eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (02/05/91)
Last week's issue of _Bay Area Computer Currents_ had a review by Ken Milburn of a new book about designing without color. The authors are some people from _Verbum_ magazine, and from the description, it sounds like it might be particularly useful to NeXT users. Gosney, Michael, John Odam, and Jim Schmal, _The Gray Book_, Ventana Press, P.O. Box 2468, Chapel Hill, NC 27515, $22.95. Has anyone seen it in bookstores? Have it? Read it? -=EPS=-
anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (02/05/91)
In article <1280@toaster.SFSU.EDU> eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) writes: >Last week's issue of _Bay Area Computer Currents_ had a >review by Ken Milburn of a new book about designing without >color. The authors are some people from _Verbum_ magazine, >and from the description, it sounds like it might be >particularly useful to NeXT users. >Gosney, Michael, John Odam, and Jim Schmal, _The Gray Book_, >Ventana Press, P.O. Box 2468, Chapel Hill, NC 27515, >$22.95. >Has anyone seen it in bookstores? Have it? Read it? I have it and have read it (got it at my local bookstore during one of their surprise 20% off sales, too). Here's a mini-review, for those interested in such things. The book is about design and is profusely illustrated with a lot of very good design. It is not, for example, about PostScript, which given its placement in the store with the section on PostScript Red, Green, Blue, and Red&White books and other books on PS, one might at first be led to think it was. However, since the subtitle on the cover says "Designing in Black and White on Your Computer," its emphasis should really not be a surprise. Though the main value of the book is the illustrations themselves, there is considerable text devoted to brief remarks about the illustrations, telling why things work or don't work in them. If you don't already have the experience in design to give you the associated visual skills, the book might be very useful and even very interesting. However, if you already have well developed design skills, the book may seem to cover a fair amount of obvious ground. This is especially so of the parts that deal primarily with type and typographic values, including page layout. Although there are comparative illustrations on such topics as halftones and scanning, the technical treatment is cursory at best. In the section dealing with different kinds of lighting effects, there is almost no technical discussion at all. What one might be left with, as a result, is a lot of nice-looking ideas and no real understanding of how to produce the effects. The book itself is very attractive. Anyone who knows Verbum magazine will recognize the same design sensibilities one regularly sees there, minus the chroma. The printing quality is first-rate. In sum, very good to look at and in that way potentially very useful. Moderate coverage of why things are as they are. Scant coverage indeed of how any of it is done. If design is your game, by all means you should have it, since there's no such thing as too much to see. If design is not your thing, look it over before buying it. <> We create a leader by locating one in the crowd who is <> standing up. We designate this victim as a 'stand-up guy' <> by the simple expedient of sitting down around him. <> -- Arturo Binewski -- Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson NeXTmail w/attachments: anderson@yak.macc.wisc.edu Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888