Customer Reviews

Photoshop 7/ImageReady For the Web Hands-On Training

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The most comprehensive tutorial you're likely to find covering PhotoShop's "little web sister", leave it to Lynda.com to come up with THE ImageReady book. Don't let the title mislead you, especially if you're already a long-time P-Shop veteran. The information contained in these pages, accompanied by outstanding tutorials and full color illustrations, is NOT a rehash of stuff you already know; it is a means of making the transition from traditional publishing to creating full-blown web pages with minimal compromise.

Even seasoned users of Adobe's cornerstone image editing tool may find some new and useful tips in streamlining graphics production - I certainly did. Instructor Jan Kabili makes the journey such a pleasure (not to mention a productive use of time), one could actually become converted to working in lo-res art! As in other titles by this publisher, the exercises are straighforward, economical and plentiful - the reader is presented with a great deal of material in relatively short order, yet in a way that is not at all difficult to retain practical information.

Granted, Adobe ImageReady is not a web management tool ..... that's Macromedia Dreamweaver's job, and though it may not integrate with that program as closely as, say, Fireworks, it contains no shortage of tools for fully preparing, creating, optimizing and animating raster images for web use. This entry in the highly-praised Hands-On-Training series is as good an introduction as you'll find on making full use of ImageReady in a short time, and a genuinely enjoyable one at that.

Acquire, read, and get thyself web-ready.

This is by far the best and most informative and detailed book of its kind. It covers every aspect of "everything you ever wanted to know about" rollovers and rollover animated menus! It does not leave you 'missing something' or saying: 'yes, but it really doesn't cover...' - It covers everything! The accompanying CD is excellent!

I started reading Lynda Weinman's books way back when she did a book on creating graphics for the web. I don't recall the title, but it was a book on optimizing images, and it was made way back in around '99.

What I guess I'm saying is that Lynda is an authority, she knows what she's doing, and just as importantly, knows how to actually convey her knowledge in an understandable, interactive way. Hands On Training is kinda like those DeVry ads you've seen for so many years during Perry Mason episodes. It's about learning by doing. I mean, how are you going to learn how create layer masks with gradients and textures that are linked and include shapes and are feathered with paths and........if you're reading a book with one paragraph after another, and very few numbered steps. Are you really going to remember that shortcut key for the magic wand from reading a manual written in paragraph form, with one pictured example every 3 pages?

And, to sidetrack, do you really want to learn how to make 3-D warped multicolored lettering to be used in a Word newsletter?

I say no. And so does Lynda, I'm sure. And so, I'd guess, does DeVry. I've used Photoshop for 12 years and I'd say I'm an intermediate. Maybe in 20 years I'll know what Lynda and her fine associates know.

My favorite tutorial books for software are the Hands On Training and the Classroom In A Book series. And, if forced to choose one series or the other, I'd choose H O T.

Authors Lynda Weinman and Jan Kabili have done a great job.

Although I remain a devotee of CIB methods, my library will include the HOT books for all complex software.

Discussion of animated GIFs, automation and integrating with other programs, such as GoLive, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Acrobat and QuickTime [Chapters 13, 14 and 16] are of especial importance.

This book is a must for users of Adobe's ImageReady and Photoshop.