Illustrator CS Bible

Rating:
Summary: Thorough walkthrough, no color and bad examples
Review: All of the functions of Illustrator are covered here, and they are reasonably well explained. But most of the book is in black and white, and the examples are pretty cheesy. The color insert section is there but it is dedicated to the display of some artists. What's sad is that the art in the insert is far better than what is in the example. I look for a book like this to both teach and inspire. It certainly taught the technique, but didn't inspire with it's form.

Rating:
Summary: A great reference to Illustrator
Review: Once again, this revised edition is truly the Bible on all Illustrator topics. Keep it by your computer. This book has great in-depth coverage of all Illustrator features, including Illustrator's new 3D capabilities, and is chock full of helpful mini-tutorials.

Rating:
Summary: A poor guide for the beginner or resource for the initiated
Review: Unfortunately this book failed to live up to its potential. For a beginner, the information is sparce and difficult to follow. For someone more experienced, the topics contained are much too basic. The text is vague and tedious to follow and was poorly proofread. The graphics are basic and contribute much less to the book than they should. Other books in the Bible series are worth reading but this is not one of them (definitely check out any of the books by Deke McClelland). There are many items that are not covered or are given just a passing mention. For the size of the book, it contains much less solid content than it could. All in all, I was very let down by this book and would recommend others to look elsewhere.