Product Description
Oriented toward graphic artists and other nonprogrammers, this book teaches the powerful PostScript laser printer language using a unique visual feedback approach. Building from simple examples, the text extends to complex special effects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Learn PostScript now! From this book!
This book is useful to people employed or interested in graphics, desktop design, document engineering, or programming. It will help you better understand any of these topics. PostScript, developed by Adobe, is the language "under the hood" of PDFs, many layout programs, and a category of printers. It's a full-fledged programming language that's pretty much dedicated to graphics, letting you get at the elements of lines, shapes, shading, and color. And it is becoming even more relevant. Before a document can be made into a PDF, traditionally it has had to be converted into postscript (.ps), and even Microsoft has given a little territory in that direction by their attempts to include automatic creation of PDFs in Office 2007.

PostScript is relatively easy to learn and can also diversify your understanding of programming concepts. Unlike varieties of C or Java, PostScript is a "reverse Polish notation" language, which means that the parameters are stated prior to the relevant commands. Like "144 144 lineto" will draw a line to the coordinates listed. It is also "stack-oriented," so I find that it's a little easier to visualize what is happening as I work through the code. Because it's so graphics-directed, PostScript obviously lends itself to the "visual approach." Most of the basic commands resemble actual everyday words, so you can learn rapidly before you even know you are programming. In other words, you don't have to be a programmer or script writer to learn PostScript.

And this particular book makes learning PostScript basics easy. It gives code on one page and then shows what happens next to it. It starts with the basics of positioning on the page, and then adds commands that extend the complexity and richness of the illustrations.It also does a good job introducing the programming concepts such as RPN and stack arithmetic. Over the years, PostScript has evolved into a more complex language, incorporating numerous commands that extend the language and concatenate groups of simpler commands (such as a command to draw a box rather than 4 commands to draw the sides). But the book sticks with the basics, and slowly extends your knowledge and skills. Like other programming languages, PostScript includes techniques like recursion, definitions of variables, definitions of complex tasks, mathematics, etc. PostScript is not object-oriented.

As a graphics description programming language, PostScript needs some type of compiler for you to see what your code actually draws. This traditionally involves an accompanying program called "ghostscript" that allows the user to see the results in nearly real time. I personally don't care much for ghostscript and often used Adobe Distiller and created PDFs to see the results. Those who don't have Distiller can install and use ghostscript, and that is covered in the book.

Since PostScript is a relatively mature technology, there are a lot of older books available, as well as a plethora of web sites and a couple discussion groups. Adobe has some excellent books that can be downloaded for free. They all have something to contribute, but I found this book to be the best of the lot, the easiest to read, and generally the most useful. Improvements? Well, occasionally the author works a new term into the code and doesn't really explain it. That happens more frequently later in the book, and by then you can sort of guess what the term accomplishes. At a certain point, things like this are probably unavoidable, since it's a very rich and complex language, and you can't be treated like a "dummy" all the time. I would also like to see more discussion about PDFs and how to work my written code into existing PDFs, but this book - like many of them - was written more for the era of the PostScript printer than the current period where PDFs are so prominent.

PostScript for Dummies
I bought this book in 1994 when I had absolutely no clue about programming. It was a real eye-opener, and to this day it's my reference bible with regard to PostScript. Highly recommended.

Extremely good book
Simple, concise, yet by no means limited.I learned essentially all the postscript that I needed to know for my job in about 3 hours reading this book.Excellent examples, easy to follow, what could more could you ask for?

An excellent resource!
This is a wonderful starting point for learning postscript. It takes you step by step through a very complex topic in a way that is easy to understand as well as offering opportunities to practice what you are learning. I recommend it highly!

Great introduction to Postscript programming
This book offers clear, simple examples and covers the basic Postscript concepts in a way that makes it easy to apply them to real-lifesituations.

I borrowed this book froma friend, and I have GOT to add itto my library -- a must-have! ... Read more

Product Description
This practical introduction to the techniques needed to produce high-quality mathematical illustrations is suitable for anyone with basic knowledge of coordinate geometry. Bill Casselman combines a completely self-contained step-by-step introduction to the graphics programming language PostScript with an analysis of the requirements of good mathematical illustrations. The many small simple graphics projects can also be used in courses in geometry, graphics, or general mathematics. Code for many of the illustrations is included, and can be downloaded from the book's web site: www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/graphics/manualMathematicians; scientists, engineers, and even graphic designers seeking help in creating technical illustrations need look no further. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New look at old techniques
To understand maths through drawings: this is the motto of this excelent book. It's a major change in the way we look at pictures and, particulary, at PostScript. PostScript as a tool for learning maths, not only for drawing beautiful diagrams. For math majors and computer scientists alike. ... Read more

Product Description
This handy reference describes techniques and tricksneeded to illustrate LaTeX documents, and answers common userquestions about graphics and PostScript fonts. It provides the firstfull description of the standard LaTeX color and graphics packages,and shows how you can combine TeX and PostScript capabilities toproduce beautifully illustrated pages. Following the successful formatof The LaTeX Companion, this new book is an invaluable LaTeX resourcefor people incorporating pictures into text.

