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Projects include transforming a photograph into various styles of painterly images and into a mosaic composition that looks handcrafted out of tissue paper. Readers also find out how to simulate marbled paper, make transparent shadows and gradients on a path, draw 3-D packages and bar charts, create type with a scratchboard fill or even in the style of a '60s psychedelic poster. One section shows a sampling of filter combinations, like "Mosaic + Ripple" and "Dry Brush + Graphic Pen."
Design Essentials is laid out with the steps on the left of the page, color screen shots on the right. Although this is not a "basics" book, even a beginner would be able to follow along. The book assumes that readers are familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator, but a nifty appendix of shortcuts and handy tips (for example, hit the X key to switch the foreground/background colors) makes this a great reference for readers of all levels. And even though the focus is on the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, several of the sections will still make sense to those readers who haven't yet upgraded.
Featuring completely new examples, this book's usefulness will last long after newer versions of Photoshop and Illustrator have come out. I still regularly reach for my copy of Cohen's 1993 Imaging Essentials (featuring similar tips on using Photoshop 2.5 and Illustrator 5!). This new edition has now earned a prominent place on my bookshelf as well. --Mike Caputo --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasantly Surprised,
By
This review is from: Design Essentials for Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 7 and Illustrator(R) 10 (4th Edition) (Professional Studio Techniques) (Paperback)
As someone who's come to Photoshop and Illustrator from a tech background (I started out using them to design graphics for websites I was coding, and I'm now moving into using them purely for their own sake) I bought this expecting something high-brow and fairly abstract. Still, the reviews of past editions were good, so it must be worth a read...However, on actually reading the book I was very pleasantly surprised to find...a recipe book. Lots of nice, step-by-step, two or three page descriptions of interesting graphical techniques you can apply, either to spruce up something you've already done, or as inspiration for something new altogether. Many of them are applicable to both Photoshop and Illustrator, and where appropriate instructions are given for both applications. The techniques illustrated cover a wide range of subjects, from applying filters to photos to get a more painterly appearance to the creation of seamless textures, image compositing and the creation of semi-transparent object shadows in Illustrator. You'll almost certainly have seen some of them before (or arrived at your own ways to achieve similar effects) but there's enough in this book that you're sure to find something you'll want to add to your own list of techniques. In a way this is "Photoshop 7 Down And Dirty Tricks" polite sister. The basic idea's the same (like I said, a recipe book) but the aim's slightly higher (i.e. improving your art, rather than impressing your boss). There's even some overlap in the techniques presented, although generally this book favours aesthetic results over flashy impact.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Beginner Book to Get Started with Advanced Techniques,
By A Customer
This review is from: Design Essentials (3rd Edition) (Professional Studio Techniques) (Paperback)
The book goes through different techniques suchs as Cast Shadows, Texture patterns, and 3-D packages. There is not too much reading involved; you could just look and the pictures and read the one line step of what to do next. This book is a perfect supplement to other Photoshop/Illustrator books.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
vague in places,
By A Customer
This review is from: Design Essentials (3rd Edition) (Professional Studio Techniques) (Paperback)
I had been looking for a book like this and was very disappionted and frustrated after trying to do the first chapter. I got to the point where you create the corner piece and ran into a brick wall. There was nothing telling you how to proceed. The adobe class room in a book are so much better at giving step by step instructions.
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