resources
This is a very short list of software, websites and books that we find useful, inspirational, or diverting.
software
It's a heavy responsibility to recommend software, but these are the tools we have chosen after a long period of evaluation – our everyday professional life. They work for us.
Adobe InDesign CS3 | The modern way to do magazine-style page layouts. Now has more ‘long document' features, making it very good for technical manuals. Excellent for colour, typography and PDF production.
Adobe FreeHand MX | A long-in-the-tooth 2D drawing package with a great interface that can produce shining results quickly. Adobe is firmly behind its stable-mate Illustrator - but they don't have to use it!
Adobe Acrobat | Acrobat reader is an essential piece of software. Acrobat Professional is great for reviewing documents by e-mail. Acrobat 3D has massive potential for User Guides that show how things work.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 | A triumph of the software writer's art, this is a complex but immensely powerful tool for the creation and manipulation of raster images.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 | ‘InDesign’ for web designers. XHTML made easy.
Adobe FrameMaker | This is a monster program for subduing monster documents, though its road map for the future is frayed at the edges.
websites
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia | It's quick, comprehensive, and often right. If you have more detailed, more accurate or more balanced information on any of its two million+ (English) entries, then improve the world by submitting it to their peer-review process.
Google Image Search | Everyone knows and uses Google, but this is a quick way to grab a picture of that component or logo.
Dictionary.com | More than a dictionary - free and up-to-date.
Cambridge Local Information | Courtesy of the University of Cambridge, this portal quietly delivers a vast number of local and national information sources.
Digital cameras | Knowing of CD's interest in photography, people often ask for advice about the 'best' digital camera to buy. All design is a compromise, and it depends on your needs, experience and commitment. With detailed, objective reviews and up-to-date information, you can find many of the answers from this site.
For compact digitals, look closely at Lumix (Panasonic with Leica lenses) as well as the obvious offerings from Nikon Coolpix, Canon Ixus and Fuji. For digital SLRs, Nikons are awesome (D300, D90, D700), as are the latest Canons. For engineering and optical excellence, Leica are superb but wildly expensive.
For great images, first invest in glass (i.e. lens quality), followed by sensor quality, then look for build quality/robustness. Low noise performance in low-light environments is a key discriminator.
Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators | The ISTC, if you want to know more about Technical Writing!
The Onion | Who says American's don't get irony? A consistently funny 'news' site.
News Biscuit | An English ‘Onion’.
books
These books may be helpful to you if you're writing or prepararing material for publication.
reference
Official Adobe Print Publishing Guide: The Essential Resource for Design, Production, and Prepress
Brian P. Lawler| Adobe, 2nd edition; ISBN: 0321304667
Copy-Editing:
The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers
Judith Butcher | Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 0521400740
Hart’s
Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford
Horace Hart | Oxford; ISBN: 019212983X
Chambers
Encyclopedic English Dictionary: Thumb-indexed Edition
Robert Allen | Chambers; ISBN: 0550110011
The Synonym
Finder
J. I. Rodale | Time Warner International; ISBN: 0446370290
Ultimate
Visual Dictionary
Dorling Kindersley Publishing; ISBN: 0789428741
writing style
The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market
John Kohl | SAS Institute, 2007, 336pp; ISBN: 1599946572
graphic design
Signs and
Symbols: Their Design and Meaning
Adrian Frutiger | Studio Edns.; ISBN: 1851703179
Paul Rand:
A Designer's Art
Paul Rand | Yale University Press; ISBN: 0300082827
Design in
Context: The History, Application and Development of Design
Penny Sparke | Bloomsbury; ISBN: 0747510946
information design
Information
Graphics: Innovative Solutions in Contemporary Design
Peter Wildbur, Michael Burke | Thames and Hudson; ISBN: 0500280770
The Visual
Display of Quantitative Information
Edward Tufte | Graphics Press UK; ISBN: 0961392142
Envisioning
Information
Edward Tufte | Graphics Press UK; ISBN: 0961392118
Visual Explanations:
Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Edward Tufte | Graphics Press UK; ISBN: 0961392126
Open Here:
The Art of Instructional Design
Paul Mijksenaar | Thames and Hudson; ISBN: 050028170X
The Social
Life of Information
John Seeley Brown, Paul Duguid | Harvard Business School Press; ISBN: 1578517087
interface design
Designing
Visual Interfaces
Kevin Mullet, Darrell Sano | Prentice Hall PTR; ISBN: 0133033899
The Humane
Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems
Jef Raskin | Addison Wesley; ISBN: 0201379376
Designing
the User Interface, 3rd Ed.
Ben Shneiderman | Addison Wesley; ISBN: 0201694972
photography
The Complete
Guide to Digital Photography
Michael Freeman | Thames and Hudson; ISBN: 0500542465
Century:
One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope 1899-1999
Bruce Bernard (ed.) | Phaidon Press; ISBN: 0714838489
typography
Twentieth
Century Type Designers
Sebastian Carter | Lund Humphries; ISBN: 0853318514
Stop Stealing
Sheep and Find Out How Type Works
Erik Spiekermann | Adobe Press; ISBN: 0201703394
usability
The Design
of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman | The MIT Press; ISBN: 0262640376
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