Customer Reviews

Photoshop cs Complete Course

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Adobe Photoshop CS: Complete Course by Jan Kabili is a well-written book by a very knowledgeable teacher. First, Kabili's extensive teaching experience comes across in her lucid writing. The exercises are detailed, well illustrated, and completely self-explanatory. She does not talk down to the reader, nor does she make assumptions about skill levels. The book is divided into 16 sessions, each of which could be a complete class. And therein lies the problem: by deciding to limit the course to 16 sessions, many topics are not covered in the book. Although not purporting to be a reference book, it does not cover such topics as taking images to print or working with other applications; even Illustrator and GoLive are barely touched upon. However, as a course for learning Photoshop basics, the book is excellent. We imagine many teachers will choose it for their students. The book is one of a series published by Wiley in conjunction with Seybold.
From a review in PC Graphics Report

The book is laid out in seven main sections and then broken down into subsections within those sections, there are two bonus sections in the back of the book. A great tutorial CD is also included in the back of the book. You get an overview of what you can do with Photoshop and how to configure Photoshop for your particular working style in the beginning section. Then each section goes through a somewhat logical progression into the many tools and techniques that you start adding to your arsenal of knowledge.

They advise that you load the tutorial onto your system instead of working from the CD. Of course the CD works on both MAC and PC environments. Every session in the book is setup in a step by step format. The bold type indicates the steps you should do, the non-bold type gives more of an explanation of that step. The steps are illustrated with a hot pink number and those numbers correspond to the illustration. Also offered in hot pink are caution, notes and tips.

As many Photoshop users know there is usually more than one way to do something in Photoshop. In some of the sessions you can find which step works best with the way you work. I got a nice refresher course on some of the tools and learned some new and faster ways to get some of my work done.

I would have liked some more info on some of the other programs in CS but this was a Photoshop CS book and not a Creative Suites book. This book is not a reference book either while it gives some really good info for those that are new to the Photoshop world it does not offer much for the more advanced users of Photoshop. This would definitely be a good book for beginning graphics classes. This book whets your appetite for more in-depth features that Photoshop has to offer.

I'm fairly new to the Photoshop world and this book has helped me on my way to becoming a pro. The lessons build up sequentially to help the reader understand how projects in Photoshop can be completed. Each chapter is a new lesson that builds on the previous lesson to aid in comprehending the way different methods can be utilized to enhance other features in CS. The whole book is a large project that the reader should be able to complete by the end on their own. I highly recommend this book as a beginner introduction into the powerful application that is photoshop.

A comprehensive book about learning photoshop.Suitable for beginner to competent user of photoshop. Be aware the CD with the book will not work with Windows 7. A pity it has not been updated. Overall a very good learning tool

If you are the type that really scared enough
to start designing on your own (without teacher by
your side), then this book is PERFECT. Jan Kabili
has done an outstanding job eliminates fear in learning
this complicated program. She has given her best to
make beginners with 0 experience to have a confident
journey to the end. Without this book, I probably would
not be an expert as I am today. Thanks Jan. Maybe by
the time I wrote this, Jan has already retire (didn't write
any more books). But for me, this is the book that can make
you an expert in the forthcoming days. (The Pen Tool tutorial
is remarkably superb. I've tried other tutorial about this
complicated tool but nothing compares to what is in
this book. Do the exercise 3-4 times, and suddenly you'll find
yourself already familiar with the tool. Note that the Pen Tool
is the most complicated tool of all and you will be seen as Master
if you can get your grasp on it)

If you are serious about photoshop capability on color management, filters, layers, everything, look somewhere else!!! I bought this book together with Photoshop CS One-on-one from Deke McClelland, I spend 95% of time with Deke, better approach, better illustration. If you have spare money, buy it to fill up your shelf. Otherwise, save your money for a beer.