, without even telling the uninitiated that these are (X)HTML tags.
I've never wasted so much money on a book! The only value I have is in warning off other readers! Spend your money somewhere else!
I'd like to give it zero stars.


Neat but lightweight   February 24, 2008
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I was a bit disappointed. I'm not a beginner nor an expert. Some technical books give you something that you get energised about, and want to go try straight away; unfortunately I didn't get anything useful from this book, and only slight inspiration.
On the plus side, it is well written and laid out, has a nice informal air.
For example, this is not for you if you already know about the differences between GIF, JPG and PNG; or if you know a bit about colour wheels and complementary colours; or if you are familiar with web-safe fonts.
Fine for beginners and a little bit after that. Not really for semi-pros onwards.


Great for new people looking into design   February 15, 2008
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is great for programmers or developers who've never been officially trained in graphic or UI design. Even if you've just started learning html and CSS or perhaps a bit of photoshop, this book will give you some solid knowledge with which to work your new ideas around.




Absolutely superb, a must read for anyone creating websites!   January 8, 2008
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have an ever growing library of books on css, html, (web)design and web development but this is definitely one of my favourites, both for its excellent content and for Beaird's warm, friendly tone. I remember having plenty of "light bulb moments" on the first read and get something more out of it each time I dip in (which is freqently).

The first section on layout and composition is superb and has already helped me improve existing designs (and quickened the process of getting them from paper to screen).

As for the section on colour, hands up those of you who skip the boring techy bit about rgb and cmyk? Me too. But not any more.

Of all the web design books on my shelf, this is the one I'd reach for first if the house were collapsing (assuming family, dog and computer were safely out of danger of course!)

p.s. I can't agree with the earlier review by "sharp" (the only lukewarm review I've ever seen for this book) - take a look around the internet, there are far too many "real web designers" that would benefit greatly from reading this book and applying some of the advice!