This book teaches you the basic building blocks of programming needed to create cutting-edge graphics applications including interactive art, live video processing, and data visualization. A unique lab-style manual, the book gives graphic and web designers, artists, and illustrators of all stripes a jumpstart on working with the Processing programming environment by providing instruction on the basic principles of the language, followed by careful explanations of select advanced techniques. Within these pages, ITP (Tisch School of the Arts, New York University) professor Daniel Shiffman demonstrates the fundamentals of programming that will expand your understanding of what is possible in the world of computer graphics. By travelling beyond the confines of proprietary software, you will be empowered to create your own custom design tools.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 16 Ratings

Excellent book for beginner!! - 2009-10-25
Reviewer Rating:
If you want to find a book to begin learning Processing programming language, this book is a excellent choice! The book will guide you step by step from very simple examples to complicated concepts in learning OOP. It can also be a ideal textbook for anyone who would like to learn programming.

Excellent as a textbook for Intro to Programming! - 2009-05-19
Reviewer Rating:
I am a college professor at a small California Community College. I stumbled onto processing about three years ago, just when I was designing a new 'first course' in programming. I decided at the time to go with an existing textbook which used Java as a first language. I was not happy with the results.

When I got a look at the Shiffman text, I got excited about processing again. I used other material to supplement in areas such as number systems, Von Newmann architecture, and the rest. I introduced Processing about 1/3 of the way through the class and students picked it up very quickly using the text. We went through about 11 chapters in about 8 weeks, and students developed quite a few cool interactive and graphical apps with loops, conditionals, arrays, File I/O and even a few objects! And the best part is that they enjoyed it!

I gave students a 'Course Feedback Survey' at the end where they rated aspects on a scale of 1-10 (1 = strongly disagree, 10 = totally agree). They gave the question "The textbook did a great job of explaining the material" an average of 9 out of 10.

I am adapting the course to teach it fully-online next Fall, and I'm excited about using the Shiffman text again. I was able to contact the author who provided additional support for me to work up some decent PPT slides to use for the class.

The book goes well beyond what I am using it for, and introduces quite a few topics that I have not reviewed or used (yet). It has a good index, is sprinkled with graphic diagrams, and has excellent supplements online (example code and such).

I am also expecting great things from the students that used this book in their next programming class (standard CS1 with Java). I might even use some of the more advanced examples for my CS1 class too!

Congrats Daniel on a job well done!

a must-have for reference and learning processing - 2009-03-23
Reviewer Rating:
I have all the processing books. This is an essential purchase for many reasons.
The author of the book knows his topic inside and out and doesn't want to leave anyone behind. There are no ambiguities in terms of the syntax, code, etc. Nothing is left out. It is never ever confusing. You can follow every example, implement the code, and get a result.

Even if you are a pro, and simply need to check out a small detail to do something specific, this book is a great resource because it includes all the steps to make something work, rather than simply a syntax example.

The book is divided into conceptually clear chapters that include enough detail to learn the topic and code some great programs.

The author's approach to processing and programming is particularly invaluable, again for the learner and the experienced programmer. It shows you how to build a program step by step, adding to its complexity, which is great training for good programming habits.

I highly recommend owning at least one copy of this book!

EXCELENT BOOK! - 2009-09-21
Reviewer Rating:
Esse livro GÇÜ definitivamente um MUST HAVE!!!, nunca estudei Java...mais estou me dando mto bem com o livro...VERY DIDATIC! Muito didatico!
Simple Language! read and read again...very easy to understand, and soo much exemples! and lessons include too!
MUST HAVE !
Obrigada Daniel Schiffman!
Thank you Daniel Schiffman!

Better than expected - 2009-04-06
Reviewer Rating:
I bought the book over the weekend only because I couldn't find the book I actually wanted (Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists). I was a little skeptical since this is designed to assessable as a "Welcome to programming" book. In fact, I simply bought it because it had a few of the topics I was interested in in the later chapters. That said, I've been more than impressed. I'm a self taught programmer and this book would easily lessened my early pains.
One of the coolest things is that this book brings in the classic "Hello World" example but not until latter half of the book when you are discussing photo manipulation. This book has convinced me that Processing is a great little language and I'm going to start building some functions to replace my R, SAS, Excel functions.

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