Photoshop Type Effects Gone Wild [Paperback]

Al Ward (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470042923 | ISBN-13: 978-0470042922 | Publication Date: February 20, 2007

Words have power. When you can create letters made of mercury, carve your words into stone, or duplicate the look of the one-of-a-kind type from a famous logo, the power is all yours. So let's jump right in and put your product name on that very familiar soup can . . . create a network news splash screen . . . personalize car tires . . . etch your message into a bar of soap. Wonderfully entertaining techniques, that will take your current Photoshop skills to the wild side!

Launch your own cereal box with a logo, splashy image, and text
• Rock on — develop a band logo that can be stamped on a CD, or create a video game jewel case
• Design text and logos with popular sci-fi looks
• Create a tattoo that appears to be embedded under the skin
• Get the word out — advertise on a blimp or put your message into a movie-themed poster

The bonus CD-ROM includes all the photos, starting images, and supplementary files needed for each tutorial

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Words have power. When you can create letters made of mercury, carve your words into stone, or duplicate the look of the one-of-a-kind type from a famous logo, the power is all yours. So let's jump right in and put your product name on that very familiar soup can . . . create a network news splash screen . . . personalize car tires . . . etch your message into a bar of soap. Wildly entertaining techniques, and they WILL assure that your words are noticed.

• Launch your own cereal box with a logo, splashy image, and text
• Rock on — develop a band logo that can be stamped on a CD, or create a video game jewel case
• Design text and logos with popular sci-fi looks
• Create a tattoo that appears to be embedded under the skin
• Get the word out — advertise on a blimp or put your message into a movie-themed poster

BONUS CD-ROM

Includes all the photos, starting images, and supplementary files needed for each tutorial

About the Author

Al Ward has been kicking around the Photoshop community for a number of years, writing and training on many subjects. His Website, actionfx.com, supplies custom-made Photoshop presets and information to users. At this writing, there are over 52,000 custom presets available for downloading. He has written and contributed to numerous Photoshop books, including Photoshop for Right Brainers (1st and 2nd editions), Al Ward’s Photoshop Productivity Toolkit, Photoshop Most Wanted, Photoshop Elements 2 Special Effects, and Photoshop 7 Effects Magic.
Al is a regular writer for the official Website of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and www.photoshopuser.com. He also writes for Planet Photoshop and is a contributor to several other Websites. He has been featured at the Photoshop Café, and has written for a number of print publications, such as Photoshop User Magazine and Web Designer Magazine.
Al is the official actions guru for the NAPP, a title given to him by Scott Kelby, and one that Al holds in very high esteem. In his free time, Al enjoys fishing the trout streams in Western Montana, spending time with his family, reading, enjoying a good movie, and searching the Web for graphics-related topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470042923
• ISBN-13: 978-0470042922
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Photoshop Type and MORE Effects Gone Wild, March 2, 2007

By 

Gary Spedding "alcbevgary" (Brewing and Distilling Analytical Services, LLC, Lexington, KY, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Photoshop Type Effects Gone Wild (Paperback)

Some of the other "Gone Wild" books have been a bit iffy but Al Ward has done a good job with the (Photoshop) Type Effects title in this series. I just worked through it quickly and tested out three of the exercises and found that there are some neat tips and tricks that help reinforce using Photoshop in general. Several tricks I have learned by playing and practicing with the program and it is good to see that I was on the right track. Better yet Ward points out the right or the better way to do it!

While there are getting to be way too many books on Photoshop out there - Enough already! Al Ward's book might be a good buy to get those folks who are at least just beyond beginner stage with a good set of tools to march or type their way forward in their creative endeavors. It does cover a good bit of ground (more than just the word Type implies) and also covers some neat advertising approaches to boot. Likely definately worth a glance at.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Trust me - this book sucks!, June 6, 2007

By 

korlo (Clinton Twp, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop Type Effects Gone Wild (Paperback)

Well, it looks like the author's friends have added their "unbiased" reviews. Now for the truth.

I have been a Photoshop user since version 5. In the last 10 years, I have bought many Photoshop books (at least 20). Some were very technical and some were fun and informative, but they all had something good to offer. Even if the majority of the book was poor, I could always find one or two nuggets. At least 2 of the books that i own are from Al Ward and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Which makes this critique all the more difficult. I wanted to like this book, but just could not find one redeeming quality.

I work at a large company with many levels of Photoshop users. I've seen people as they just get started with the Photoshop (myself included) and most users all produce the same types of initial "creations". I've seen enough badly manipulated photos that new users seem to be drawn to. The type of photo re-touching that only the creator can find enjoyable, entertaining, or inventive. Anyone who has used Photoshop for more than a few months will have an idea of the type of work that I'm talking about. Unfortunately, this book is full of those very same amateurish photo projects that very few will find useful. Honestly, the completed projects look no better than what you would expect from a total beginner. A number of projects will use segments and partial images to create a montage or composite image. The techniques are nothing more than taking a photo and inserting some text on top - often time without even attempting to "blend" the text to the image. Truthfully, think about some of the worst compositing of text onto an image and you'll have a good idea of this book's content.

I must confess, this book is not a total waste. It would make a great gift for anyone just getting started with Photoshop - at least this will help them quickly get through that initial, crap-producing introduction stage. After they get that out of their system, they'll be ready to move on.

Let me say for the record, I have read many books, articles, and tutorials from Al Ward and find him to be a very competent Photoshop instructor. And I think that is why it is so disappointing to see this type of output from such accomplished author and teacher.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Project Oriented How To Use Photoshop Book, April 1, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Photoshop Type Effects Gone Wild (Paperback)

Type and type styles have been around since Gutenberg, 500 years or so ago. You would think that just about everything there was to do with type would have been done, and of course that's all wrong. Photoshop and modern printing techniques have completely changed all the rules, and this book shows you how.

This is an intermediate level Photoshop book. You should have some experience with layers, masks, tools and palettes before you begin. The style of the book then is to define a series of project, usually to produce an advertisement, always with some special type requirement and then go through the steps to do the ad.

This, I guess you'd call it less structured, approach to learning rather than a formalized tutorial is the way most of us actually learn things. Yes, it would be nice to be able to sit down for a few months and learn Photoshop inside and out, but meanwhile there's work to be done, bills have to be paid.

There is a CD provided with the book so you can go through the procedure he describes using exactly the same input that he has.