» 30 Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download :: Positive Space

Well it took me a lot longer than I had originally expected but I was able to track down the original links to more than thirty PDF documents that I have collected over the past couple of years. I have personally archived every one of these files due to the high quality of content. No matter what you call them; ebook, white paper, or resource they all contain information that no designer should go without. (In actuality there are more than 30 files however it was a good round number for the title…)

06/23

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101 Responses to “30 Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download”

Adelle
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm

This is a great list! Didn’t know about some of these…wow I know what I will be doing later. Thanks!

Adelle’s latest post: 50+ Kick Ass Logos for Inspiration
Zinni
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Adelle,

Thanks for the compliment! However collecting these resources is not quite as hard as actually creating them. So thanks to all the original authors!
Janko
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm

Great resources not seeing every day! Thanks!
Kiran voleti
June 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am

Very useful resources.
Thanks http://www.dotndot.com
Polo
June 24th, 2008 at 12:22 am

Cool list, thanks !
Fubiz
June 24th, 2008 at 2:01 am

Thanks for the sharing.

Fubiz’s latest post: Laptop Desktop Hybrid
liam
June 24th, 2008 at 2:32 am

Wow, nice. Seriously nice thanks for taking the time to put them together.
Brad C
June 24th, 2008 at 5:44 am

Now this is a great list of resources. This must have taken a while to compile.

I would like to add one more that I have always loved, it’s a case study of the BBC redesign. It’s a couple years old but the information inside is invaluable. http://www.schmoller.net/documents/theglasswall_bbc_design.pdf
Steve Renner
June 24th, 2008 at 5:55 am

Great Design and Internet Marketing Resources. Thanks for taking the time to compile the list for us. Steve
liam
June 24th, 2008 at 5:59 am

@ Brad C - That BBC glass wall concept is a great case study, thanks for sharing.
Doug
June 24th, 2008 at 6:00 am

Some excellent resources - particularly the Web Development section and the Presentation one.
Gene
June 24th, 2008 at 6:21 am

Wow, great list. So much too read so little time. It’ss so hard to keep up with all the info. Must find time.
WebGyver
June 24th, 2008 at 8:19 am

Great work Anthony!

To say that it took you longer than anticipated to track down the original sources for those fabulous documents is probably an understatement (guessing from personal experience).

Hey, I certainly don’t want to steal any of your thunder, this is your blog show after all, but here’s another link to a web site that offers free PDF grid paper and all sorts of useful PDF document generators (and, no, I’m neither associated with them nor do I get any sort of kickbacks):

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch!

WebGyver’s latest post: SQL Injection on the Rise in 2008
Mark Creative
June 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Thanks for sharing, this is a great list.

Seen and read some of them before but its going to take a while to work through, which i look forward too.

Ah the power of the internet, global information sharing(free), dont you just love it!

Mark Creative’s latest post: Help break a world record
Brent P. Newhall
June 24th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Wow, thanks for the list! I’m reading through a bunch of them now.

A bit of feedback, if I may: It would be nice if you could mark the PDFs that require registration or any other rigamarole, as opposed to the ones you can download straightaway. I usually don’t bother with anything that insists I create another account.
Aaron
June 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

These are useful to keep around and makes me wonder why more pdf resources are not created and shared on the internet. I’m also surprised so many pdfs I already had collected are on your list. Maybe great minds think alike? Thanks for pointing out a few more useful pdfs I missed.
Multimediedesigner
June 24th, 2008 at 11:42 pm

Thak you very much for this collection :)
Affordable Web Design
June 25th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

Thanks for sharing the information. PDF creation is very important to know about and it always seems to stump some designers.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing
June 27th, 2008 at 6:40 am

Yahoo DPL is a great tool, I use it all the time
Stefan
June 28th, 2008 at 2:17 am

Fantastic resource!
ben
June 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

This rocks http://www.duivesteyn.com.au
Paul @ Web Design Ireland
June 29th, 2008 at 9:26 am

Anthony, many thanks for this post, some serious hard work in compiling this one.

Paul @ Web Design Ireland’s latest post: Why playing Theme Park reminds me of website development.
eta
June 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

thanks for sharing!
Eric Leach
June 30th, 2008 at 7:28 am

Very nice, thanks for all the links to these wonderful resources.
Zaoris
July 1st, 2008 at 3:08 am

Impressive post, thank you Anthony!
temizlik
July 1st, 2008 at 4:52 am

thank you…
Jennifer
July 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Superb collection. Thanks.

Jennifer’s latest post: Logo Links
otomatik kapı
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 am

thank you..
Sumesh
July 5th, 2008 at 11:51 am

Awesome collection - I’ve already downloaded a few, will be back as and when required. Bookmarked for future use
Sumesh’s latest post: Review and thoughts on Mozilla Firefox 3
otomatik kapı
July 8th, 2008 at 7:44 am

thank you…
Matthew T. Grant
July 9th, 2008 at 11:03 am

Thanks for including the AIGA/Aquent Salary Survey on your list. Glad you found it useful.
Matt

Matthew T. Grant’s latest post: Special Pleading: I Want You to Work with Aquent
Sanjay Kumar
July 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

Hi,

Some good work is done in UXM & free stuff available on

http://www.hyenalabs.com

Visit to learm more about usability
Justin
July 12th, 2008 at 8:27 am

Great…thanks to all the people that took the time to do all this. http://www.dotbox.co.il
izmir evden eve
July 16th, 2008 at 2:35 am

thank you…
Richard, Peacock Carter
July 16th, 2008 at 10:18 am

A great collection - ‘Elegant Web Typography’ and ‘Bulletproof Web Design’ would certainly be on my list!

Richard, Peacock Carter’s latest post: MediaWiki Skins Design Book available for pre-order
prisca
July 24th, 2008 at 5:56 am

fantastic list of resources - thanks so much for putting all these up as such a concise list ;)