You will learn how to: incorporate graphic files into a LaTeXdocument, program technical diagrams using several differantlanguages, produce color pictures, achieve special effects withfragments of embedded PostScript, and make high-quality music scoresand games diagrams.

You will find detailed descriptions of: important packages likeXy-pic, PSTricks, and METAPOST; the standard LaTeX color and graphicspackages; PostScript fonts and how to use them in LaTeX; the dvips dvito PostScript driver; and Ghostscript, the free interpreter that letsyou view or print PostScript files even if you do not have aPostScript printer.

The authors examine a number of packages that extend or modify LaTeX'sbasic illustration features, and present hundreds of examples ofuseful solutions to graphics and font problems. In addition topackages for general drawing, the book also presents specific toolsfor mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers, and peopleinterested in games and music typesetting.

All the packages and programs described in this book are freelyavailable in public software archives, and the source code for allexamples has been placed on CTAN, the TeX archives (details on page497). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Power Latex but not for the Faint of Heart
Need to do charts or graphics using latex? Then this is the book for you. It's the most advanced and complete book on Latex graphics that I've seen. If you would like to implement a reporting system that can draw charts using latex then this book is a must. Though I've not used latex in a while, I do remember that this one is not for the faint of heart. I do put it into the one of "must have" latex books.

Good Examples, quite incomplete
Many times in this book I've seen exactly what I want to do, but the LaTeX code is not always shown.I use this book as a hint to what can be done, and then I search on the web for LaTeX examples.I am fairly disappointed, and often find myself more frustrated after reading a section than I was before.

As an example (for those of you who have the book), Figure 4.1 is referenced as an example of how to use \multido, but the book does not have (or I could not find) the corresponding LaTeX.

Like the JC Penny catalogue:a wish book
I would have to hazard a guess that this is probably the most advanced LaTeX book on the market.It is lots of fun to look at with its many esoteric uses of LaTeX--typesetting bridge or chess game diagrams, musicnotation, optical illusions--in other words, stuff that I wish had enoughtime to learn but probably never will.However, I do find myself lookingat this book more than I initially imagined because it is quite useful onsubjects such as fonts and the "dvips" program.For these areas,you'll definitely find things to learn and use even if you aren't evergoing to typeset Mozart's lost symphony or fiddle with EncapsulatedPost-Script code at the primitive command level.

Almost Perfect
Nicely crafted guidebook to the graphics and fonts. PSTricks, color, chess, chemistry and music - helps you to typeset all of it, and more. My only complain is that the chapter on fonts is vague at places - because thebook tries to be so encyclopedic, I guess

LaTeX graphics bible
If you use LaTeX and are serious about including graphics in your documents, then this is the book to read. I've never seen a more complete and readable explanation of using graphics with LaTeX.

However, I don't recommend that raw beginners use this book. You really need some knowledge of LaTeX to understand what's going on. If you're an advanced user, THE LATEX GRAPHICS COMPANION is indispensible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is a great book!
Thinking in PostScript covers very little graphics and page layout. This is not what this book is about. Thinking in PostScript offers you precisely what the title says: The ideas and intuition behind really *thinking* inPostScript. PostScript is a postfix language, quite like FORTH or RPL.While it is quite different from "traditional" Algol descendents,it is a sophisticated high-level language that offers higher orderprocedures, polymorphic data structures, run-time types, dynamic memorymanagement, local state -- if you want it, and much more. The language isreally quite similar to LISP or Scheme in its philosophy -- only that thoseare prefix languages. The distinction is superficial.

I've written somesmall snippletts of code in PostScript before tackling the book. Then Iread the book ... Within *hours* I was able to leverage my skills at LISPand Scheme and generate efficient yet readable, debuggable and maintainablecode. I am now able to think directly in PostScript and produce reallyuseful code. Mr Reid deserves much of the credit for this.

