Customer Reviews

How To Do Everything with Paint Shop Pro 8

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was immediately very disappointed in this book because I was looking for a book that would have more to do with graphics techniques and creation. However, I do have a digital camera and do some work with photos, including scanning and restoring some old photos.

For the purpose of learning what Paint Shop Pro 8 can do with digital photos, this book is superb. For graphics work, other than to do with photos, the book is extremely weak. If that is what you want to learn, do not buy this book.

I gave the the book 3 stars because it is mistitled. The title should be "How to Do Everything With Digital Photographs in Paint Shop Pro 8."

Firstly, the author takes great pain to bring across his techniques in easy to understand processes. This book is very user friendly.

The title of the book, however, suggests that you will learn the in's and out's of Paint Shop Pro 8. I had assumed this would mean getting a good grasp of the various new tools and how to use them. This is not the case.

A more appropriate title for the book would have been something like, "How to Do Everything with Images with Paint Shop Pro 8"

Even the author indicates this "image" approach in the Introduction chapter.

If you're looking for a book that will tell you how to fix photo's or get creative with photos and images, this is your book, no doubt about it. However, if you're looking for a book that helps with the practical application of the many drawing related tools in Paint Shop Pro 8- keep looking.

Although this book needs another title (it certainly does not cover 'everything' in PSP 8 especially things like brushes, filters, it is still an excellent reference for using PSP 8 with your digital photography images and teaching some digital photography techniques.

I bought:
Paint Shop Pro 8: The Guide to Creating Professional Images by Robin Nichols

How To Do Everything with Paint Shop Pro 8 by Dave Huss

Paint Shop Pro 8 Zero to Hero by Sally Beachman and Ron Lacey

Paint Shop Pro 8 Power by Lori Davis.

Dave's book is by far the best for digital photography and Paint Shop Pro 8, he knows his photography unlike the others who really seem to struggle to explain anything but the most basic, surface information. Zero to Hero by Beacham and Lacey is a complete was of money in my experience unless you are a person who doesn't have a clue when you are being fed garbage information by macjob type people who have no formal training in graphics design (it shows in their book). Robin Nichols book is much better than Dave's for covering brushes, filters, and giving examples of real creative design. Robin seems to have the best knowledge of graphic design principles and concepts and has the creative touch to bring it all together for the reader nicely. Lori Davis' book is much like Beacham and Lacey's when it comes to lacking any hint of unique, creativity, but at least Lori knows Paint Shop Pro well, unlike Beacham and Lacey who seem to be very limited in the topics they can discuss in detail. Lori's book is a good extension of the Paint Shop Pro 8 manual where she covers what has been done but uses more examples.

Out of these books if you have the cash purchase Dave's book for his digital photography and photo editing tips and tricks and advice. Buy Robin's book for creative ideas in designing from scratch graphics and learning creative ways to use the brushes and filters. Buy Lori's book to get if you want a more technical look at aspects of Paint Shop Pro 8's general features, but don't need creative insights. With these 3 books you should have more than you will ever need, but if you can only afford two than get Dave's and Robin's.

Yes, the title is very misleading! But that is not so much the fault of the author. McGraw Hill/Osborne has a whole series of "How to do Everything with" books. At first glance I thought this might be a great book for photographers ... because it didn't talk about all the "paint" features, the silly picture tubes etc. This is a fine book for beginners but I had hoped for more in a number of areas. His knowledge of cropping leaves a bit to be desired and most of the example photos are very amateurish. As I got further into the book I found that the author did not mention "unsharp mask" when discussing sharpening and the word "optimize" never found its way into the text!!! So I have to question the validity of this author! How can he work with photographs and not use the unsharp mask and optimize his work when it is saved? I had also hoped for more information about Scripting. There's nothing here about customizing recorded scripts. Since Scripting is one of the best new features about v.8 he should have gone into detail!
To my knowledge there is NOT an excellent, or really good book on the market about using PSP with photographs!

Perhaps I would be more inclined to recommend this book if it had a more realistic title: Like "How To Do a Few Rather Basic Things with Photographs in Paint Shop Pro 8"

I'm trying to figure out if there is ANY advantage to buying this book over simply using the manual that ships with PSP8...and so far I haven't found one. Perhaps it would be useful for a total graphics and Paint Shop Pro newbie who has just purchased their first digital camera or scanner, the average PSP user will probably "outgrow" the meager information in the book before the check for its purchase clears the bank.

Sadly lacking in even basic information regarding the new paint engine and dozens of other new features, (I only have 1000 words here) this is a book written by a photographer who clearly neither draws not paints. And clearly believes no one else does, either. The sole mention of brush variances is a screen shot of the palette on or about page 16--- with no description of what the controls in the palette actually do. There is, however, a lengthy and very generic *chapter* on scanner usage. One clearly "recycled" from Huss' scanner book. Not bad information, but having little relevance to PSP8.

In 25 words or less: At best, an overview. Just basic sketchy information aimed at amateur photographers. No "wow" for advanced users, nothing for painters and designers.

If I had read even the first two or three reviews I would have known this was not the book for me. The trouble was, I loved the title" How to do everything in Paint Shop Pro 8.0. It has been suggested that a better title would have been "How to do a few limited photographic things in PSP8.0. Paint Shop Pro will allow you to place Text on a Path, Convert it to curves, fill with patterns, work in layers, create scripts when dealing with multiple graphics, and lets you build and save your own brushs and Tubes. These are all covered in the manual that comes with PSP. Alas, all this book will teach you is how to get the red out of someone's eye ... which is far too basic for most Paint Shop Pro users.

Finally a Paint Shop Pro book for photographers! Paint Shop Pro 8 is a great program but most books either parrot the User Guide or waste pages showing how to make silly projects. The author is clearly a photographer and shows how to enhance, repair and otherwise make OK photos into great ones. He includes tips throughout the book about how to take better photos with digital cameras. If you can only get one book on Paint Shop Pro, this is the one to get.

I was very disappointed in this book. I actually got much more information from the official manual. Instructions and explanations were very brief and the black and white illustrations are of (in some cases) no help at all. If you are interested in effects and artwork from your photos, this book really doesn't do it. I only wish I had got it on sale!

This book, with its step-by-step procedures, saved me loads of time and money. As an artist trying to ramp up very quickly on a new freelance job, this book showed me EVERYTHING I needed at first glance.
I created mouse-over buttons in seconds following the instructions in this book. I like the way the instructions are laid out: Pixel-, resolution-, and palette-settings are all defined for you! The "Create Images for the Web" chapter is a life-saver for anyone designing for the Web. With this book, I was able--in a very short time--to focus on my art, not the tool!!

This book was everything I hoped it was. It explained a lot of things about PSP that I didn't know. I mean that it help in all of the different versions of PSP. I was very pleased and I am still learning from it.