Coyote’s Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics: Using Familiar Tools Creatively by David Fanning is a great resource for users of direct graphics, particularly those using David’s fantastic Coyote Graphics system. It contains discussion and many examples of various types of graphics: line plots, contour plots, surface plots, image display (and even image processing), as well as topics such as PostScript output, raster output, and using the Z-buffer.
The book also serves as a user manual for the Coyote Graphics system with most of the examples using the “cg” routines and a chapter on Coyote Graphics extra features like resizeable graphics windows, loading command lists, saving/restoring visualizations, and layout management.
The book itself is 460 high quality, full color pages, available in softcover or as a PDF.
The book website has ordering information, table of contents, sample chapter download (contour plots), and the required files.
The book is currently on sale through June 6, 2011. After that, it will be available only through Amazon or special order until late July.
