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"This is a core text for undergraduate and masters courses in multimedia." (Digital Arts, October 2007)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
A new edition of the bestselling book that covers the basic principles of digital multimedia
Digital multimedia combines text, graphics, video, animation, sound, and other components and presents endless options and potential for computer users. This new edition of a perennial bestseller serves as an ideal foundation to the basic principles of each media type and describes their digitization and the possibilities that exist when different media elements are combined. Offering completely revised and rewritten material, the book features an emphasis on Web/Flash and provides in–depth coverage of MPEG4 and DVD in accordance with current trends.
- Offers a clear, easy–to–understand introduction to digital multimedia and examines the elements that comprise it, including text, graphics, video, animation, sound, and more
- Walks you through the fundamentals and basic principles of digital multimedia
- Looks at vector graphics, bitmapped images, hypermedia, interactivity, accessbility, and scripting
- Explores the possibilities that exist when various media are combined
With this new edition by your side, you’ll quickly discover how to make the most of every aspect of digital multimedia!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You might suppose that a book which covers such a wide subject would have to be rather cursory on any particular topic. Well, it could be like that, but it isn't like that. Each chapter (vector graphics, colour, hypertext, animation etc.) is written very carefully, with a wealth of detail.
The format is clear and attractive, with asides and technical passages set in a smaller font which makes it easily digestible, even when describing intricacies - "the following description of character code standards is necessarily somewhat dry", we are warned - actually I liked this bit a lot.
The illustrations are excellent, not only when showing techniques for image manipulation and 3D graphics, but also to help clarify other topics like audio compression, colour management, font selection, synchronised multimedia etc. There's also a lot of good advice on aspects of presentation and style, but delivered gently, with a touch of humour. The book itself shows that the authors know what they are talking about.
When necessary, attention is drawn to the constraints that might limit what can be achieved with current hardware, and to the complexities of the numerous sound and video formats. The section on video standards and compression techniques is very informative here.
I was surprised by how much this book could tell me even in areas that I thought I already knew well. It will be valuable as a course text and also as a reference work.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The only published book in which SMIL information has been written (or of those I could find). This is a great book for a wide variety of digital multimedia subjects from typography, graphic design, SMIL, html, xml and sound. Written like a college text book, it has broad reach and appears very good for multimedia proffessionals who need info on new technologies but don't speak full-on geek techie (aka those who dont like to learn from white papers or W3C specification lists). And it does exactly what it says it does on the tin...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This review has been written by the authors, to explain why it's a bad idea to use old editions of this book. In case you're wondering, we've given it 5 stars only because Amazon won't let us leave the star rating off. Please overlook the stars - the review is intended purely to provide information. We're not asking you to buy a new copy of the book (the only kind of sale which provides us with any royalty). No matter whether you beg, buy or borrow the book, please read the latest edition. Here's why:
Digital Multimedia covers technologies which have developed and advanced considerably over the past 12 years since we first started writing the book. For this reason this textbook has now been published in three different editions, in the years 2000, 2004 and 2009, with substantial changes, expansion and updating in the 2nd and 3rd editions.
Unfortunately, Amazon attach the reviews for any of the editions of a multi-edition book to their pages for ALL the editions. In the case of Digital Multimedia this means that you can read a 2011 review of the 3rd edition on an Amazon page which is actually selling the 1st edition published in March 2000 (and vice versa), and maybe not even realise that the review is discussing a different book which is 12 years out of date!
To take a few examples: in the year 1999 - when we were working on the 1st edition - few people had digital cameras, so analogue video and photography were the norm and the book focussed on the digitization of analogue media. Flash was just a little animation program by Macromedia which only professionals used, so Flash interactivity wasn't covered, and multimedia on the Web barely existed. Dial-up connections and very slow data transfer speeds were usual. Disk sizes and memory were tiny by today's standards. The World Wide Web was still in its infancy and multimedia was distributed on CDs (or even floppy disks). If you read the 1st edition, you will therefore learn about the technological world as it was 12 years ago. Interesting as history, perhaps, but no use for working with digital media today.