If you needto write in PostScript and find yourself sinking in the language, writingunmaintainable, complicated mush, then this book is for you. It will helpyou *understand* the language and *think* in it, developing a goodprogramming style as you go along. As for the info on font encodings,graphics, etc -- you can pick that up from the PostScript reference -- onceyou understand the language and feel comfortable with it. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Forth Programming Language Family, Forth, Postscript, Befunge, 51-Forth, Poplog, Muf, Stack-Oriented Programming Language, Dc, Rpl, Factor, False, Cat, Open Firmware, Mouse, Joy, Stoic, Colorforth, Piet, Abundance, Gforth, Pforth, Bashforth, Z, Reva Forth, Lapis, Millscript, Parakeet, Portable Forth Environment, Onyx. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 141. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:51-FORTH is an implementation of the Forth programming language for the Intel 8051 microcontroller . It was created in 1989 by Scott Gehmlich of IDACOM Electronics (which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1990), and sent to Giovanni Moretti of Massey University , from whom it was propagated widely. The original 51forth.zip package is available from many archive sites, along with several other implementations of Forth.This implementation is subroutine-threaded, with about 20 words written in assembly language , and the complete system occupying a total of about 8K of RAM. It was cross-developed from a VAX to an RTX2000 Forth system connected to dual-ported RAM accessible to the microcontroller.The sources and documentation are in the public domain .Websites (URLs online) A hyperlinked version of this chapter is at Bashforth is a free Forth interpreter , written entirely in the Bash scripting language . It requires GNU Bash v2.04 or higher. Its virtual machine makes use of string threading .Due to being written in a scripting language , Bashforth runs slowly, but does not need any installation for those who want to try out the Forth language.An object-oriented programming environment is available for Bashforth, by means of the SmallOOPS extension to Bashforth, allowing interactive OOPS programming right from the Bash prompt.More alternatives, which do not require installation, exist, notably jsforth, a Forth interpreter wri... ... Read more

Product Description
This instruction book for designers, illustrators and desktop publishers using PostScript graphics programs on personal computers offers chapters written by computer illustrators who demonstrate the electronic art-making process and the logical and creative thinking that lies behind successful pictures. At the end of each chapter, there is a section of PostScript illustrations by the author of the chapter, with descriptions of the techniques that went into their making. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very technical
PostScript had its golden years some 20 years ago, but now it lives in a niche of old school programmers. I would recommend this book to them, but I know there are better alternatives. Nonetheless, if you are *really* serious about PostScript programming, have read the blue and the green books, have the red book on your desk for further reference, and know "Thinking in PostScript" too, you could buy this book... ... Read more

Product Description
The first and only directory to PostScript Type 1 fonts contains full-page profiles for every available PostScript font, illustrations of all characters, and suggestions for effective use, as well as a chapter on the Adobe Systems's new font technology. ... Read more

Product Description
Together at last, in these two volumes, are over 4,000 computer fonts for all users of type today--graphic designers, typesetters, type manufacturers and students. This encyclopedia of typefaces presents a comprehensive visual identification, specification and comparison guide for the thousands of computer/electronic fonts now available. Volume 1 includes Serif and Scripts typefaces. Volume 2 contains Sans Serif, Design, Outline, and Shadow typefaces. ... Read more

Product Description
Do you want to create an easy-maintenance, open-source website? Would you like to add interactivity and dynamic content to your site? Do you need help upgrading a HTML- or ASP-based site to PHP? "PHP with MySQL" is a comprehensive introduction to this programming language. It focuses on the essential structures and techniques to get you up and running quickly and confidently. With a step-by-step approach, clear illustrations and sample code for practice, you'll learn how to download and install the software, design and work with databases, embed PHP into HTML and convert code from ASP to PHP using free tools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Start PHP & MySQL with this book!
Teach Yourself PHP With MySQL is a great book for those who want to start web application programming. It is easy to ready with many examples and useful scripts to build your first dynamic website. The author's approach is systematic, and you will learn how to install Apache server andMySQL server toward actual coding.

I recommend this book to the beginners or those who want to learn PHP & MySQL for the first time. ... Read more

Product Description

A reference as well as a tutorial, this tome provides users with the information to programmatically create high-quality graphics with TeX and LaTeX software and the enhanced PSTricks graphic package as well as hundreds of examples with ready-to-run code for hardcopy or PDF output. From how to draw simple lines on curves to creating three-dimensional images, trees, knots, and charts and adding color gradients and shadows, this manual details how to create graphics via programming rather than interactive drawing. A survey of the realm of LaTeX graphic packages is also included, along with methods for incorporating high-quality graphics in LaTeX documents.

