Customer Reviews

Photoshop 6 Shop Manual

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Okay. Here's the deal. This isn't a book. It's a STUNT. It is an act of will. The author seems to say: I will name EVERYTHING in Photoshop, tell you what everything does, explain to you how to use everything and what the things to avoid are. Then I'll organize it all, cross reference it and give you pages of practical examples. Done. There is nothing in here except content. No cute stories, no lame jokes no rambling personal opinions that substitute for facts in so many books on the market. just wall to wall organized content. In short, the book treats you like a professional. It seems like this shouldn't be unusual, but it is. Adobe should bundle the book with the software. It is that comprehensive, authoritative and sensible.

This is a breathtakingly useful Photoshop reference for working graphics professionals. Look up any command in Photoshop 6's sprawling interface, and Donnie O'Quinn will tell you exactly what that command can do, when you should use it, when you shouldn't use it, and what you'd better watch out for.

There's an immense amount of working knowledge distilled into this book. Open it one day, and you'll learn how to avoid using incorrect PANTONE ink names in your duotones. Next time you look, O'Quinn's reminding you why it no longer makes sense to deactivate selections simply by clicking on screen. Flip to another page, and he's showing how to convert a QuarkXPress document to editable pixels.

The breadth is extraordinary. Masking. Color controls. Swatches. Styles. Actions. Layers. Paths. Text. Detailed appendices on automation, selection, cropping, resizing, file conversion, line art and halftone editing, custom ink techniques, and more. There's also a 24-page keyboard shortcut reference. Simply put, Photoshop 6 Shop Manual stands out as an indispensable resource for every print and web professional who wants to get the job done as efficiently and well as possible.

I have almost every Photoshop 6 book currently published, with the exception of a few highly specialized books. This book is by far the most comprehensive, the most intuitive and the most helpful book for explaining every tool, palette, filter, nook and cranny included in Photoshop 6. Unlike other books, it goes beyond explaining the functionality and meaning of each of these things and actually gives you the pros and cons of each, along with common mistakes you may make using them.

The first part of the book reviews each tool, filter, and palette, giving 100% comprehensive descriptions of each control. Also, common mistakes are listed along with suggestions for when some tools may be better than others. Tools are cross referenced to help you choose the right tool for the job, even if your initial guess of tool is way off. For example, you may be leaning towards using the wand for a particular task. You go to the wand section and read about how maybe the pen tool is a better choice for a particular function, such as silhouetting. Also, the coverage of filters, filter settings and actual English descriptions of what each filter does is better than in any other book.

The second part gives useful step by step techniques for commonly or not so commonly performed tasks. This part puts the Classroom In A Book to shame and shows other authors how a step by step guide SHOULD be written. The second part alone justifies the cost of the book. Combined with the incredible first part, this book is nothing short of the best single package deal out there.

If this book retailed for $100 it would be well worth its purchase price. Amazon offers you 123 freely viewable pages, by the way, so judge for yourself, before you buy!

There are so many great Photoshop books out there, but I find this one to be my favorite. Where other Photoshop books concentrate on teaching a few spiffy techniques, they leave you knowing nothing about so many of Photoshop's features.

This book, however, takes EVERY menu entry and EVERY pallete option and explains what they do, how to use them, and mistakes to avoid. It concentrates on teaching you what Photoshop can do. At the end of the book are some excellent technique chapters thrown in for good measure, but this book would still be my first choice without them.

Do you know the meaning of every one of the zillion commands found in Photoshop? No, I thought not. When you want to find out the difference between random or level-based methods in the Extrude Dialog Box, can you immediately turn to that topic in one of your Photoshop Books? The Photoshop 6 Shop Manual is an astounding and necessary volume for a Photoshop library. This encyclopedia lists every command, tool, dialog box, and option found in Photoshop. It lists them, and then describes their usage along with issues to consider in their use and mistakes to avoid. This material uses up the first 700 pages of the book.

Next we come upon 230 pages containing 170 techniques which include such things as: correcting fleshtones; colorizing with duotone mode; and evaluating shadows and highlights. Wait, we're not finished yet. The next section contains 23 pages of keyboard shortcuts. I'm used to some small two-sided cardboard list of the shortcuts. I never dreamed there were this many. Next there are 15 pages of color plate, followed by an immense index of topics, and an issue index.

