What are some good books that teach professional web design? I do not mean books that just tell you how to use html codes and frames and such, I mean books that teach you how to do great graphic designs and scripts and things like that. I want to learn how to make professional web sites. Does anyone have any suggestions on good books that I can read in order to learn how to do this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Hmm, the thing I usually find is that you can find the more "graphics" based web-books in a different section than those that teach you code. Often you can find them in the graphics arts section, near Photography and Advertising Art. The ones within the "computing" section are usually the more technical ones.

That said, I don't think I can recommend you a book, most of the time I go to the library and borrow a few "tips and tricks" kind of books on Photoshop. That's another avenue, it won't teach you graphics in terms of webdesign, but more on the graphics themselves. Sometimes when I have time I sit in Kinokuniya or Borders and just flip through the webgraphic books. None so far have been tremendously useful, better to just flip through and get a basic feel of what kind of graphics and layouts work, and what doesn't.

I find the internet to be personally the best book. I've bought a book on web designing for AU$25 and it has the source files on the cd, which i liked but it mainly just talked about the layout and graphic ideas, more then how to create the graphics, even tho i had some sections on how to create great interface items, it was quite a good read and the soruce files helped, but if you want in-detail stuff i reckon just search on the internet for the specific help ur looking for. Becuase for a book to have in-detial stuff on scripts and everything it would cost and fortune and probably be like 600 pages long.

I agree. I think the Internet is the best tool you can use for learning how to do HTML and all the webs many languages. Try Googling for In-depth tutorials and guides.

The best thing you can do for yourself is hands-on learning. Find a small website, save it to your computer, then play with it's source code and see how the changes you make affect the way the page looks or works. This was how I learned how to make webpages 9 years ago was just by seeing how other pages worked. Once you see how they work, you'll quickly learn how to make your own and customize it to fit your needs.

Thanks for the advice! I am new to all of this so any advice is greatly appreciated. Working with graphics is kind of scary to me because it's new and I have no idea how to do it, so thanks!

Thanks for the idea- the hands-on idea sounds like a very good way to learn how scripts work and such. Thanks a lot for the advice everyone!

Woooo , it is the best way to learn webdeign and the html scripting . Also can save the money , hahaa.
On the other hand , some forum also provide the deign discussing area . I always go there and sharing my throught to each other

there are lots of good books to read to learn html
like
html for dummies is a good book or createing a website for dummies

those two books a very good to read to learn html

umm i don't suggest a book as its too wooden, instead I suggest going on different webpages and searching for your own unique style. Learn to use photoshop by going on graphics sites and then you can really be good and learn to code. I learned my coding from w3schools (although I really suck and I get my buddies to code for me)

so yea learn to design yourself, don't use books, its too wooden

The only book needed is your brain. I taught myself how to create graphics and such in Fireworks. But then again, I am a very fast learner.

You should try and experiment, and always make sure the work you're creating is of top standard. No matter how long it takes.