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Just a quick note to say: I love the Adobe Illustrator CS4 Wow! Book by Sharon Steuer (and the Illustrator Wow! team, which includes Conrad Chavez, Jean-Claude Tremblay, Mordy Golding, Andrew Dashwood, Randy Livingtston, Dave Awl, and many others). The Photoshop Wow! Book has always been cool, too, but I have a special place in my heart for vector graphics and for people who can do amazing things with them. So flipping through the AI Wow! book just makes me say, “wow,” over and over again.
These are the types of computer books I like to read, but they’re too expensive for single-reads that can’t be given away or re-sold as most people here don’t read books in English, and libraries aren’t allowed to accept books as gifts. That’s why I stopped reading the Real World books.
Maybe once I get an e-book reader and e-books actually cost less than paper books I’ll get back into them.
For now I’ve added this book’s page on Amazon.co.uk to my Read It Later list so I can check it every now and then to see if it’s available for 10GBP or so.
In case you did not read it already, I have made an Interview with Sharon Steuer on my blog with some “behing the scene” details of the making of this version of the book. You can read it here: https://bit.ly/Sharon
This CS4 version is the 10th edition she has wrote, that a new book for every release of Illustrator starting with Illustrator 5. Just that it’s a worth a “Wow!”.
I’m particularly proud of this 10th edition, not only because I have help Sharon in various way for the last 9 months (Yes 9!) in making it but also because a friend of mine, Michel Zappy, have done the cover illustration.
PS: We even did include some tips on working with Illustrator & Indesign.
Illustrator CS4 Wow is a book that many will read back, again and again, is full of precious and detailed information, techniques and tips.
It’s a joy to find all the things, top illustrator/artists, inspiration, excellent examples and tutorials,… bundled together, it has a VALUE several times the US price for such a fully loaded 500 pages colourful book.
Awesome, worthy and highly recommended
Federico Platón
I agree with you, Federico.
Roland, I don’t mean to be overly critical, but I guess I am a little sensitive to this particular issue: If everyone were like you (unwilling to pay more than a pittance for a book), there would be no new books because there would be no adequate reason for authors to write them. The Wow! books (and the Real World books, for that matter) are a huge effort. The idea that you should be able to buy a 500+ page color book for $10-15 is somewhat ridiculous in my opinion — no matter if the book is printed or electronic.
However, ultimately, I take the same tack on books as I do on software: You should only buy it if you think it will pay for itself. If you use Illustrator for professional work, there is no doubt in my mind that the Wow! book would pay for itself in a job or two. (I would argue the same for my Real World books, of course.) If you’re a hobbyist or already know everything about the program, then perhaps it’s not for you.
I’m aware I’m passing judgment on a book I haven’t even touched, let alone seen into, and that’s partly my fault as I refuse to read anything in Dutch, but I also can’t get this book (or most ‘specialized’ books) in brick-and-mortar bookstores here. This means I’d have to go spend $60 (Amazon.co.uk) or more ($73 at Bol.com, Holland’s leading e-store) without knowing if this one will be worth it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not yet rich enough to buy stuff hoping it’ll be worth it ;)
If something’s worth the money, I’ll gladly pay for it to show my support (otherwise I wouldn’t have paid for all my software and fonts).
Get it from Amazon.com – I just checked, and it would cost $45.77 altogether including tax, post and packing to Ireland.
I frequently order books from Amazon.com in the US instead of Amazon.co.uk. There’s a slightly longer waiting time (about two days extra), but it’s usually much cheaper.
The product is usually sent via New Zealand, packaged impeccably, in perfect condition.
It’ s good, now i buy this book from amazon.
I bought it on ebay for 15 dollar… it´s a excellent book!