This is not an R related posting but I thought it would be interesting for readers of this list. Apologies for any cross-posting Dear all Our company Vose Software has just made a very comprehensive ?Compendium of Distributions? available for free online at www.vosesoftware.com/content/ebook.pdf. The document explains the thinking behind and the uses of 76 distributions and gives plots of the distributions with different parameter values. It also has a section to give you a more intuitive understanding of formulas for things like density, moments, etc. and gives lists of possible candidate distributions for different types of problems like waiting time, stock price movements, expert estimates, etc. We hope you will find it useful! Regards, Francisco Francisco J. Zagmutt Senior Risk Analysis Consultant Vose Consulting 1643 Spruce St., Boulder Boulder, CO, 80302 USA francisco(at)voseconsulting(com) www.voseconsulting.com