Raspberry Pi Official Beginner's Guide (6th Edition)

Everything you need to go from first boot to your first working project, in one full-colour, step-by-step book written by the people who make Raspberry Pi.

The 6th edition of Gareth Halfacree's official guide has been rewritten for today's hardware and software. That includes the Raspberry Pi 500+ and Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, so all of the screenshots and setup steps match what's on your bench.

It assumes no prior knowledge. You start with a tour of the hardware, then write your first programs in Scratch and Python, then move on to hands-on electronics: buttons, LEDs, sensors, and a camera. It works whether you have a standard Raspberry Pi board, a compact Raspberry Pi Zero or a keyboard computer like the Raspberry Pi 500+.

Every code example is available to download from Raspberry Pi Press's GitHub repository, so you can check your work or skip the typing and go straight to experimenting.

What's Covered?

• Get up and running without guesswork. Clear chapters walk you through setting up your Raspberry Pi, preparing it for first boot, finding your way around the desktop and installing software, including the games from Code the Classics.
• Learn to code visually first, then for real. Scratch 3 teaches the core ideas with drag-and-drop blocks before Python turns them into text-based programs.
• Take your first steps into physical computing. Wire up push buttons and LEDs, and write code that responds to the world around you.
• Shoot photos from code. A dedicated chapter covers connecting and programming a Raspberry Pi Camera Module.
• Move into microcontrollers. The final chapter builds on your Python skills with MicroPython on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2.
• Reference appendices at the back keep the key information close at hand long after you've finished the projects.