From the book lists at Adware Report:

All information current as of 03:14:39 Pacific Time, Monday, 7 March 2005. Graphic Design for 21st Century Desktop Publishers    by Linda Studer / Marvin Jacobs   Paperback:     Ameritype & Art     01 January, 1999    --price not specified--       This item is currently not available. Click the button below to . . .      (which will add the book to your Amazon U.S.A. "Shopping Cart") . . . or use your browser's Back button to return to the search-list page.

---

Editorial description(s):

From the Publisher
This is the second book written by the dynamic writing team of Associate Professor Linda Studer of Stark State College and Marvin Jacobs, president of Ameritype, a graphic design and Web developer corporation. Their first book, Forms Design II, The Course for Paper and Electronic Forms, is the best-selling forms design book in the country and the only forms design college textbook.


From the Author
Buying a violin won't make you a violinist and buying desktop publishing software won't make you a graphic designer. That's why Linda Studer and I wrote this book, to teach desktop publishers and students the graphic design concepts they need to produce professional designs.


About the Author
Linda I. Studer is an Associate Professor of Business Technologies at Stark State College in Canton, Ohio. She has taught business classes for more than 15 years and is currently teaching a graphics design concepts class. Marvin Jacobs CFSP is the president of Ameritype, a desktop publishing and Web design corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a graphic arts author and lecturer .


Excerpted from Graphic Design for 21st Century Desktop Publishers by Linda Studer and Marvin Jacobs. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Good graphic design is not a desktop publishing software default. You can buy a high quality hammer but it doesn't make you a carpenter.. you get the idea.

Almost every document must be designed with an alignment system. It provides an organization and an order required for the reader to understand the message and feel comfortable with the page. Alignment systems are either symmetrical (centered) or asymmetrical (off-centered). The choice between centered and off-centered is an important one because it impacts the reader. It sets the tone of the document.

Typically people would rather look at pictures than read. It's quicker, simpler, and easier. Pictures convey messages instantly, unlike text which is linear and takes time to reveal its message to the reader. The best pictures are ones that help the reader understand the message, not just placed on the page for decoration.


Book Description
Buying desktop publishing software will not make you a professional graphic designer any more than buying a scalpel will make you a surgeon. As good as the software may be, it is only a tool. The missing ingredients are graphic design concepts and techniques. This 335- page book with hundreds of illustrations, will show you step-by-step, how to create sparkling graphic designs, efficient business forms and money-making Web sites. This unique publication is two books in one, a how-to-do-it book for desktop publishers and a college textbook.




Reader review(s):

Solid grounding for beginners; useful reference for veterans, October 11, 1999
A collection of on-target "dos and don'ts" for business graphics, forms, and web site designers, presented with a serious, common sense focus on achieving effective results through specific purpose business communication tools. Authors promote concentration on value vs. gimmick.

Graphic Design for the 21st Century Desktop Publishers, July 10, 2004
Let me begin by saying that this book is an adequate "starter book" that does the basic job of setting up a graphic design career. It solidly defines that design cannot be handed to you through the use of a computer nor can you simply "pick-it-up" by reading this book. Those are great words of reality when it comes to the real world of graphic design - both in the business/advertising world and the Internet. No one should ever step into this field without a complete understanding of the principles of design (balance, harmony, repitition, etc) and computer skill. Lets face it, without the computer, most of the ads and design you see today would be gone.

Unfortunately, I felt this book fails to hit the quality of explanation needed to understand the "why" of design. I face it with my own high school and college students as well as my own freelance clients; the "why" of design always becomes the forefront of what is made. It takes more than small paragraphs of information to explain why deciding a photo vs. a raster image is correct for a particular design. Many different factors come into play that aren't fully described in this book. The text almost feels like a glorified glossary rather than a 'how-to" on graphic design.

I also found that the quality of the imagery is somewhat remedial and quite outdated. I would not show most of the visual examples to my students as I feel they are not up-to-date enough to follow current design trends and styles. Many are perfect for explaining the point at hand, but should be revamped for today's tastes and should include professional examples where the technique was applied.

