Photoshop for the Web: Covers Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2.0 [Paperback]

Mikkel Aaland (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565926412 | ISBN-13: 978-1565926417 | Publication Date: November 8, 1999 | Edition: Second Edition

In this second edition, author Mikkel Aaland updates Photoshop for the Web to include important new techniques and workarounds for the latest release of Photoshop--version 5.5. The first edition was loaded with step-by-step examples and real-world solutions from some of the world's hottest Web sites. The second edition adds coverage of Photoshop 5.5's newest features, including a compression tool that ultimately leads to faster download times and higher quality Web graphics. This edition also details features new to version 5.0, including the changeable type tool, color profiling, and the history palette.

If that's not enough, Photoshop for the Web, 2nd Edition also covers Adobe's ImageReady 2.0 Web graphics production software, now part of the Photoshop 5.5 package, and includes 64 pages of color inserts. You'll find information on ImageReady 2.0's image slicing, animation, and JavaScript rollover capabilities.

Topics include:

• Using 5.5's powerful Save For Web feature
• Automatically creating an interactive web photo gallery with 5.5
• Image manipulation and processing with 5's history brush
• Working with browser-safe colors to create stunning images regardless of platform or hardware
• Using Photoshop 5's contact sheet feature to organize digital photographs
• Quickly building Web backgrounds, buttons, and graphical type
• Creating JavaScript rollovers with ImageReady 2.0
• Streamlining Web production with Photoshop 5's changeable type tool
• Using Photoshop 5.5's new color decontamination features
• Using Photoshop as a Web layout tool
• Customizing Photoshop for Web production, including 5's color profiling
• Improving photos taken with a digital camera
• Controlling anti-aliasing with custom brushes
• Getting rid of the dreaded halo syndrome
• Optimizing images for JPEG compression
• Coding layout information in a Photoshop layer
• Changing Photoshop's matte color to match your Web page color
• Importing vector graphics into Photoshop
• Straightening scans with Photoshop 5's ruler tool
• Working with browser-safe colors to create stunning images regardless of platform or hardware
• Integrating PS and ImageReady to create the most efficient web production environment

In its first edition, "Photoshop for the Web" has received praise from press and readers alike: * The Canada Computer Paper picked it as one of the 10 best computer books of 1998. * Hewlett Packard's E-Business Web site called it "one of the most useful Photoshop books I've ever picked up." * And My Mac magazine said, "Aaland knows Photoshop inside out and how to maximize it for Web creation."

Readers were even more effusive: * "This is the first book that gives me both ready-to-use recipes and enough information to experiment with and learn my own solutions. Highly recommended!" * "Aaland has provided an excellent and detailed analysis of using Photoshop to produce web pages ... a must-read book!" * "Within minutes of perusing Aaland's book, I found exactly 4 new tricks that I immediately applied to improve my web site." * "This book now rests on my most hallowed piece of real estate - on my desk next to my mouse."

Photoshop for the Web, Second Edition shows you how to use the latest version of Photoshop to create Web graphics that look great and download blazingly fast.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Photoshop for the Web is the second edition of Mikkel Aaland's excellent instructional text on Adobe's powerful image manipulation program. This time, the book focuses on version 5.5, as well as ImageReady 2, which accompanies it. Aaland's 10 years in new media production, combined with the book's added contributions from different Web designers, results in confident and clear guidance on topics ranging from how to configure Photoshop's preferences specifically for the Web to using ImageReady to create quick rollover buttons.

The opening chapters deal with tuning Photoshop appropriately for Web production (for example, optioning out of image previews for JPEG images) and adjusting photos for the Web (including using the new Web Photo Gallery feature). The middle chapters detail working with GIF and JPEG images. The last section of the book helps resolve specific problems like creating tiled and nontiled background images and navigational icons (for example, beveled buttons and bullet balls with light effects). And there is an excellent chapter on using ImageReady to create GIF animations and rollovers. Black-and-white screen shots and illustrations appear on every page, not to mention 160 color illustrations throughout the text. Appendices discuss the PNG file format and complementary third-party software.

This would be an excellent choice for beginners; a lot of the instruction is very basic. But intermediate-level users and anyone just upgrading to version 5.5 will also find that hopping around within the book can be a fast way to get acquainted with the new features of both applications. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Instruction on using Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2 for Web image production, including adjusting preferences appropriately, preparing photos for viewing on the Web, saving images as GIFs or JPEGs, creating background images, working with type as image, creating navigational icons, GIF animations, rollovers importing vector files into Photoshop, and using Photoshop to design Web pages.

About the Author

Mikkel Aaland is a photographer, writer, Web producer, and the author of six books, including Sweat (1978), County Fair Portraits (1981), Digital Photography (1992), Still Images in Multimedia (1996), Photoshop for the Web (1998), and The Sword of Heaven (not yet published). He has contributed both text and/or photography to Wired, Digital Creativity, Pre, American Photo, Newsweek, Graphis, Publish, and MacWeek, as well as several European publications. His photography has been exhibited in major institutions around the world, including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the former Lenin Museum in Prague. He is the recipient of the National Art Directors award for photography. Aaland is also the co-founder of Tor Productions, a multimedia company founded in 1989 and based in San Francisco specializing in the use of the still image in new media. He has lectured and taught on that subject at Stanford University, Drexel University, and University of California at Berkeley, as well as at computer graphics conferences around the country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (November 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565926412
• ISBN-13: 978-1565926417
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,917,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars newer better book available, January 12, 2000

By 

L Michael Thompson (Denver Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop for the Web (Paperback)

This is the first edition there is a 2nd edition about photoshop 5.5 buy that one not the 1st edition.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly out of date, with the release of Photoshop 5, May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Photoshop for the Web (Paperback)

This book was required for a class that I am taking, and, frankly, it should not have been. With the introduction of Photoshop 5, much of its special 'work arounds' for web professionals are no longer necessary. For example, adding a drop shadow to an image is now as easy as clicking on Filters > Drop Shadows.

But this book was written when Photoshop 4 was still the newest kid in town, and has nearly two pages of instructions to create a drop shadow effect.

If O'Reilly updates the book for the Photoshop 5 release, I'd recommend buying it. Otherwise, I'd stick with something a bit more current.

Review written 5-20-99

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Photoshop for the Web is not 'just another Photoshop book!', April 1, 2000

By 

LM Levy (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Photoshop for the Web: Covers Photoshop 5.5 and ImageReady 2.0 (Paperback)

Photoshop for the Web is not 'just another Photoshop book of shortcut commands and tool tips. It IS an invaluable collection of insider techniques that the experts use everyday in their combined art and occupation to exploit the usefulness of this truly amazing program. I love how this software has been so widely adopted and used in ways never imagined in its conception. The question rapidly becomes what can't Photoshop do? Mikkel does a great job of showing you this tool's versatility in an easy to follow text.