Color Index
by Jim Krause
ISBN: 1581802366

"Color Index provides more than one thousand color combinations and formulas--guaranteed to help graphic artists solve design dilemmas and create effective images for both print and the Web...

Just like the other clever little design books in this series, Color Index is portable, packed with inspiration, and neatly packaged in a colorful, sturdy vinyl jacket."
 

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir
ISBN: 073571102X

"The book begins with a chapter of precise guidelines that serve as a checklist of the features and functionality to include on your homepage. The specifics found in categories such as "revealing content through examples" and "graphic design" will quickly hook you and whet your appetite for more. These guidelines are followed up with hard statistics and an examination of the ominous Jakob's Law: "users spend most of their time on other sites than your site." Here you'll find some interesting statistics about how various conventions like search, privacy policies, and logos are used."
 

The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations:
750 Color Formulas in CMYK and RGB from Around the World
by Leslie Cabarga
ISBN: 1581801955

"Designer and illustrator Cabarga taps into the vast possibilities of color by presenting color combinations in eight sections, based on geographic regions. This volume is essentially an anthology of different types of art from around the world, illustrated throughout with examples of web sites, packages, posters, paintings, and architectural elements that show how different regions use color to reflect their cultures and identities. Much of the book is anecdotal, and the writing is not a strong point, its purpose being more practical than theoretical. Postage stamp-sized color designs accompany the artwork to demonstrate alternative uses of the color palettes found in the art on each page. There are also keys with 750 "process" (CMYK) and on-screen (RGB) formulas..."
 

The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations
by Leslie Cabarga
ISBN: 0891348573

"This wonderful book is about color and design, but it is not a book of theory that begins with color wheels, primary colors, secondary colors, and color harmony. Instead, it offers design examples from the past century: Victorian, Art Deco, Sixties, Raves, etc., with each illustration including Cmyk color formulas. Cmyk is the color-processing system used by printers and also Photoshop, i.e., you can add in the Cmyk for any color in the book and duplicate it in Photoshop or other paint programs. Along with design examples, there are also chapters on current color styles, limited colors, and "bad color," which actually is pretty cool. Designers will love this book for the examples; others can simply select great colors that go together."
 

The Non-Designer's Design Book
by Robin Williams
ISBN: 0321193857

"Subtitled Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, this book is for anyone who has to design a newsletter, job ad, flyer, business card, memo, report or whatever, but has no idea what separates good design from bad. Except, of course, that the first looks clear, professional, sophisticated and right, and the second is an ugly, unreadable mess.

Robin Williams has an easily readable style and manages to communicate sometimes complex and sophisticated concepts simply and directly. She rightly assumes that, though most people can recognise bad design when they see it, they don't know why it's bad and are therefore powerless to fix the same problems in their own work."
 

The Non-Designer's Type Book
by Robin Williams
ISBN: 0321303369

"Williams teaches electronic typography and has written some excellent books on digital design... Anyone who has misplaced a font they just downloaded from a web site or who has witnessed the horrific use of type on many personal web sites knows how badly these books are needed. Clear explanations and good illustrations are the hallmarks of both volumes. There is little overlap, since one deals with managing the electronic fonts and the other with the uses of type. These gems are recommended for most collections."