"Building Imaging Applications with Java Technology: Using AWT Imaging, Java 2D, and Java Advanced Imaging (JAI)" (Addison-Wesley; ISBN 0-201-70074-3) by Lawrence H. Rodrigues is a book long overdue. There have been books on AWT graphics and books on Java 2D. I haven't seen one that really combined the two. I am unsure what Java Advanced Imaging is.

Before talking about the meat of the book, I must say that the layout and graphic design of this book is first rate. It is really nice to see code listings where the important parts are in a different color than the rest of the code.

Since I already know AWT and some of the Java 2D material, I skipped ahead to the JAI section. The book starts this section off with a wordy, but informative section. After reading it, I was able to understand the basics of JAI. After the intro to JAI, the book walks you through many examples of how to use JAI. These are all full examples that look like they will execute with the important parts colored in blue.

The next few chapters cover the various parts of JAI. I got excited when I had seen GIS mention and then a few chapters later saw a chapter titled "Remote Imaging". The GIS meaning of this term is roughly, but not exactly Satellite Images. I had spent a lot of time doing this sort of work a few years back. The book uses this term to mean imaging over RMI however.

The following chapter is even more interesting. It covers imaging with Applets, Servlets and JSPs. The application I am currently working on does imaging with Servlets and JSPs so this will come in handy.

The coverage in the AWT and Java 2D sections look similar to the material in the JAI section. The best part of this book is that it has all the major imaging APIs in one book instead you have to buy 2 or 3 different books. It is readable and understandable even if the author has a tendency to be a little too verbose for my personal tastes. I would recommend this book.