Product Description
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The company has historically focused upon the creation of multimedia and creativity software products, with a more-recent foray towards rich Internet application software development. Adobe was founded in December 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, who established the company after leaving Xerox PARC in order to develop and sell the PostScript page description language. In 1985, Apple Computer licensed PostScript for use in its LaserWriter printers, which helped spark the desktop publishing revolution. The company name Adobe comes from Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders. Adobe acquired its former competitor, Macromedia, in December 2005, which added newer software products and platforms such as Adobe ColdFusion, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex to its product portfolio. As of February 2009, Adobe Systems has 7,173 employees, about 40% of whom work in San Jose. ... Read more

Product Description

The LATEX typesetting system remains a popular choice for typesetting a wide variety of documents, from papers, journal articles, and presentations, to books--especially those that include technical text or demand high-quality composition. This book is the most comprehensive guide to making illustrations in LATEX documents, and it has been completely revised and expanded to include the latest developments in LATEX graphics. The authors describe the most widely used packages and provide hundreds of solutions to the most commonly encountered LATEX illustration problems.

This book will show you how to

• Incorporate graphics files into a LATEX document
• Program technical diagrams using several languages, including METAPOST, PSTricks, and XY-pic
• Use color in your LATEX projects, including presentations
• Create special-purpose graphics, such as high-qualitymusic scores and games diagrams
• Produce complex graphics for a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines

New to this edition:

• Updated and expanded coverage of the PSTricks and METAPOST languages
• Detailed explanations of major new packages for graphing and 3-D figures
• Comprehensive description of the xcolor package
• Making presentations with the beamer class
• The latest versions of gaming and scientific packages

There are more than 1100 fully tested examples that illustrate the text and solve graphical problems and tasks--all ready to run!

All the packages and examples featured in this book are freely downloadable from the Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (CTAN).

The LATEX Graphics Companion, Second Edition, is more than ever an indispensable reference for anyone wishing to incorporate graphics into LATEX. As befits the subject, the book has been typeset with LATEX in a two-color design.

Customer Reviews (6)

LaTeX Graphics
I purchased the LaTeX Graphics Companion, The (2nd Edition) while learning LaTeX to use to prepare materials for use while teaching high school geometry.This is an excellent resource providing both descriptions of the macros and examples for a number of LaTeX graphic packages.It's coverage of the PSTricks packages along with its separate index have been especially helpful.

An absolute must!
This is an absolute must for all people seriously interested in all kinds of graphics produced with LaTeX, that is with the most efficient typesetting system of the world.
Luciano Battaia

OK - but basically just a catalog and not really necessary
This book covers in one chapter (Chapter 2) the standard LaTex interfaces for embedding graphic objects in a LaTex document. Most, if not all, of this material is covered identically in the authors' other book "The LaTex Companion" and even in the 15-year-old LaTex 'bible', "LaTex User's Guide and Reference Manual" by Lamport.

Virtually the entire remainder of the Graphics Companion is a one-by-one synopsis of various add-on packages for LaTex, and essentially all of this material can be obtained free by downloading docs for the respective packages from the internet. Further, many of the packages covered in the Graphics Companion involve the user writing raw Postscript, a curiously old-fashioned, or at least unnecessarily geeky, approach. Raw Postscript for graphics has largely been superseded by the use of software such as Matlab, Mathematica, Maple, and Mathtype that produce cut and pastable graphic output that can be inserted intact into a LaTex document with a simple \includegraphics command - about all the average current LaTex user needs to know from a graphics standpoint. I'mnot familiar with the publication requirements of the research world outside of engineering and math, but I can't imagine that other disciplines haven't evolved similar tools with cut and paste graphical capabilities.

Huge sections of the Graphics Companion are devoted to MusixTex and various game description (chess, Sudoku, etc.) packages - choices that seem to have been made because (perhaps) there were available doc files that could be used (with permission) essentially intact.

So, although apparently extensively researched and competently written, the Graphics Companion seems to be not much more than a catalog and compendium of docs, and difficult to justify at the price. Some time spent on one of the LaTex forums will lead to at least as much useful information as this book.

All you need for graphics and latex
This book together with "The LaTex Companion" represents the state of the art of any manuals for LaTeX. The book is well written and it is comprehensible even to beginners . It shows all the major feature of the most common graphics packages. The most important thing is the all the packages are free available from [...] .
A really good guide for who is interested in producing high quality document and wants to write once and export in many formats.
It's a pity that there is no cd-rom media included.

Excellent information but sometimes difficult to follow.
Like The LaTeX Companion (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting), "The LaTeX Graphics Companion" is loaded with valuable information from beginning to end (925 pages in total). This time, the focus of the book is on the various graphics packages that are available in LaTeX including:
*Metafont, Metapost and Metaobj;
*PSTricks (including pst-plot, pst-node, pst-tree, pst-fill, pst-3d and pst-3dplot);
*XY-pic;
*MusiXTeX (which is used for preparing music scores)
*Packages for typesetting science, technology and medicine formulae and diagrams; and
*Packages for typesetting games (influding chess, cards, etc).