In addition, I also felt that a few of the techniques described seemed to pull from the 1980's - before computer-based design was the mainstream. I still remember the days of physically cutting and pasting the images in place and the real pen & ink drawings!

Overall, I felt the book is good glossary for building a foundation of what graphic design is about, but I would not depend on this as an all-encompassing text for your career. I would in fact use the text as a source for my students to begin with, but would suppliment the examples with that of my own and would encourage more open collaboration on the ideas behind the design (Why does the design fit or not fit the client? What is the design focusing on? What is great about it? Why does it work or not work in this situation? Etc...). The book should also drive the reader into the realization that computers are the mainstream and that they are there as a very powerful tool to aid in your design and should be used whenever possible (for the fabrication, not the idea!). Even though the authors are not full-time designers (one is a typesetter and desktop publisher and the other is a business educator) they have created a decent book for the beginning student of graphic design.

A solidly presented "how-to primer", December 8, 2002
Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Graphic Design For 21st Century Desktop Publishers by Marvin Jacobs (President of Ameritype Art, Inc.) and Linda I. Studer (Associate Professor, Stark State College of Technology, Canton, Ohio) is a solidly presented "how-to primer" on successfully entering the challenging and every-changing field of computer graphic design which is especially relevant for personal or professional desktop publishing. Basic advice, tips, tricks, and techniques for creating professional quality websites, forms, business graphics and more are discussed in detail. Enhanced with numerous black-and-white illustrations which add a particular clarity to each point, Graphic Design For 21st Century Desktop Publishers is confidently recommended as being a truly first-rate, "user friendly" instructional and reference manual.

A good reference book at work, September 10, 2002
This book is very helpful for desktop publishers who don't have graphic design training. It's an easy way to learn graphic design principles and it's also a good reference book. It's especially helpful for those who need to design business forms.

The chapters on choosing typefaces and using type effectively on the page are very helpful.

Not for the 21st century, February 5, 2001
I found the graphics in this book to be poorly chosen and of poor quality, which was surprising, given the book's title and topic. The layout was less than gripping, again surprising, given the book's title and topic. Given these two critical flaws,one would be hesitant to follow the authors' advice for graphics and layout! Roger C. Parker's Desktop Publishing for Dummies and Ann Goodheart's Alleviating Prepress Anxiety cover more territory, better, more amusingly, more swiftly -- and they cost much less.

Excellent introduction to issues in print design, September 26, 1999
The desktop-publishing "revolution" has given a lot of businesspeople advanced design tools without giving them advanced design skills or training. In this book, Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Studer help overcome that gap by offering clear, concise, practical advice that anyone can use to improve their business documents.

Great Reference Book, January 8, 2003
I purchased this book for a college class, and upon completion of the class decided to keep it to add to my personal library. The book is not only designed very well, but contains valuable information on everything from business stationary to forms design. The books step by step approach will prove helpful for any beginner to advanced graphic designer.

Great book overall, December 9, 2002
This book is great for beginers as well as professionals. Easy to understand with plenty of illustrations and examples. The book covers form design, web page design, as well as business stationary design and more. I myself learned a lot from this book and would recommend this book to anyone wishing to know more about graphic design.

First-rate introduction to fundamentals of graphic design, September 12, 2002
Desktop software has given desktop publishers superior design tools without giving them graphic design skills. In this book, the authors provide the design fundamentals that allow the desktop publisher to use the software tools to create professional graphics.

It doesn't just tell you how...it shows you how, September 12, 2002
The many how-to-do-it, step-by-step illustrations are the key feature in this helpful book.

Especially helpful for me was the chapter on generating ideas for layouts. No more staring at a blank screen trying to come up with a creative design that gets the message across. The visual brainstorming technique is worth the price of the book alone.

---

{end of page}

(Page code from the SEO Tools, Toys, and Packages site)