With so many desktop publishing books on the market, it's easy to get confused as to quality. The truth is that there's something of knowledge to be gained in just about every book. What's difficult is finding one right for your current level of knowledge-and one that will help you move on in your education. This book will be of such help to at least three distinct types of reader. First, despite the fact that it's not the book's focus, design theory makes its way almost unintentionally onto each page. This isn't a design book, so it doesn't actually _instruct_ you in the art. But the images in the book are competent, generic examples of standard principles of design. If you follow the basic constructs the author offers, you will, perhaps without meaning to, produce work that is suitably well-designed for almost any commercial purpose. Second, the book gives an overview of how to get your designs from idea to computer to paper. It doesn't tell you specifically how to use your particular software or a particular printing company. I'm not sure the word "Adobe" or "Corel" appears anywhere in the text. What it gives you are the steps necessary to create high quality work on a shoestring budget. It gives you information about where to get clip art, how to deal with an illustrator specifically hired for a certain job, what are the most common fonts used in professional applications, how to ensure you're not violating copyright. These are areas that have had relatively minimal coverage in the instructional press, so the somewhat scant attention this book gives is a comparative abundance. In particular, the book has helpful information on how to find a good service bureau for your final output. The notion of contracting with printers in other parts of the country is a concept that will be foreign to a number of readers. It's a common practice to large companies, but this book makes real the possibility for smaller businesses and home enthusiasts. Third, the book reaches people who have a great deal of experience with desktop publishing, but may need a single, unified resources for the multiplicity of "special" projects they infrequently may be called upon to make. How do you make buttons, for instance? How do you label a shipping tube? How do you create a magnetized memo? Who makes baseball caps and can I create my own design for them? Can I really make personalized coasters for my 15th high school reunion? Where can I have personalized Post-It (tm) Notes made? These, and many other "unusual" projects are given great attention in this book. Indeed, this is really the book's focus. The author, Chuck Green, has an obvious passion for personalization. He wants you to know that for any purpose, be it commercial or personal, there's a way to make a great impression that you haven't thought about. In that quest, Mr. Green has used his book to centralize thousands of disparate addresses, phone numbers, and ideas into one location so that you can get started almost immediately. For its modest price it will give you more solid, usable advice than many more expensive, application-specific volumes.And the book doesn't stop with the last page. There's a very cool website associated with the book that will help you continue on in your knowledge. To be sure, you don't need to read the book to access the website, but I think it's a measure of the passion the author has for his subject that he's willing to continue devoting time to it by maintaining an active, growing website. This is no `hack' author trying to cash in on the desktop publishing phenomenon. This is someone who really cares about what he writes and wants to continue giving you the most up-to-date information possible. Despite all this, I think there are groups who might be disappointed with the book. If you already do a lot of specialized jobs for your clients, the ideas may seem quite basic. I think, too, that if you're just printing newsletters or the occasional flyer, you might think this book is full of useless information. But I think that such people are entirely in the minority. This book has a tremendous amount to offer for the even slightly creative. Even if you _thought_ you only did newsletters for your church or flyers for your club, the wealth of information here makes you _want_ to do more and better work than you've done before. And that, I suppose, is the very point of desktop publishing in the first place. The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book, Second Edition
I used this book as a classroom text for a DTP course I was running. The students loved it, not just because it showed sample layouts with good use of contrasting fonts and plenty of white space, but also because the projects were practical and small scale, aimed at someone with a laser printer and office supplies. Green's ideas show that with a couple of quality fonts and classy clip art anyone can potentially do good design. I'd like to see a new edition that takes advantage of the low costs of digital presses, but as it stands the book is inspiring. Note, by the way, that most of the projects are designed for US-sized stationery, but can be adapted. - Graphic Design'
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