Saint_Michael

In this review, I will be talking about a book, though almost a couple of years old, provides a interesting insight or rather how far HTML5 has come since this book came out. Titled "HTML5 For Web Designers" was written by Jeremy Keith in which he talks about HTML5 and what is about to come and or available and while most of what is in this book is old news by now. This book gives a small idea on how complicated HTML5 has become and I will say this good luck if this is your first language.

The interesting part about this book is that it only comes in at roughly 90 pages and yet completely opens your eyes, heck it did for me when Keith talk about the <header> and <footer> tags because they no longer represent their original intentions. Meaning that when it comes to those two tags, they no longer belong at the top and bottom of the website, but rather they can represent the top and bottom of the content of itself. Best way to describe their new usage is by looking at a blog article in which the <header> tag now represents the name of the article, the generated link to the article, who wrote it, and of course when it was published. As for the <footer> tag, the copyright information still applies but you can expand it by including your sources, other links maybe some info on the author themselves.

While you could produce the same results with div tags, the problem is though you can only use those two tags once, however, the <header> and <footer> tags can be used a 1000 times and your website will still come out producing valid code. Thus the power of HTML5, of course Keith talks about other topics, such as new ways to deal with audio and video, the <div> killer article and section tags, and even how HTML5 is slowly replacing flash and JavaScript,

Granted the drawback to this book is its shortness, but this book is more of a fun read then technical, but I wouldn't have minded if he covered more in each chapter, but alas that is what those other books are for. However, if you check out the abooksapart.com website, this is just one of a series of books that are talking about the latest generation of design, development and concepts of web design, so go check them out after reading this book.

In this review, I will talking about of many books that has been published by Sitepoint over the years, but what makes this book unique besides being free to download [http://www.sitepoint...-the-community/] its practically 12 books in itself as this book was written by several members of the Sitepoint community and thus brings several different perspectives as you read this book.

Of course, when I say twelves books in one, most of what is covered can be found in Sitepoint's library itself or any book store on/offline that talks web or computer. You could say that if your interested in computers in some fashion or another, this would be a go to book to figure out where you want to start first. As this book covers three type of people; developers, designers, and programmers and of course the branches from those three main groups is too much for this review but gives you an idea what interests you the most.

For me though, the chapter that stands out the most for me is "The Different TCP/IP Protocols" because this relating more towards computer hardware while the rest of the book is gear more towards internet based topics, such as, web design, web programming, graphic design etc.

Of course, if you had ever taken a computer hardware course, like yours truly, or spent the time understanding the hardware or build computers from scratch. A lot of this information you should be able to recognize rather quickly. Such as the OSI model, TCP/IP model, how an IP address is broken down, the various protocols that use TCP/IP such as FTP, DHCP and of course the most important protocol of all HTTP.

Though i would like to point out when it comes to TCP/IP, you would want more technical books that talk about it and prepare your brains to get all mushy after reading one of those books. Like I said though, this chapter stands out like a sore thumb just because its more technical then the rest of the book.

Either way, this book is a fun read and worth getting, not because its free or anything but provides valuable information to help open you up to the world of computers.

In this review, I will be talking about second edition of Jason Beaird's book titled "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design 2ed". it is just one of many free books I have picked up from this great website and I would like to share it with you. In this book Beaird talks about all the various aspects of designing a beautiful website, from layout to color to typography to the usage of images and more. While this is pretty small for what it covers (Five Chapters at 196 pages).

He still provides a great source of information, especially with current trends such as Grids, Fluid/Fixed/Responsive layouts, CSS3 and some HTML5 as well. In his first chapter titled "Layout and Composition", he spends his time in this chapter discussing the layout process a designer takes, such as what what the website is about, which questions to ask, should it be symmetrical or asymmetrical, inspiration and more. Definitely worth reading for you UX designers out there because how important this aspect of building a website is important to the boys and girls of UX.

