Here’s a book which will be an inspiration for beginner and advanced desktop publishers alike. Subtitled “Designing in Black and White on Your Computer,” it is aimed at those who feel that working without color poses severe limitations on creativity and impact.
The authors break their message down into a few conceptual and technical categories. The first chapter deals with contrast: big/little, heavy/light, horizontal/vertical, and so forth. Another chapter gives ideas for using solid black and white. When the use of grays is introduced in another chapter, the reader is given both a technical and an æsthetic understanding of the subject.
An entire chapter is devoted to the idea of light and shadow. Here the authors get more involved in illustration—creating a sense of space through shading. Scanning receives an entire chapter, too. Both line art and halftones are discussed.
Creative ideas and techniques abound: drop shadows are given a fresh look; unusual patterns, textures, and backgrounds are discussed; and 3D programs are used to distort text. Technical issues are not overlooked. A discussion of lithographic dot gain and sampling rate for scans are included.
The book concludes with a huge gallery section—almost half of the book is devoted to examples of exciting ideas in design and illustration. Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is the variety of the visual examples it contains. Long after you’ve finished reading the text of The Gray Book, you’ll keep returning to its examples for inspiration.
Fig. 2: Earth Art. Tones can be used to unearth a hidden word.
Fig. 3: Shadows and embossed effects from tonal changes.
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