Photoshop 6 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 576 pages
• Published by: Peachpit Press February 4, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0201713098
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0201713091
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 2.1 pounds

Product Review
The authors of Photoshop 6 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide have many years' experience in writing--and it shows. This latest volume is one of the longest QuickStart Guides (as befits such a complex application), with each page chock-full of screen shots of images, palettes, toolbars, and option panels. Photoshop's work environment has changed significantly since version 5.5; for example, a new options bar has been added. Right off, this guide maps out the landscape with callouts and captions that define each and every item you might see when Photoshop is running. A "6.0!" icon marks every new item.

The strength of all QuickStart Guides is their abundance of black-and-white screen shots laid out in one column on the page, coupled with the step-by-step instructions and concise explanations that appear on the adjacent column. These are not tutorials that simulate a classroom experience by taking one project through many stages (although sample images are shown). Rather, this book is more like a fix-it manual--you have a problem in your own work, you look up the appropriate keywords in the index, and then you apply the steps to work out a solution.

As would be expected, the book takes you through all the many parts of Photoshop, from pixel basics like resolution to selections, layers, history, masks, paths, type, filters, actions, and preparing images for print or Web. Also covered is using ImageReady to optimize images for the Web and make slices, rollovers, and animations. Features that are new to ImageReady 3.0 are also highlighted with a "6.0!" icon, making it easy to find just those topics that will be of interest to readers already comfortable in version 5.5. There's also a lengthy list of keyboard shortcuts for both platforms, followed by an impressively detailed index. --Angelynn Grant

Book Info
A beginner to intermediate level visual guide to learning Photoshop 6 for Windows and Macintosh. Works like a reference book, with guide tabs on each page, making the text easy to flip through. Takes a visual approach, using screen shots to show how to do tasks, and avoiding long-winded explanations. Softcover.

Reader Reviews
This book is not for the newbie. It does not teach you how to make effects that wow the masses. 17 year old boys will not be able to make flames scorch rubber duckies just by picking up this book, and you will not be able to sleep walk through all of the functions that Photoshop 6 can give you merely by purchasing this volume. However, if you own Photoshop 6, and have some familiarity with the program, and some idea of what you want your image to look like--this is the book for you. It tells you how to make Photoshop do what you want. Its functions are clearly explained, and you don't have to read the whole thing to be able to execute one function flawlessly. I was relieved that this book does not "effect a breezy style" like the Dummies books and most of the computer books out there. You will see one or two "kute as a button" self-references by the authors (on the order of "we tried this function and were awed by it"). Nowadays, that is about as restrained as you get.You will never know about the authors' adorable moppets, how they truely feel about lattes, or that their cell phones eat batteries. You don't care. You want to learn how to use Photoshop, not babysit by proxy some self absorbed yup-geek. Hooray for being relieved of the authors' neurosis so you can get down to business. That is what you are paying for, and that is what you will get. Also, you are relieved of the all but useless "Bonus CD" that comes with most computer books, which greatly reduces its price and annoyance quotient. I am sure you have long ceased to be impressed with the "Bonus CD" chocked full of: demo programs that blow up after ten days, shareware that ends up costing you ... if you want it (which you weren't counting on when you bought the book), and crippled mini programs that do one thing well once and just end up taking space on your hard drive in perpetutity. If you are a poor lost soul who flaps and flaps and just can't figure out a big image manipulation program, this is not the book for you--and Photoshop 6 is not the program for you. If you are a curious and dedicated user of Photoshop, and you want to get the best out of this huge and grand software, do buy this book and it will be of great help to you. If you lost your manual, this is the best substitute.