Peachpit

Infobox Company
name = Peachpit Press

type = Public
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foundation = 1986
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location_city = Berkeley, CA
location_country = U.S.
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parent = Pearson PLC
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Peachpit is an educational publisher and has been publishing books, PDFs, and videos on the latest in graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia, web design and development, digital video, and general computing since 1986. Peachpit is the home of the "Visual QuickStart Guide", "Visual QuickPro Guide", "Take Control of...", and "Classroom in a Book" series, and the design imprint New Riders and its "Voices That Matter" series. Peachpit is the publishing partner for Adobe Press at Adobe Systems, lynda.com, NAPP, Apple Certified at Apple, Inc, AIGA Design Press and others.

History

Peachpit Press was founded in 1986 by Ted Nace. Nace named his company Peachpit because at the time, he and his college roommates were "living and working in a peach colored house in Berkeley that was such a dump it was considered a 'pit.'" [http://jtchatter.blogspot.com/2008/01/another-bedtime-story-for-designers.html jtChatter] Ten years later, in 1996, Nace sold Peachpit Press to London-based media conglomerate Pearson PLC. Peachpit Press continues to operate out of Berkeley today.

Although known as a Mac publisher Peachpit started out publishing Windows related books and then purchased Mac Bible Publisher Goldstein and Blair. (Aptly named after characters in the George Orwell novel 1984). With the addition of the Mac series books Peachpit became published in both OS areas. From the beginning Peachpit became very popular with the Mac community via their strong outreach and support of User Groups.fact|date=March 2008 In the 1998 when Apple user share was down to 4% of the computer user market and Power Computing was making Mac clones, Peachpit was still publishing a large portion of their books in the Mac space. [http://www.macgathering.com/2005exhibits/index.html#peachpit Mac Gathering] Peachpit’s popularity with Mac users grew even stronger with their popular easy to read series Visual QuickStart Guides.fact|date=March 2008

Notable Authors

Some notable Peachpit authors include: Scott Kelby, Robin Williams, Garr Reynolds, Don Rittner, Joe McNally, Steve Krug, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Jakob Nielsen.

Publications

Peachpit’s publishing history includes :

Zap!: How Your Computer Can Hurt You - and What You Can Do About It [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n84/ai_15958316 Find Articles] by Don Sellers
Zap! is considered the first book written on Computer Safety.fact|date=March 2008 In order to make sure this book reached the hands of the people who needed it most (mainly office workers) Peachpit gave away over 75,000 copies to companies and corporations who promised to provide it to their employees.

Kid’s Web Kit by Lisa Lopuck
When the web first began gaining popularity adults were not the only ones browsing -- children were surfing too. Lisa Lopuck who taught multi media and Web design at San Francisco State University wanted to help kids shape the future of the Web and wrote the first Web design book for kids.

Ecolinking: Everyone's Guide to Online Environmental Information [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5DC1230F931A25756C0A964958260 NY Times] By Don Rittner
Ecolinking was the first GREEN online guide.fact|date=March 2008 Ecolinking brought forth the many ways computer users could go GREEN.

Computer Privacy Handbook [http://www.andrebacard.com/press.html Andre Baccard] [http://www.businessweek.com/1996/37/b3492110.htm Business Week] by Andre Bacard
Peachpit published the first guide to PGP. (Pretty Good Privacy)fact|date=March 2008.

Gay and Lesbian Online by Jeff Dawson
Gay and Lesbian Online was "the first trade guide to lesbian and gay cyberspace". [http://www.amazon.com/Gay-Lesbian-Online-Indispensable-Cruising/dp/1555838227 Amazon] When it first published it debuted at the Pride Parade where Peachpit set up a booth and author Jeff Dawson signed copies.

Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet [http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/ DigitalSpace] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2pj7sBPSYw YouTube] by Bruce Damer
In 1997, six years before Second Life launched (and nine years before it became mainstream), Peachpit published Avatars with Bruce Damer.

Imprints

Although Peachpit Press is Peachpit's flagship imprint, Peachpit also publishes or partners with [http://www.adobepress.com Adobe Press] , Apple Certified, lynda.com, and New Riders.

Conferences

Peachpit hosts the Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference series.

References

External links

* [http://www.peachpit.com/ Peachpit.com]
* [http://www.voicesthatmatter.com/webdesign2008 Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/podcasts/ Peachpit Podcasts]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/guides/guide.aspx?g=mac Macintosh Reference Guide]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/guides/guide.aspx?g=photoshop Photoshop Reference Guide]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/guides/guide.aspx?g=webdesign Web Design Reference Guide]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/imprint/series_detail.aspx?ser=336034 Apple Pro Training Series]
* [http://www.peachpit.com/podcasts/episode.aspx?e=772b1500-0fcc-4d4d-880c-53b8cf1c2a79 Ben Waldie Podcast: Automating Manual Tasks with QuicKeys]