October 4, 2001
Designing Web Graphics
It's interesting to read a book published in 1997 and see a sentence like, "Even on my machine (wilth 72mb of RAM!), I had PDF files stop working when viewed on the web..." No kidding, 72mb? Even the most basic computers now ship standard with 64mb; I have 192mb and that is certainly not near the high end of the spectrum.
Lynda Weinman, the author of Designing Web Graphics 2 also gushes on about computers with 166mHz processors, million-color monitors and the wonders of a GUI versus command-line. Okay, that last one was a lie, but sometimes I felt trapped in 1985 when reading this graphics tutorial. Everything gets dated so fast online that most of her listed links were broken and some facts are quite inaccurate. On the bright side, at least she doesn't drone on about the New Economy...
This book offers a good overview of creating graphics for the Web. It's not nearly as detailed as a Photoshop tutorial, but it does cover topics like transparency, scanning tips, animation and graphic optimization. If you can read it for free—from the library or a generous friend—you'll enjoy it much more than paying the cover price of $55.00. Perhaps Designing Web Graphics.3 is more enjoyable than this outdated version.