My favorite books for learning how to code interactive graphics

If I were getting started with coding graphics today, I would start with this book, hands down. Learning p5 is the easiest way to create interactive graphics that run in a web browser, and this book is a very friendly, accessible, and beautifully illustrated introduction to coding graphics with p5.js—no prior experience needed. You might be wondering about the name “p5.js”. It’s a JavaScript library (that’s the “.js” part) based on Processing, the open-source programming language created for artists and designers. (More on Processing in a moment.) I have taught college courses with this book, and students love it. Plus, all the skills you learn here with p5 are applicable to JavaScript—the world’s most popular programming language—more generally.

I love this book so much. It is a bit less “how-to” and a bit more “why in the world are we interested in programming and what does that mean for us as individuals and also for society at large?” That is to say, you can learn to code from this book—in JavaScript with p5.js, specifically—but Aesthetic Programming is not merely about learning to code; it’s also a provocative, critical exploration of code as a medium for thought, communication, and creative expression. When you code, you’re participating in the creation of “computational culture.” With this book by your side, you will be a more self-aware cultural citizen. (Also, this book is visually so, so beautiful. Just leafing through the pages inspires me.)

This book changed my life. Known simply as “the blue book” in creative coding circles, I discovered this in a bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., just blocks from where Casey and Ben had created Processing at MIT (and then wrote this book). It opened me up to Processing—their programming language for artists and designers—but also to code as a creative medium. Until then, I saw code as a dry, tedious way to fight with computers. Now I know that code can be just as expressive, engaging, and emotional as prose and poetry.

While the syntax in this book is for Processing (which you can download and run on your computer for free), the concepts are equally applicable to p5.js (which runs in a web browser, also for free).

If you want your interactive graphics to feel like they are real objects—real things moving around on the screen—then you have to learn how to mimic the natural world. For an object to feel like it has weight, you have to mimic gravity. For a flock of birds to feel real, you have to mimic how real birds swarm in the sky. Yes, this does involve little math. But fortunately, Dan is a superstar teacher, and he will gently walk you through (a) the math and (b) how to translate that math into code.

Speaking of code, this book uses Processing.js, which is an older adaptation of original Processing to JavaScript. That said, the techniques are all equally applicable to modern-day Processing and p5.js.

Okay, hear me out. Yes, this book was published in 2007. Yes, it’s ostensibly about ActionScript, the coding language in Flash, which no one uses anymore. But you won’t use this book to learn ActionScript or Flash: You’ll use it to learn how to make things move with code, in any language. You’ll skip over the ActionScript-specific parts in favor of the lucid explanations and helpful illustrations. Your visual brain will appreciate seeing how sines, cosines, and tangents are relevant—and necessary!—to make digital things move. (Your heart will wish your brain had paid better attention in trigonometry class years earlier, but hey, no regrets!) The chapters “Trigonometry for Animation” and “Velocity and Acceleration” alone are worth the purchase price.