Paul F. Kerr’s Optical Mineralogy is widely regarded as a classic textbook. It serves as a bridge between theoretical crystallography and practical petrography. Unlike some modern texts that rely heavily on color photographs, Kerr’s work is prized for its rigorous explanation of the physics of light interaction and its comprehensive descriptive tables.
When you find a PDF, look for a file size over 50 MB. Smaller files (10 MB) are usually text-only OCR scans lacking the critical plates. Optical Mineralogy Paul F Kerr.pdf