Start with a Scan Book

The art of mixed media has taken on new meaning in the digital production environment, and the second edition of Start with a Scan guides new artists through the maze of image acquisition, hardware and software toward the goal of final output. This is not just a book on scanning and creating art, it's about the art and science of scanning, editing and tailoring an image to your needs.Beginning by explaining how scanners work, the different types of scanners out there, and why it is important to know how the scanned image will be used, the book quickly digs into the meat and potatoes of editing, altering, tracing and otherwise changing a scanned image to suit a project.Arguably the most interesting chapters are "Creating Textures and Backgrounds from Print and Paper" and "Transforming Photos into Graphics". One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks a designer faces is that of finding and creating background elements and graphics. Start with a Scan explains in these two chapters, probably worth the cover price alone, how to use scanned photos or raw elements (cloth, paper and so on) to create the element you need.Although the book deals with digital tools (e.g. scanners and computers), it could hardly be called a computer graphics book. The goal is teaching how to scan and alter images, and Scan never loses sight of that. The authors deserve a great deal of credit for creating what is an educational and inspirational book on a form of visual art, which happens to use computers as tools, rather than a computer book that happens to talk about digital graphics. This is how books of the genre should be written. --Mike CaputoRead More