Each package is described thoroughly, through the use of numerous examples and I doubt there is a more detailed manual to these packages available anywhere. However, be aware that this book assumes a working knowledge of LaTeX (if you haven't already purchased it, I recommend you buy "The LaTeX Companion" as well as this book). Also, I found that I could not obtain some of the graphics packages described in this book and I found that when I started learning PSTricks, I needed to look at some online tutorials as well as this book, in order to learn the basics. Goosens et al. are not good at describing things to absolute beginners, but are good once you get beyond that.
... Read more

Product Description
PDF--to most of the world it stands for that rather tiresome format used for documents downloaded from the web. Slow to load and slower to print, hopelessly unsearchable, and all but impossible to cut and paste from, the Portable Document Format doesn't inspire much affection in the average user. But PDF done right is another story. Those who know the ins and outs of this format know that it can be much more than electronic paper. Flexible, compact, interactive, and even searchable, PDF is the ideal way to present content across multiple platforms.

PDF Hacks unveils the true promise of Portable Document Format, going way beyond the usual PDF as paged output mechanism. PDF expert Sid Steward draws from his years of analyzing, extending, authoring, and embellishing PDF documents to present 100 clever hacks--tools, tips, quick-and-dirty or not-so-obvious solutions to common problems.

PDF Hacks will show you how to create PDF documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages. The hacks in the book cover the full range of PDF functionality, from the simple to the more complex, including generating, manipulating, annotating, and consuming PDF information. You'll learn how to manage content in PDF, navigate it, and reuse it as necessary. Far more than another guide to Adobe Acrobat, the book covers a variety of readily available tools for generating, deploying, and editing PDF.

The little-known tips and tricks in this book are ideal for anyone who works with PDF on a regular basis, including web developers, pre-press users, forms creators, and those who generate PDF for distribution. Whether you want to fine-tune and debug your existing PDF documents or explore the full potential the format offers, PDF Hacks will turn you into a PDF power user. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Industrial strength, whether you're a consumer or creator of PDF
In short: I've written software that generates and manipulates PDF for several years now, and this book still had more than a few things to teach me.

Adobe Acrobat/Reader is a very complex piece of software, and like many Adobe products, mastery is more an art than a science. Right from the start, this book provides clearly written tips that make master the beast somewhat more manageable. For those who actually write and manipulate PDFs, the later sections will make your life easier at some point, I can say with some certainty.

Well worth it for anyone who has a PDF-intensive workflow.

Also, you can search for "PDFTK", one of the tools discussed in the book, to find the author's site. There are sample hacks you can read in full to get a better idea of the type of content. And there's of course "Look Inside".

Up to Acrobat 6 Only
This book has a lot of great, helpful information, but be aware that it stops at Acrobat 6.I don't think any of the reviews here mentioned that.

Great Book!!!
This book is a god-send for those of us who have to struggle with the often frustrating world of PDF documents on our computers. I was completely confused until I dug into this manual, which is relatively easy for a novice to understand. It has been a great help to me in find answers to problems I had with using PDF on a daily basis. I would highly recommend it.

unique resource for the technically gifted
There are several categories of hack in this book; two of them are "saving money" (finding ways to work with PDF's outside of Acrobat) and PDF in web design--using CGI scripting to serve up individual pages that have search text for example. A third type of hack are some old-school tricks that help make your PDF's more widely compatible. Good stuff, not crucial unless you happen to need it.

Sucker born every day & 2 to take him
The title is completely misleading.
I purchased this book and software from Broderbund, after reading the reviews posted here at Amazon, believing the book and software would help me covert PDF files that I could not Save or print in its orginal format into ones I could.
I can say for sure,in my opinion, the other reviews of this book led me down the "fools primrose path."
Perhaps I should have read the reviews more carefully.
Of course the fault is entirely mine. ... Read more

Product Description
DigiScript edits for production all digital manuscripts in the current industry formats PostScript and PDF, including pictures, text, graphics, color, and production parameters, independently of the hardware and software platforms used to prepare the document. Fundamental background information, technical know-how, and application examples from the professional prepress field are combined to help the user solve difficult production problems efficiently. The complete description of the DigiScript production environment allows the book to serve as a self-contained reference work. The accompanying CD-ROM provides all the data you need to test DigiScript on your NEXTSTEP 3.3 system as well as review copies of the examples introduced in the user handbook. ... Read more