Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics (Miscellaneous) [Paperback]

Andy Shafran (Author), Lori J. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Miscellaneous | Publication Date: December 2000

This guide to creating great graphics using Paint Shop Pro focuses on Web-specific solutions, showing users how to build simple graphics from scratch, modify existing logos and graphics, and create complex button bars, navigational schemes, and site designs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One of those books that you will keep permanently by your computer for instant reference. -- Stuart Pyne, Paint Shop Pro Users Group Librarian

About the Author

Lori J. Davis is a Paint Shop Pro expert and a former software manual writer. She is the author of Paint Shop Pro Power! and Paint Shop Pro Solutions. She lives in Brigantine, New Jersey. Andy Shafran is a computer and publishing professional and the author of numerous computer books, including Creating Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics, Creating Your Own Web Pages, and TY Microsoft FrontPage 98. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Musk and Lipman Publishing; 3 Sub edition (December 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929685130
• ISBN-13: 978-1929685134
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,664,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Beginners Book!, January 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics (Miscellaneous) (Paperback)

Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics - Third Edition focuses on using Paint Shop Pro 7 program by JASC Software, with a few diversions. Chapter 5, for example, covers Web Graphic Basics, which may be useful to some readers.

If you are familiar with Paint Shop Pro 6, or work with web graphics on a more advanced level you may find this book not extremely helpful. I do feel it is a very good beginners book for using the latest version of this software. JASC Software has made tremendous leaps to improve this program and with a few exceptions this book covers the software in a concise manner.

On the downside, I was extremely disappointed in their not covering a few topics that the advanced web graphic artist would need, and those were Alpha Channels, Adjustment Layers, Actions, and Masks. . I wish these types of books would come with the images used in the book on a CD. The examples in this book are available on-line as an almost 3 MG zip file.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good start, but light on content, March 27, 2003

By 

Jason Randall Nash "HawkeyeGK" (Council Bluffs, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics (Miscellaneous) (Paperback)

I'm a web developer by trade, but I've mostly coded back-end stuff. When I found myself needing to create some minimal imagery for a site, I turned to PaintShop. The price tag compared to PhotoShop was the difference maker and I had heard I could do 90% of what PhotoShop did with PaintShop.

I quickly found that I needed some extra help in using the software. Having never before used graphics software I found myself in serious need of help. This book was an excellent introduction, and I was quickly able to accomplish what needed to be done. I had to start from square one. After reading the first couple of chapters, I felt I had a good grasp of questions like what is a layer, how to flatten images, number of colors on the palette, and how to manipulate the tool in basic ways.

I'll look at each of the sections of the book in greater detail:

Part I Making Great Images -
This section of the book is 83 pages long and covers the fundamentals of how to use PSP. It covered all the nuts and bolts about how to do things like draw a line to rotate and resize your image. It does a pretty good job in this task. Having never used a graphics software package before I totally needed this chapter. More advanced users will probably be able to skip it.

Part II Marrying PSP to the Web -
I was a little disappointed in this part of the book. There is a chapter on basic graphic HTML. What really would have been useful would have been some CSS help here. There is a chapter on creating transparent images. Even with little graphics experience, I didn't really get anything out of the book on that topic that wasn't obvious in the tool. There is a chapter on why using small images is good and how to compress and crop. Simple stuff. There is a chapter on coordinating your graphics. Wonderful advice like picking colors that look good together abounds. How to create buttons and spacers and the like is also covered. Finally, there is a chapter on backgrounds. This one is actually pretty good if you use backgrounds in your design, but they usually look tacky to me.

Part III Accelerating Your Images -
This is the meat and potatoes of the book. Topics like layers, vectors, putting text on a curving line, etc are covered. You have to have some kind of help to figure this stuff out if you haven't used a graphics package before, and this book did a descent job. Although I must say that I used it more to learn how to ask the PSP help the right question more than I used the book to answer it. There simply is not enough detail here for you to get everything. But, you will at least have the vocabulary necessary to find an answer in the help, and you usually have some kind of idea what you are going to be doing.

Part IV Image Mapping and Slicing -
PSP does have a pretty cool tool that lets you take a big image and slice it up into smaller images and then it puts those images into an HTML table. All you have to do is take the generated HTML and paste it into your site. It's pretty slick and the explanation in the book is adequate. Topics like creating rollover menus and image maps are also covered. (Please resist the temptation to create mystery-meat navigation. The book doesn't warn against it.)

There is also quite a bit on animation, but as I have done no animation using PSP, I guess I shouldn't comment.

Appendices -
This is a total waste of space and a pad to book size (which is only 311 pages of a lot of pictures). There is actually a list of "Cool Sites." The list of keyboard shortcuts is nice I guess.

All in all, this book did a descent job teaching me how to use PSP. From what I've seen, it's the best on the market. Unfortunately, that doesn't say much. This book will certainly get you started, but after a few hours of use, you'll spend more time looking in the PSP help.

Three Stars -
HawkeyeGK

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On the Money!, June 14, 2002

By 

Alexander Morrison "Comptech22" (Charleston, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics (Miscellaneous) (Paperback)

I love finding books that you can actually work with! This book is written in plain English and contains good examples throughout the book as well as a great support site. The author let's you know what options are to be covered and most importantly what she is NOT covering or she deems too advance for the scope of the book. This simple format allowed me to search those items on my own. This is not to say she skimps on substance, but we all know that there is always an advance level of play on any program that should not be included in a beginner's book. This is a lot better than the author (like some other books) skipping program options completely in a book. Something else I liked was the continuous use of icons and screen shots throughout the book. Unlike Sams PSP 7 in 24hrs (Check out my review of it), the author constantly refreshes the reader of the previous chapter and tools learned by print and screen shots/graphics. Needless to say I am happy with the purchase, especially since the reviews here steered me to buy this book.