I returned to Tufte's first classic book of graphic design principles over 20 years after first discovering it. At the time, I was the corporate librarian for a major electric utility, and the explosion in the organization and creation of information by individuals with new personal-computer hardware and software was just beginning (I had an IBM PC-XT with 640Kb of RAM and two 360k floppies--no hard drive).

Now, I wondered, aside from the masterpiece of graphic design that "Visual Display" of course still represents, did Tufte's theories of graphics design still apply in a world where those computers at our fingertips pack the power and sophistication of the best publishing equipment? The answer is yes: Tufte's guidelines are timeless and universal, and most of his examples predate the computer era and even the 20th century.

The guidelines boil down to the single principle of making design choices that result in the simplest possible display of complex data. While that may not sound profound, Tufte provides simple and practical rules for implementing sound design choices, and the resulting improvements in your documents and web designs will be noticeable.

I was able to read this fairly quickly. (stealing a few hours here and there at work).

Although I did not find any direct solutions to my current problems - it definitely opened my imagination to consider new possibilities.

It definitely was interesting and educational to read and see Tufte's presentation on Visual Dispaly of Quantitative Information. He illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of graphic displays over the centuries. However, I was hoping to see more examples of current computer graphics that should be emulated in this edition instead of terse comments and skeletal constructs in this area.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but Tufte would rather right it all down. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

This is a somewhat interesting book for the catalogue of historical visual presentations, but has little to offer someone working today. The most amazing thing about this book is its incessant use of verbiage instead of visual display.

If Tufte intended his book as irony, then bravo.

If you're looking for actual help in visual display using the tools most of us have at our disposal (not the extremely expensive software that Tufte suggests) then look elsewhere for help. I recommend:

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds
or
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam

Indexed by Jessica Hagy

If you want to see great (and fun) visual displays on the web, then hit graphjam.com, zfacts.com and indexed.blogspot.com.

I would also suggest a trip to the dentist over paying for one of Tufte's seminars. Getting your teeth drilled is more pleasant than a slide show of Tufte's sculpture garden accompanied by his pedantic narcissism.

Nutshell review - This is an excellent book on chart design and the effective presentation of information. Beautifully illustrated with in-depth insight and research.