Graphic Design on the Desktop: A Guide for the Non-Designer, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: A good book for beginners
Review: I just went through the book, the most important part i liked is its language which is very welcoming for a beginner. I know lots of graphic softwares very well, but unware of some basic designing fundamentals. This book showed me the way. Though the samples in the book is few and not very interesting but has lots of basic information written in compact form so that a beginner can refer back any time. The book is broken down into basic topics a designer should know and its related subtopics. I liked its exercises at end of each chapter. May not be interesting to a person who is already a professional, but its a very handy book for anybody who want to become a designer with limited knowledge about it. I think one should go through it before trying out very hi-end designing books.

Rating:
Summary: perhaps useful as a poor man's "for dummies" book on design
Review: This book was required reading for a publication class taughtby Toor. In general, the book is extremely simple, even simplistic,and gives the reader only a cursory glance at desktop publishing, suggesting many obvious cliches and "tried and true" design solutions rather than training the reader's visual sense. Some of the design examples are crude and amateurish. Ironically, the book is poorly designed as well, making liberal use of overused default graphics software "effects" and muddy, low-resolution graphics. Very disappointing... I would suggest this book only to non-designers who do want to really learn anything about design, but are only looking for some easy answers.