Surfaces: Visual Research for Artists, Architects, and Designers

I have found this book to be very useful for many years. It is sensational and I feel very possessive about it as it has become one of my number one resource tools--I turn to it often and it rarely leaves my library! It's worth every dollar for sheer volume and the sound aesthetic choices Ms. Juracek made in archiving. However the other two posters were correct about the CD. The images are of dismally low quality and the shadow problems do come up and haunt you time and again. The resolution should have been at least 300 to 355 dpi for each and each photo taken dead on square. There's an awful lot of work to be done if you need to use these as image maps (I like to use them in 3d environments as texture maps to preview large outdoor sculptures I'm developing). I can't understand for the life of me why the images are of such low quality--there's still plenty of disk space available on the CD. The CD was one of the main reasons I just had to buy the book. Otherwise, the full cover price seemed just a little steep--just a little. But I gladly would have paid more if the CD had been up to snuff. I'm hoping that the CD will be upgraded to include high-rez images for any revisions in the near future but I'm not holding my breath. Otherwise, the book is a gold mine. Irregardless of what creative industry one might be in, it is a wonderful resource tool. And at the very least, a great coffee table book one will often turn to.

Juracek's book has practically every type of surface you could want to duplicate in real paint. I find it a great tool both for use with designers and in trying to guide clients who have no art vocabulary and only a hazy idea of what the hell they want- the images provide a fine jumping off place. It is already a "must have" if not exactly an industry standard- though I'm sure that day is not far off either- highly recommended. Everyone I know has a copy.

This is the book that everybody who writes shaders should have. It's just wall-to-wall reference images of every kind of surface or material you could think of.I found the CD-ROM to be useless, however, mostly due to the fact that the images are all quantized to a palette of 256 colors each. This makes them completely worthless as texture maps. But that doesn't detract from the fact that the rest of the book is a fantastic visual reference.

This book is worth the $$ not only because of the excellent images it contains but also because of the CD ROM that comes with it. All the pictures in the book are contained in the disc and are easy to print or e-mail so you don't have to carry the book around.

This book is a saving grace! As a painter, I'm always spending hours flipping through books, magazines and catalogs to find just the right woodgrain or stucco wall. Ms. Juracek has given us a wonderful gift by putting together this priceless collection of reference photos. The photographs are clear and the lighting serves well to show the texture that we are trying to recreate. I've owned the book for one week and have already referred to it several times for the painting I'm working on. It is definately a worthwhile investment.