February 1999

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	Adobe Illustrator 8.0, Classroom in a Book, Adobe Press, $59 w/CD (Mac and Windows). This new addition to the CIB family retains the same "If you do it once you will know how to do it forever" approach which gives you a good overview of Illustrator 8's features and functions. However, it includes more step-by-step exercises than found in previous CIB editions and the index is even more helpful. What makes this such a good place to start learning Illustrator 8 is the files on the CD that include both the beginning project exercises and finished versions of the exercises as well. Although the exciting projects created in the lessons may be removed from your own working experience, doing the exercises moves you gracefully from the basics to the more intricate functions of this remarkable application, making it the first and best place to start.
	Photoshop Retouching Handbook, by Carol Braverman, IDG Books, $49.99 w/CD (Mac and Windows). If you find yourself retouching scanned images in Photoshop, then this book will do more for you than any Photoshop manual. It covers all the techniques and guidelines necessary to enhance an image, create composites, and manipulate special effects, while paying particular attention to the appropriate Photoshop tools needed to complete a project. And all this in language non-photographers can understand! The CD includes practice images from the book as well as a demo version of Photoshop 5.0.
	Real World Illustrator 8, by Deke McClelland, Peachpit Press, $34.99 (Mac and Windows). Thank you, Deke, for sparing us the trouble of using the Illustrator manual written by engineers and beautifully designed but frequently unhelpful. Thank you for explaining all those fancy new techniques and showing us how to do them instead of just listing them. Thank you for all the screen shots, for the tons of examples, and breezy style that makes learning Illustrator 8 really fun. Thank you for showing us how Illustrator 8 and Photoshop work together. Thank you for writing a book for people in graphics instead of engineering. Thank you for explaining how ATM is causing the font descender problem. Thank you for a helpful, readable book!
	Illustrator 8 Magic, by Raymond Pirouz. New Riders (Mac and Windows), $29.99 This is a dangerous book. You think you can get away doing one or two of the projects, and then it's "Just let me try another type effect," or, "Ooh. I've always wanted to draw in perspective!" Then it's late into the night and all you have accomplished is to learn how to use Illustrator 8's features in the most exciting ways. Not only is the book a wonderful source of design ideas, but the step-by-step instructions with their full-color illustrations will have you creating your own digital masterpieces. Updates, additional artwork, and practice templates are available from the author's Web site, so you can keep playing and learning, but mostly having a wonderful time doing both.
	The Non-Designer's Type Book by Robin Williams, Peachpit Press, $24.99. For anyone who has not background in typography and is overwhelmed by the number and variety of fonts available for print and Internet distribution, this book is a bible of facts, illustrations, and information that will prevent experts from knowing you're an amateur. Punctuation, special characters, initial caps, line spacing and selecting the appropriate typeface are some of the topics covered in this remarkable and absolutely indispensable book.