Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers [Paperback]

Ken McMahon (Author), Robin Nichols (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0240520165 | ISBN-13: 978-0240520162 | Publication Date: March 13, 2006 | Edition: 1

Achieve professional results with this complete and easy-to-follow introduction to Corel's Paint Shop Pro X. Packed with a wide variety of real life examples, eye-catching visuals and numerous tips and tricks, Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers will enhance your productivity and take your skills to new heights.

All the new features of Paint Shop Pro X are covered including Smart Photo Fix, the Makeover tools, Object Remover, Color Balance tool and much more. With full guidance on the basics, you will also master advanced retouching techniques to further improve your images and create outstanding results.

If you are an amateur digital photographer, web or graphic designer, this Corel-endorsed guide will provide you with everything you need to achieve success with this affordable but powerful consumer software.

* Get the best from your digital images and improve your workflow with top techniques from a creative industry pro
* Gain the vital skills you need quickly with step-by-step tutorials to help you learn every tool, feature and technique
* Be inspired by more than 1500 beautiful, color images throughout the book and available for download from the online gallery at www.guide2psp.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When you pick up any book from Focal Press, you know two things. One: it is extremely useful for photographers, and Two: it is qualitative, thorough information for those wanting in depth knowledge. There are more books about PSP, so why bother? In short: Paint Shop Pro 8, the guide to creating professional images is by far the clearest guide for PSP. It's a serious book for people wanting to know more. Of course every function of the program is discussed in detail. But it is the examples that make this manual the best. It is strongly visual, with lots of examples and graphics."
Photocrack e-zine.

Amazon.com reviews of Paint Shop Pro 9 for Photographers:

"As soon as I opened this book I knew I would like it. It's in COLOR, what a novel idea, to make a photo book in color!!!!
:-)It deals with digital photos and scans and web only, none of that other stuff you can do like make graphics and things. You can also download the picture from the web site to follow along. For working with digital photos and scans this is the BEST PSP 8 book I have used."


"If you have just a little knowledge of digital imaging this is the book for you. Illustrations are great and the text is easy to follow. Recommend you read PSP 8 "Fast and Easy" first and then read this book. Great Australian sense of humor throughout book."

'This book is ideal for you whether you are new or well versed in the world of mega pixels. Enjoy!'
Gage S. Lockhart, Technical Support Specialist, Corel Software Inc.

"This beautifully illustrated book provides information and guidance on using Paint Shop Pro X from a photographer's perspective...Newcomers to Paint Shop should read the book in a linear manner, while others may wish to use the book more as a reference by sampling particular chapters...The book is very well written and organized." - HiTech Review, July/Aug. 2006

"If you have Paint Shop Pro and really want to use it to its fullest, you need this book. There are vert few quality books available for this program, and this one, published by Focal Press, is at the top of the list...This book is organized well by using color coded pages for easy access to the many chapters, quality images to illustrate technique instructions and results, and tutorials at the end of every chapter to put to use the information that was just explained." - Apogee Photo Magazine, August 2006

"If you're using Corel's Paint Shop Pro X for your digital darkroom work, you'll really appreciate this book...Beginners, as well as experienced, Paint Shop Pro X users will benefit from this well written, easy to understand book...Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers is well written, well organized and well illustrated, and that's more than enough to put it on your bookshelf." - Digital Photographer, Oct/Dec 2006

Book Description

NOT TO BE ANNOUNCED - NOTIFICATION WILL BE GIVEN BY EMAIL AS SOON AS THIS IS POSSIBLE

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (March 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240520165
• ISBN-13: 978-0240520162
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,418,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A much-needed manual, July 4, 2006

By 

R. J. Sparks - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers (Paperback)

I upgraded to Paint Shop Pro X from Jasc's PSP 7. One of the obvious changes in the product was how the Version 7 500-page manual has been reduced to 100 pages for Version X. The boxed manual covers the basics, but if you are new to PSP and/or want to get to grips with the more advanced features then it is not enough. How-to books for PSP are rather thin on the ground, so it is good to see that McMahon & Nichols have produced a well written supplementary volume that digs more deeply into the program while maintaining an easy-to-read style.

Production of the book is excellent, with gloss paper, clear text and lots of colour illustrations. The organisation is also well thought out. Each chapter begins with a table setting out the particular features and tools that will be covered and coloured tabs make it easy to go to a particular chapter. The index is comprehensive, and I have not had any trouble finding a particular reference (so far!). A bonus is a chapter devoted to Corel Photo Album 6, bundled with PSP.

If you are a Paint Shop Pro user who wants to do more than the most elementary adjustments for digital photography then I recommend this book.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Salvation from Damnation, August 21, 2006

By 

Paul Wake (Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers (Paperback)

Paint Shop Pro X, as released by Corel after buying the software from JASC, was supposedly a revision of the program in a new user friendly, learning friendly direction. Unfortunately, the program's on screen help is horrible, and the official manual is nearly worthless. PSP 9 had a much better manual, and if you upgraded from PSP 9 and already understood the program then you may not need this book. But if you're new to PSP, you desperately need some kind of substitute manual, and this book is the best I've seen.

PSP has loads of features beyond the one click fixes. This book is far from being a "turgid" study of each feature. There is so much to cover, it's more of a highlight reel. In fact, that's this book's main problem. It shows, both for photographers and--to some extent--painters and web designers and others who use PSP X, how to do many things, but sometimes it doesn't explain fully enough what one is doing. It runs through some steps without explaining what each step does. If users had that understanding, they could better use the program to do additional things. In fact, that's why I'm writing this review: to encourage the authors to put a little more detail in future editions.

Having said that, I would guess that for most users this book can be very useful in pointing out many of the things they can do with PSP X. It'll take considerable addition experimentation on screen to fully figure out PSP X, though. But it would be awful to try to figure out PSP X without this book's help. And no, the "casual user" cannot do well by just hitting the one click fixes and not learning more: the one click fixes aren't good enough, and the more is too valuable to miss.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book if you are trying to get all the power that is in PSP, June 19, 2006

By 

P. Breakfield IV "Tom Steele" (Greenville, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers (Paperback)

This book does a good job of explaining the powerful tools available if you are using Paint Shop Pro. PSP is far more powerful than most users realize and Paint Shop Pro X for photographers can help you get the most out of this program.