19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Call it a B+, ahead of Adobe's Classroom in A Book, August 29, 2002
This review is from: Inside Photoshop 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)
I can't quite go the whole 5 stars on this. The reason is that as an artist, I really do appreciate a colorful, extremely visual book on this kind of subject. This book is more in line with a traditional textbook. The text is almost entirely delivered in black and white but there is a CD-ROM to liven things up. This text's main ace in the hole though is that it is extremely well written while having a TON of information you will need for in depth penetration into this most complex program. If that is what you need, this is the book. I notice it is sold at my college as a reference work. I think it would work extremely well as a text, much better than "Visual Quick Start to Photoshop" used by my college (absolutely terrible) and better even than Adobe's own "Classroom In a Book" (previously reviewed). If I were just starting Photoshop, I would start with the "Learn Photoshop Visually Book" (previously reviewed) and then I'd use as my main 2 books, to go deeper into the program, the "Photoshop Wow" book (previously reviewed) and this book. I believe that you could go awfully far with these 3 books, these latter two having CD-ROMs to aid you. I also can't recommend highly enough that you add onto having these 3 books, signing up at the free Online Adobe Expert Center for free online tutorials and the fabulous free online users' forum. I've picked up some tips at the users' forum that are in no book. I consider "Classroom in a Book" optional to these others but worth having if your budget allows. Another fabulous resource is the Photoshop magazine, fully visual, in full color, with full tutorials. I buy mine at Borders but really should subscribe to it. I suppose a text that looked like this magazine is out of the question due to prohibitive color reproduction cost. Too bad as that would really be something.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
You can't be all things to all people, July 15, 2003
This review is from: Inside Photoshop 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)
I bought this book based on rave reviews, and was sorely disppointed.
1. The book tries to be all things to all people, and the author does own up to this in the introduction, stating that "...we're talking a core of reference chapters surrounded by parts in the book which appeal to different audiences." Beginners will be frustrated in that there is no overview describing the Photoshop GUI environment, unclear instructional detail, and lack of a clear instructional path through this weighty tome, and more advanced users will be bogged down by the verbiage, redundancy, unclear instructional detail, and missing contextual explanations of why the learner is doing the steps given.
2. Yes, the writing style is "approachable," "casual," and "fun," but I prefer a less weighty book (literally) that gets to the point. The Hands-On-Training books are a good example of this approach. I don't have time for silly jokes ("Make two-toned bananas by detailing the ends with green. They will also stay fresher this way") and overly informal writing ("No sense in hangin' around now").
3. There are very few illustrations and screen shots to display the tool references and steps, and those that exist are too small, requiring the reader to physically move the book closer and squint. This isn't easy with a 1000-page book.
4. The organization of the information lacks logical progression, and information is repeated throughout the book. For example, the author gives a detailed accounting of the layer and paint modes, taking 3 1/2 pages, in Chapter 1, and essentially repeats it in Chapter 4. It really shouldn't be in Chapter 1, which is aimed at beginners, as it just gets in the way of working through that chapter.
As an intermediate user of Photoshop, I had hoped to find a book that went beyond the basics, giving good explanations not for just how things work, but when and why to use them, along with good working, interactive examples. This book has a ton of information, as previous reviewers pointed out, but it's not clearly enough designed for me to bother with it, except as an additional reference. I will need to look further.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Consistent Quality From Start to Finish., January 2, 2003
This review is from: Inside Photoshop 7 (Inside (New Riders)) (Paperback)
The authors managed to make Photoshop 7 a delight to learn, and the book, an entertaining reading. It has two important qualities that became obvious as I read on: (1) it can sustain my interest to learn more and work the exercises, and; (2) the authors tried their best to help the reader really understand Photoshop principles. The style's upbeat, and the book's organization, clever. Photoshop core principles were presented first then it's practical use as applied to photography, the Web, art, and just plain goofing around. Makes a lot of sense. Although the images were in black and white in the book, they have proven to be good guides. There were plenty of screen shots of dialog boxes, which tool to use and what the images should look like. They help to ensure that you don't get lost. The actual tutorial images were in full color in the CD-ROM, many of them nicely rendered in 3D.
The observations in the previous review, "Several Areas of Ommission" are valid ones, though. I did find one exercise (Inverting and Refining A Shape Layer, page 185) that seem to have missed a step. Figure 5.29 on page 228 didn't quite look like what it was supposed to. But except for a few minor typo errors all the projects thus far were clearly explained and finished as written. I repeated some of them just for the fun of it. Odds are, any book this size (1000+ pages) would likely take its own share of minor errors. Overall, it was very well written.
I am on the last 3 chapters of the book (no skipping) and I can say for certain that the authors were careful to give the reader consistent quality instruction right from the beginning. All the toturials were very interesting. There was not a dull moment! The other advantage of this book was that it was written by several people, who apllied their expertise on specialized chapters. My only complaint is that the they couldn't be reached for clarification on the item on page 185. It has been a wonderful experience learning Photoshop 7 and I am glad I had this book as my main guide.
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