Another favorite part of the book lies in chapter two "Color" in which, Jason Beaird talks about the psychology of color, and spends the first seven pages talking about the meaning of primary colors such as red, blue, black, white, yellow, and even purple. Then of course, a topic I have been pondering about for awhile of course is topography and the fact I spend timing looking at fonts more closely, especially since CSS3 including the @font-face into its structure.

Even though this is good book, the one fatal flaw its a bit short, especially in the topics that Beaird covers and so this book is gear more towards those getting into design and not those or are well aged in these areas. Of course, if you bought the first edition of the book most of the information is the same, but I find this version to be more polished and the book more reader friendly then its predecessor irregardless of the information that is in the two books.

Of course, if your a huge fan of Sitepoint, then its a must have for your collection and I know I have.

In today's book, I will be reviewing White Space Is Not our Enemy: A Beginner's Guide to Communicating Visually through Graphic, Web and Multimedia Design by Kim Golombisky & Rebecca Hagen. If you thought what I though, unlikely, I was thinking it was a book about work white space in your designs, well you be wrong as this book is more of a informal discussion of web design in general. Meaning, that it covers the most important aspects of design such as fonts, color, images, layout, story boarding to name a few. Of course, the whole time the book is specifically talking about the proper and improper usage of white space so that is most definitely a buzz world to look out for as you read this book.

While this book is gear more towards the UX crowd, I think this book, which is light in nature, is valuable to programmers, graphic designers, font and color specialists and so on. The book isn't technical by any means but does provides processes a person would go through when trying to figure out their design. Obviously, the topics that the previous sentence refers to the chapters on color, fonts, and story boarding. However, as you read the book it provides a subtle process for everything a person goes through, its just those three chapters that stick out the most.

As for the chapter that I will be focusing on in this review will be Chapter 4, which is titled Layout Sins. In this chapter the authors talks about 13 common mistakes when it comes to the layout process, for me some of them are pretty common and others not so much. For instance, sin number 2 talks about re-sizing the image to fit your layout and the problem is that it often distorts the image itself and thus lose its quality. I can say from experience getting an image to work properly in a layout is a annoying task, especially if the image isn't large enough to fit the layout.

As for a sin that isn't too common, for me at least is Sin #8: Trapped Negative Space. The idea from what the authors are talking and from my understanding it has to deal with making sure that the white is balanced through out the website and if it isn't, then it will stick out like a sore thumb.

To read more about this sine more specifically, go here http://sixrevisions....ayouts-a-guide/

The best thing about this chapter is out the end in which they ask you to go through the 13 sins with your designs and see if any of them show up, and odds are after reading that chapter they will stand out more. Which means, that this list should be an important part of your design process and odds are I bet that list would be even larger, but odds are I think the authors wanted to stick to these the most.

To end my review, it is a good book for light reading and helps you think a bit more or rather think about things that have never come up and while it isn't technical in nature, I bet if you combine it with your other books, UX or other wise, odds are it will strengthen the process you go through from paper to server.

In this review, I will be talking about a book that is specific to graphic designers, called Logo Design Love. Author David Airey book specifically targets one aspect of graphic design and that is logos, and the goal of this book is not to talk about iconic logos or what ones are bad or good, but rather the design process. It isn't so much a step-by-step guide, but more of the process one takes either from inspiration from what he or she sees to fulfilling client requests.

in the first part of book he talks about the point of logos and brands, the story they are telling and what makes a great logo. In the second part of the book is where you get your hands dirty, but the interesting part is the work a person has to do before they even begin the concept of design and I reflect back to the five W's; Who, What, Where, When, and Why. However he takes it a step further by talking about How and the need especially when it comes to redesigning an old logo from a well established company to a logo for an emerging company.

Then, when a person feels they have everything they need to get an idea what the Logo should say, then they begin the design process itself; from concept drawings to color theory, to graphic design software. As for part three of this book, he provides useful information and tips to become more proficient and focus in Logo design and while this book is working on two years, the information that it provides would be invaluable to graphic designers and area for some to focus on to strengthen their skills.