Customer Reviews

The LaTeX Graphics Companion: Illustrating Documents with TeX and Postscript(R)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would have to hazard a guess that this is probably the most advanced LaTeX book on the market. It is lots of fun to look at with its many esoteric uses of LaTeX--typesetting bridge or chess game diagrams, music notation, optical illusions--in other words, stuff that I wish had enough time to learn but probably never will. However, I do find myself looking at this book more than I initially imagined because it is quite useful on subjects such as fonts and the "dvips" program. For these areas, you'll definitely find things to learn and use even if you aren't ever going to typeset Mozart's lost symphony or fiddle with Encapsulated Post-Script code at the primitive command level.

If you use LaTeX and are serious about including graphics in your documents, then this is the book to read. I've never seen a more complete and readable explanation of using graphics with LaTeX.

However, I don't recommend that raw beginners use this book. You really need some knowledge of LaTeX to understand what's going on. If you're an advanced user, THE LATEX GRAPHICS COMPANION is indispensible.

Nicely crafted guidebook to the graphics and fonts. PSTricks, color, chess, chemistry and music - helps you to typeset all of it, and more. My only complain is that the chapter on fonts is vague at places - because the book tries to be so encyclopedic, I guess

Many times in this book I've seen exactly what I want to do, but the LaTeX code is not always shown. I use this book as a hint to what can be done, and then I search on the web for LaTeX examples. I am fairly disappointed, and often find myself more frustrated after reading a section than I was before.

As an example (for those of you who have the book), Figure 4.1 is referenced as an example of how to use \multido, but the book does not have (or I could not find) the corresponding LaTeX.

Need to do charts or graphics using latex? Then this is the book for you. It's the most advanced and complete book on Latex graphics that I've seen. If you would like to implement a reporting system that can draw charts using latex then this book is a must. Though I've not used latex in a while, I do remember that this one is not for the faint of heart. I do put it into the one of "must have" latex books.

If you have reached the state in which you typeset with (La)TeX just to ``have fun'', this book is for you. It is fun and exciting to read.