaking your pages by editing HTML code. The authors discuss a variety of Macintosh and Windows programs for creating Web pages, such as Adobe PageMill, Claris Home Page, and Microsoft FrontPage, and they also discuss image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop. At the end of each chapter there's a quiz for reviewing what you've learned.

Design and typographic insights from the author of The Non-Designer’s book series (over 700,000 copies in print!) This book offers decades of experience from one of the greatest computer book authors. Here in one volume, Robin Williams has joined together a new edition of her classic The Non-Designer’s Design Book—in glorious full color for the first time—and her best-selling The Non-Designer’s Type Book. Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you’ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects. Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice or an experienced graphic designer, you will find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter! These essential guides to design and type will teach you about: The four principles of design that underlie every design project Categories of type Working with color How to combine typefaces for maximum effect Readability and legibility The proper typographic treatment of punctuation Letter spacing, line spacing, and paragraph spacing Special characters and accent marks

These days, it's not just corporate marketing directors tasked with giving computer-based presentations—anyone forced to stand in front of a crowd and talk for more than three minutes had better know how to put together a slide presentation. You're not a professional designer, but you want your slides to look professional. What do you do? Enter Robin Williams, the beloved, best-selling non-designer's designer (with over 850,000 copies of The Non-Designer's Design Book in print!) who has taught an entire generation the basics of design and typography. In The Non-Designer's Presentation Book, Robin expands upon the design principles introduced in her award-winning Non-Designer's series. She explains four fundamental principles of good design as applied to digital presentations, and adds four more principles specific to clear communication with slides. Whether you work with a Mac or PC, PowerPoint or Keynote, let Robin guide you, in her signature, light-hearted style, through the entire process of creating a presentation—from using the right software to organizing your ideas to designing effective, beautiful slides that won't put your audience to sleep.In this essential guide to presentation design, you'll learn:What makes a good presentation or a bad oneHow to plan, organize, and outline your presentationFour principles of designing effective presentationsFour principles for designing beautiful slides that communicate clearlyAn exhaustive list of timeless presentation rules...that you should totally ignore

Seven years is a long time in any industry, but when it comes to the worlds of design and technology (and particularly the point at which the two merge), it's an eternity! No wonder, then, that you (and about a million other readers!) have been eagerly awaiting this latest update to Robin Williams' enormously popular Non-Designer's series. In these pages, Robin defines the principles that govern type as well as the logic behind them so that you learn not just what looks best but why on your way to creating effective print and Web pages. Each short chapter in this thoroughly updated guide (which includes new coverage of typography in Adobe InDesign and Mac OS X) explores a different type secret or technique, including understanding legibility and readability; tailoring typeface to a particular project; mastering pull quotes and captions; working with spacing, punctuation marks, special characters, fonts, and justification; and more. The nonplatform- and nonsoftware-specific approach and Robin's lively, engaging style make this a must-have for any designer's bookshelf!

This update to The Web Designer's Idea Book is a source of visual inspiration to web designers to help them see what others have done and how they can adapt those ideas to their own needs. It includes a chapter on web-design principles and a chapter about trends in HTML email design.

Inspiring Web Design at a GlanceThe Web Designer's Idea Book includes more than 700 websites arranged thematically, so you can find inspiration for layout, color, style and more. Author Patrick McNeil has cataloged more than 20,000 sites on his website, and showcased in this book are the very best examples. Sites are organized by color, design style, type, theme, element and structure. It's easy to use and reference again and again, whether you're talking with a co-worker or discussing website design options with a client. As a handy desk reference for design layout, color and style, this book is a must-have for starting new projects.

Since 1975, Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market has been the most complete resource for fine artists, illustrators, designers and cartoonists who want to show and sell their work. This essential guide gives creatives completely updated contact and submission information for more than 1,500 art markets such as greeting card companies, magazine and book publishers, galleries, art fairs, ad agencies and more. Informative interviews with successful artists and art buyers offer advice on how to make contacts and succeed in the competitive art industry. Readers will also discover valuable resources for obtaining grants, marketing and promoting their work, and networking with fellow artists.

Create an entire earring wardrobe—no stylist required Stephanie Wells’s unique, trendsetting Double Happiness earrings have been regularly spotted on Oprah, Alicia Keys, Rachael Ray, and Beyoncé. Here, the award-winning designer shows you how to make 40 of her signature earring styles—without sacrificing time or budget.  You’ll learn basic jewelry making skills, as well as Double Happiness techniques for making frames, wrapping wires and beads, and connecting multiple wraps. Whether your style is chic, glamorous, rock-and-roll, or bohemian, you’ll find easy-to-make earrings that will revive—and revolutionize—any outfit.

For most non-designers, especially beginning desktop publishers, the scanning, prepress, and printing process isn't an intuitive one. Trial and error is often the only way to learn the technical basics of producing professional-looking documents. If you're tired of learning the hard way, The Non-Designer's Scan and Print Book is for you. Using the format that is so popular in Peachpit's best-selling Non-Designer's series, this latest offering, fully cross-platform, provides a multitude of tips, techniques, and design, prepress, and production principles to help create professional-looking documents. Clear instructions and numerous examples cover the entire process of scanning, prepress, and printing.

The Non-Designer's Scan and Print Book (Non-Designer's Series) is an excellent guide for beginners who want to learn the essentials of scanning images and printing professional-looking publications. Authors Robin Williams and Sandee Cohen are two well-known desktop publishing (DTP) experts who have written a number of acclaimed computer-graphics books, and here they do an outstanding job of distilling the core elements of scanning, manipulating, and outputting images from high-tech, esoteric details. Williams and Cohen commence their tour of scanning and printing by explaining how to plan your project. They begin by encouraging you to choose your paper, colors, graphics, binding, number of folds and copies, and printing methods. Then they introduce you to basic DTP and business issues like resolution, paper size, print area, cost of goods, fonts, and PostScript. Their highly rudimentary approach even includes a discussion of the type of printing device necessary to complete your project and whether you will need to use an inkjet, laser, dye-sublimation, or thermal wax printer. From there, they look to the essentials of commercial printing, finding a print shop, working within a budget, and using processes such as letterpress, flexography, and gravure. Subsequent chapters delve into computer issues like software applications commonly used for DTP projects and how they handle color modes, raster images, resolution, vector images, and file formats. You also tackle color issues such as process color printing, using spot colors and duotones, and specifying the number of colors in a publication. Image acquisition plays a big role in completing any project, and the authors provide helpful tips for using scanners, digital cameras, Kodak Photo CD-ROMs, stock photography, and clip art. Finally, you study printer topics such as using high-res output, working with service bureaus, determining output specs such as client and delivery information, writing film specs, using printer's marks, understanding resolution and linescreen issues, trapping, and proofing your job. There's also a preflight checklist to help you determine whether you've thought everything through. At the end of the book, you get quizzes or projects for most of the chapters as well as a list of resources for more information. --David Wall