Photoshop CS2 Visual Encyclopedia [Paperback]

Stephen Romaniello (Author), Elizabeth Cardenas-Nelson (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764598600 | ISBN-13: 978-0764598609 | Publication Date: January 18, 2006 | Edition: 1

If you prefer to see what things look like and how to perform a task, instead of just being told, this is your ideal A to Z reference. Part I shows every Photoshop CS2 tool and how to use it. Part II provides step-by-step instructions for more than 130 key tasks and techniques. Both are arranged alphabetically and illustrated in full color. It's the ultimate Visual resource - you'll see!
* Each tool and technique illustrated in color
* Alphabetical listings for easy reference
* Step-by-step instructions for performing dozens of tasks
* A comprehensive guide for visual learners

A Visual guide to
* Identifying and using each Photoshop CS2 tool
* Fine-tuning color, brightness, contrast, and exposure
* Automating various image adjustments
* Converting bitmaps to halftones or RBGs to CMYKs
* Applying more than 15 different filters
* Working with type in illustration

Editorial Reviews

Review

"…if you want a wide-ranging overview of what Photoshop offer, this is the ideal read." (Photoshop Creative, September 2006)

From the Back Cover

If you prefer to see what things look like and how to perform a task, instead of just being told, this is your ideal A to Z reference. Part I shows every Photoshop CS2 tool and how to use it. Part II provides step-by-step instructions for more than 130 key tasks and techniques. Both are arranged alphabetically and illustrated in full color. It's the ultimate Visual resource - you'll see!

• Each tool and technique illustrated in color
• Alphabetical listings for easy reference
• Step-by-step instructions for performing dozens of tasks
• A comprehensive guide for visual learners

A Visual guide to

• Identifying and using each Photoshop CS2 tool
• Fine-tuning color, brightness, contrast, and exposure
• Automating various image adjustments
• Converting bitmaps to halftones or RBGs to CMYKs
• Applying more than 15 different filters
• Working with type in illustration

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Visual; 1 edition (January 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764598600
• ISBN-13: 978-0764598609
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 1 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #989,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, definitive reference, January 24, 2006

By 

Joey (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop CS2 Visual Encyclopedia (Paperback)

This book is a heavy volume, but I venture to say that it's just about worth its weight in gold. It contains nearly 400 pages of large-format, step-by-step, illustrated references to Photoshop tools and techniques. Every major tool is here, along with scores of easy-to-follow techniques -- all in color, with numbered steps. An added bonus is the multitude of useful cross-references that appear in nearly every spread. All of this works together to create a supremely useful reference for quick, accessible Photoshop solutions. Every Photoshop user would benefit from this superb publication, and for students, beginning or intermediate users, or those getting acquainted with CS2, it's a "must have."

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Made me an instant PS expert, February 1, 2006

By 

Bob J (St. Louis area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop CS2 Visual Encyclopedia (Paperback)

This book is absolutely awesome. I'm just an amateur who uses Photoshop on digital photos, and the beauty of PS has always been that just about anyone can use it at a comfortable depth -- relying on the adjustment tools and not doing anything too tricky. However, this book give me an instant boost to several levels above where I was operating previously. Now I'm working with layers, masks, and channels, doing color replacements and composites that I never would have considered or attempted before...and all I had to do was go to the technique in which I was interested and simply go through the illustrative steps. I'm an instant expert, so to speak, and my creativity has been unleashed. Amazing!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extremely Useful Format, March 22, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Photoshop CS2 Visual Encyclopedia (Paperback)

Most computer books are either a reference guide in a dictionary like alphabetical format, or else they are a tutorial where they start with a blank screen and tell you to do this, do that until you have used most of the functions avaiable in the software package.

This book is different, an interesting and useful combination of the reference format and the tutorial format. Basically it is a reference book, but then each subject is treated in tutorial format. The book is broken into two major parts: tools (about one third of the book) and techniques. Within each part it is arranged alphabetically:

A - Annotations: Attach a Note
B - Background Color
- Blur Tool
- Burn Tool
and so on.

Reading the table of contents will give you a pretty good idea of what's included in the book, and then you can go to the particular entry as you need to do something. This is a format that works for me. As the Visual Books tag line says: 'Read Less - Learn More.' Sooner or later you will have read about and used all the tools and techniques, and it's almost painless to learn what you need as you need it.