Choosing the right anatomy atlas is a stressful decision, and one that is quite important. For many of you (students in medical, dental, optometry, and podiatry school) this will be one of the first decision you must make at your professional school. In order to help you sort through some of the most popular choices, let me highlight some of the pros and cons of each text. I am a firm believer that education should be tailored to the student. If your school/teacher tells you to buy a certain anatomy atlas, do not listen. This is like telling a left handed student that he/she must take a test using their right hand. You must find a text that allows you to learn best. There are many options and each has its own strengths.
One IMPORTANT HINT:
Check out each atlas on amazon.com, you can browse the pages of each book in full color by clicking the "Click To Look Inside" tab over each book. This is the best way to see what you are going to like.
- Updated April 2015
1. Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy:
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2. Rohen's Color Atlas of Anatomy:
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3. Gilroy's Atlas of Anatomy
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4. Grant's Atlas of Anatomy:
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5. Thieme's Atlas of Anatomy:
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6. Clemente's Anatomy:
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7. Gray's Atlas of Anatomy:
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8. Sabotta Atlas of Antaomy
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is the best selling anatomy atlas in the country, and my personal favorite. The images are bright and colorful. The detail is crisp and memorable. I am a visual learner, and the bright images helped me focus and remember better. In fact, the images were so vibrant that I could often see them in my head during tests, allowing me to remember specific details in each image. One downside to this atlas is its relative lack of information and detail. There is no text other than anatomy labels. There are no clinical correlations. There are not as many structures labeled as some other texts.
does not seem like anything special at first glance. However, I have never met someone who used the Gilroy atlas and did not love it. In fact, it holds the #2 position for 
is a well known text with a great history and crisp images similar to the Gilroy text. Many students use the companion, 
is well liked by its users, just Google the title and you will find loads of students who love it. However, I have never actually met a student who used it. We had a couple copies in our library, but no one every looked at them. If you are a textbook lover, you might want to look at the Thieme book. It reads more like a textbook than an anatomy atlas.
is a sort of cult-favorite atlas. Many believe the illustrations in Clemente are the best on the market. They are clear and straight forward. There is a good mix of clinical information. The price is low, and the satisfaction is high. I have not used Clemente's but those who have used it say that they would use it again.
is one of histories best-known atlases. However, I think that the atlases listed above have surpassed this historical text. There are newer versions, but I fear the TV show named after the atlas will forever be more famous than that atlas itself. The images are nice and there are a number of photos and radiologic images which accompany the anatomy illustrates. Because of Gray's historical status, it warrants a few minutes to flip through the pages, but I would not purchase this text myself.
My name is Andrew and I am a first year resident training to be an ophthalmologist. I created ShortWhiteCoats to provide medical students, residents, and the public with all the information I spent so many hours looking for during medical school.
20 comments
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Luis Hincapie
December 15, 2012 at 10:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think that you are missing maybe a book that would beat Netter, or that at least is at the same level, you should look for Sobotta's book and make a comparison between Netter and him…
Andrew
December 31, 2012 at 3:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Luis,
Thank you for pointing this out. Admittedly, I was not familiar with Sobotta's book. I took a look at it and I agree that it looks great. One of the assest that many of its readers mention is that you can obtain the book in a two volume set, which makes it much mroe portable. This, you will find, might come in handy when walking/biking to school. Those atlases can be very heavy.
I have added a link to the Sobotta book in the post. The Amazon page for the book allows you to preview about 100 pages of the book, so go take a look for yourselves!
-Andrew
Shubham
September 27, 2013 at 12:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You missed Mcminn's atlas .
Andrew
December 25, 2013 at 2:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks, I was not familiar with this atlas. Here is a link to McMinn and Abrahams’ Clinical Atlas of Human Anatomy
Mia
June 12, 2014 at 6:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There's also Moore's clinical anatomy, which my anatomy profs swear by. It's much more clinical (aka lots more text pages), and includes surface anatomy when relevant.
sehar
August 13, 2014 at 8:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
sir i want to know if it is really worth to buy mcminn's atlas of anatomy. i saw it and it had real life illustration which can be of great help during exams but it lacks the details of netter and has lesser pages. so shall i give it a shot.
Andrew
December 29, 2014 at 5:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I do not have any experience with McMinn’s and Abraham’s Atlas of Human Anatomy(link to amazon site). It appears to be cheaper than other anatomy atlases, other than that I have no inside information.
Anonymous
January 19, 2015 at 2:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I attended medical school in Germany. So far, I have not seen an anatomy atlas which is even close to the Sobotta anatomy atlas in clarity and detail. The newer English translations of Sobotta are much smaller and less detailed than the German editions I used in the 1960s.
Andrew
April 21, 2015 at 10:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thank you! I have also heard great things about the Sobotta Atlas (Amazon Link: Sobotta Atlas of Human Anatomy
). I encourage those searching for atlases to browse the free pages on the Amazon website. It looks very clean.
Patrick Verlende
February 7, 2015 at 7:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I agree that Netter made beautifully illustrated books on anatomie and clinical pathology. Artistically Sobotta is even better but in my eyes the nec-plus-ulta is Pernkopf's "Atlas der Anatomie" , not exactly cheap but you"ll keep it not simply as a study-book but also as a work of art. It comes in two volumes with an extra booklet " registerband"
Andrew
April 21, 2015 at 10:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thank you for the comment. Admittedly, I am not familiar with Pernkopf’s atlas, but if readers are looking for one you might try to google it. (A quick search for me was not fruitful, it must be rare?)
steph
August 5, 2015 at 8:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
just wanted to thank you for this. im starting my med school journey and had no idea which one to buy until this.
qwerty
September 15, 2015 at 9:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Heyo!! Just tell me which one to buy :")
Andrew
December 9, 2015 at 5:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Netters!
sunni
September 28, 2015 at 7:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi! I think you missed the book: Human Anatomy: Color Atlas and Text by John Gosling. This seems to be a good atlas with actual photos from cadavers!
Andrew
December 9, 2015 at 4:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks for the tip!
Patriciarrobinson
October 28, 2016 at 4:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi! You can also check Barcharts for Atlas of Human Anatomy which includes detailed illustrations.
Andrew
April 16, 2017 at 1:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks Patricia, I am not familiar with this book, but appreciate the heads up.
Anonymous
December 11, 2016 at 2:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks for your revew. What do you think about Essential Clinical Anatomy (Moore) and Clinically Oriented Anatomy (Moore)?
Thanks a lot.
Andrew
April 16, 2017 at 1:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks for the comment. I don’t have any experience with those books. If anyone does, please let us know.