Reader reviews

Finally, a book that treats web graphics with the care it deserves.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with web graphics.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I picked this up after getting stuck on a project and it turned out to be exactly the right book at the right time. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. Solid, and I would buy another book from this author without hesitation.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Genuinely excellent — I finished it in a week and immediately started again.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The chapters on latex are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I have been working with graphics & multimedia for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

A genuinely enjoyable read that also taught me a great deal.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.