Even the 2nd edition is way out of date now. To take just one example, consider Web video. The 2nd edition of Digital Multimedia was published in 2004, but YouTube - the site which made Web video commonplace - wasn't even begun until 2005. The technological world changes very fast.
So please check that you're reading the latest edition, or you will be getting outdated material which is no longer relevant to current technologies - and no use to you. You can still buy the 1st edition from resellers for as little as one penny, but there's a good reason for those low prices - the 1st edition is of very little interest now except as history! Both the 1st and 2nd editions are now officially out of print.
The latest edition is the 3rd edition, published in 2009 - the one with the green and brown cover, ISBN-13: 978-0470512166.
Digital Multimedia covers technologies which have developed and advanced considerably over the past 12 years since we first started writing the book. For this reason this textbook has now been published in three different editions, in the years 2000, 2004 and 2009, with substantial changes, expansion and updating in the 2nd and 3rd editions.
Unfortunately, Amazon attach the reviews for any of the editions of a multi-edition book to their pages for ALL the editions. In the case of Digital Multimedia this means that you can read a 2011 review of the 3rd edition on an Amazon page which is actually selling the 1st edition published in March 2000 (and vice versa), and maybe not even realise that the review is discussing a different book which is 12 years out of date!
To take a few examples: in the year 1999 - when we were working on the 1st edition - few people had digital cameras, so analogue video and photography were the norm and the book focussed on the digitization of analogue media. Flash was just a little animation program by Macromedia which only professionals used, so Flash interactivity wasn't covered, and multimedia on the Web barely existed. Dial-up connections and very slow data transfer speeds were usual. Disk sizes and memory were tiny by today's standards. The World Wide Web was still in its infancy and multimedia was distributed on CDs (or even floppy disks). If you read the 1st edition, you will therefore learn about the technological world as it was 12 years ago. Interesting as history, perhaps, but no use for working with digital media today.
Even the 2nd edition is way out of date now. To take just one example, consider Web video. The 2nd edition of Digital Multimedia was published in 2004, but YouTube - the site which made Web video commonplace - wasn't even begun until 2005. The technological world changes very fast.
So please check that you're reading the latest edition, or you will be getting outdated material which is no longer relevant to current technologies - and no use to you. You can still buy the 1st edition from resellers for as little as one penny, but there's a good reason for those low prices - the 1st edition is of very little interest now except as history! Both the 1st and 2nd editions are now officially out of print.
The latest edition is the 3rd edition, published in 2009 - the one with the green and brown cover, ISBN-13: 978-0470512166.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not bad, not very good
I found this book to be useful as an introduction to digital multimedia concepts but I think it is somewhat basic. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J.Cardoso
Covering Really Important Concepts of Multimedia and Interesting to...
I read the 2000 Edition of this book and found it relatively simple to understand (even though I learned quite a lot of new words mentioned in the text). Read more
Published 7 months ago by E SICIMOGULLARI
Core principles explained, got me through uni
On recommendation from my lecturers at university, I brought this textbook as general reference to guide me throughout my study. Read more
Published 15 months ago by roses
Great service from seller
Item arrived within a few days of ordering, it was well packed and in perfect condition.
Published 20 months ago by T. Curry
Great Book
This book has really helped me with my studies so far and i have only had it a couple of weeks. It is really detailed, maybe a bit too detailed but i am at uni so this amount of... Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2009 by Mr. S. Tahssein
Comprehensive and up-to-date
Digital multimedia (third edition) is clear and well-written with excellent illustrations.
The range of topics is impressive, covering vector graphics, video and... Read more
The range of topics is impressive, covering vector graphics, video and... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by amapac
Study companion
This book was aquired has a study companion for Internet and Multimedia .
Havent gone through it yet but seems interesting and abranging the various Multimedia questions.
Havent gone through it yet but seems interesting and abranging the various Multimedia questions.
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by LN62
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