This is my bible. I use this book as a constant reference for my everyday work.

a great read for every graphic designer. it's shame that they teach this book in college very briefly that students most likely hate it enough to never read it cover to cover. this is the kind of book that needs to be read more than one time and kept in proximity as a reference and constant inspiration.

Great textbook for learning the art history of design. Learned a lot from it

I really appreciated this book. I’ve worked as a copywriter and creative director in advertising for over 30 years, but never had any formal training. I’ve had to soak up knowledge as I went along — most of which came through trade magazines, like Communication Arts and Graphis. This resource has been so helpful in contextualizing all the tools of our trade, from printing to typography to photography to digital media. Having this background adds so much richness to what I do.

I bought this book in year 2004 but did not finish reading it until now.
Overall, it is an excellent overview of the main developments in graphic design, including styles, technologies, and people.
In long run I will probably remember more of the many beautiful image examples than the detailed text descriptions.

The book focuses mainly on static layouts and touches upon animations and interactive interfaces in the end, which, together with recent generative technologies, will probably be worth another book in the future.

It's a good reference for looking up movements and history. I find the images are more useful than the text, which is wordy, and the important information is buried in the historical facts. I kind of hated it in my graphic design history class, because I had to read huge parts of chapters, but I like it better now. It's like a coffee table book, I leave it around to browse and for inspiration for design projects.

I had to read this book for a History of Graphic Design class. The first part of the book was definitely interesting, but I have to admit that as the semester progressed I skimmed the rest of the chapters. I will have to reread this book in the future to fully appreciate it.

The definitive text on graphic design. Required reading for anyone practicing the craft.

I have an earlier version of this book, but this was the book that established who was who in the history of graphic design for me. We had this book in lieu of a graphic design history course at my undergraduate school.

A must read for all graphic design and art history students. I wish it had more images, but I think that about every book. :)

Was my textbook for a class of the safe name, I really enjoyed it. As long as it is, and as dense, it really gave me a starting understanding of graphic design history and how we’ve arrived to our place now. Was a great help in my research during the semester.

I read this very heavy book for a class. It's got lots of nice pictures.

Ugh. I really wanted to like this book. I wanted it to grab my attention and shake the creative out of me. I wanted to read it until my eyes were bleeding genius font. I wanted it to ask me on a date and take me away to a distant time and place, never turning back. I suppose had high expectations for a textbook, my fault.
As some have already mentioned, the layout of the book is awful.
With so much history involved, I think it's important to arrange pages in a way that will force/keep the reader focused. It's one of those awkward-sized books that is too big for both lap and table reading. It would be a great coffee table book, but it's got way too much information to be a random coffee table book. It's heavy. Having this book in my bag, on my back, with other books is a complete pain in the ass.
The writing is rambly and sometimes I want the author to hurry up and get to the point. I could take a sharpie to many paragraphs and still get all pertinent information.
It is very informative, there's nothing the author has missed. So those with a love of dry history textbooks will love it. Those wanting a brief introduction... there's nothing brief about this book.

UPDATE:
After the end of the course I was taking using this book, I decided I like it better than I had originally thought. My 3 star rating has increased to a hearty 4. It's very informative and can feel a bit overwhelming to start. It gets better. I get it. I dig it. I didn't sell it back to the campus bookstore, and that's saying something.