A couple of years ago I purchase a book for Photoshop 5 titled "Photoshop in a Nutshell" which pretty much followed the same format. I was disappointed that a version for version 6 never appeared. When I got the Photoshop 6 Shop Manual home I noted that it is by the same author as the Nutshell book. It?s essentially the same book only updated, and with a new title and publisher. Its size is also bigger, going from 632 pages to 1074 pages. If you use Photoshop you simply must have this book...

The Photoshop 6 Shop Manual is absolutely indispensable, comprehensive, huge and all knowing. It covers everything. I bought this book as a novice, along with 'Adobe Photoshop 6 Classroom in a Book' A lot of my study is spent away from the computer, so studying was made so much easier and better with the aid of this book.

It is a 1000 jammed packed pages full of pictures of every single dialog box and description of everything Photoshop. It isn't a tutorial based book, more an encyclopedia - though there are 300 excellent pages dedicated to techniques, which leaves 700 more bursting with information on every tool, shortcut, command, option - everything!

My only complaint? it needs half a dozen bookmarks built in or a thumb index because, believe you me, you are going to use it that much!

I sincerely hope that the publishers will provide an online update for the upcoming Photoshop 7.

Buy with confidence - you won't be sorry.

for the accomplished photoshop user, this is one of the couple of books worth owning. As a graphic design lecturer of many years i am very familiar with the workings of the product, but i still find this and a couple of other similiar books more than earn their keep, for the fact that i can look up any forgotten setting or dialogue and quickly discover its secrets.
best of all this book is the successor to the excellent photoshop in a nutshell series which was sadly lamented (by me). this is a guide to the software and to the common techniques and pitfalls.
plus the cover design is superb, i only wish i had the shop manuals for dreamweaver and illustrator to sit alongside... sigh.

After reviewing the Photoshop 6 Shop Manual for the past two weeks I must say it truly is a shop manual for Photoshop 6.This rebirth of Donnie O'Quinn's Photoshop in a Nutshell book is excellent. Absent is the cute and the fluff that has become the mainstay of many computer books; having been replaced by a wealth of well organized descriptions of how everything in Photoshop 6
works. Wait you say. I could get that from the Adobe User's Manual. To a degree that is true. Adobe's documentation is outstanding. The advantage of the Shop Manual is the information is seasoned with experience. For example, if you look at the description of the three different ways to resample an image with the Image Size command in the Adobe documentation, you will find three descriptions of the algorithms used. In the Shop Manual, Donnie tells you what every experienced Photoshop user knows - use bi-cubic and ignore the others after which he explains
why the other two are inferior.
This is not a book, you will snuggle up with and read from cover to cover - just like a real Shop Manual. There are no lengthy explanations about light or color theory to fill the pages. With the Shop Manual you find the tool, process or action you are interested in and jump to that section to get the facts - and
recommendations. It doesn't get any better than this. If you use
Photoshop more than a few hours a week, get this jewel. Eat beans for a week if you have to, you'll be glad you did.

This is the book you want for complete, concise information on all the tools and functions of Photoshop. This is my most valuable book for getting answers quickly. It is well laid out, well explained, and the index is excellent.

The only drawback is the book started coming apart with only a few uses. It required regluing the loose sections back into the spine.

Although I cannot disagree with the other reviews in terms of the quality of content I have been extremely disappointed with the binding of this edition. The quality of paper is of a very good fine smooth grade. Unfortunately this appears to add to the weight that has to be supported by the thin cardboard cover and glued spine. Simply laying the book open mid-way through its 1074 pages proved to be too much of a strain with the result that the cover separated from the rest of the book at the spine. Additionally the pages have also split from the glued spine in a couple of places. I treat books with respect and am not a spine bender or a page flattener. I am also an occasional rather than a heavy user of this book. This is not the quality of binding that I would expect in a publication labelled as a 'shop manual'. If you expect to be a heavy user of this book be prepared to deal with a 'loose leaf' version very quickly.