Web Photoshop 5 to Go [Paperback]

Jason I. Miletsky (Author)

Book Description

Series: To Go | Publication Date: May 19, 1999

Web Photoshop 5 To-Go distills the most critical information Web experts know about Photoshop into a fast-paced, easy-access guide designed for experienced Photoshop users. This is a solutions-oriented guide to every aspect of Web design with Photoshop: maximizing image tradeoffs between speed and quality; building great backgrounds and navigation visuals; making the most of GIF transparencies; designing sophisticated text effects with Photoshop 5's vastly-improved text editor; image maps and rollovers; enhancing photos captured via scanners and digital cameras; GIF animations, and much more. Discover techniques for optimizing Photoshop for Web work; walk through practical Web design case studies and scenarios; use checklists that help you avoid problems and come up with great ideas, and much more. And after you've read the book, check out the bonus Photoshop resources on PTR's great new To Go Web Site!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Get down to the nitty-gritty of Photoshop--image maps, transparencies, rollovers, backgrounds, file formats, combining text and layer effects, or building animations--with Web Photoshop 5 to Go. In explaining how to use Photoshop to produce Web-ready graphics, this book targets beginning and intermediate-level Photoshop users who know little or nothing about the demands of the Web.

There's a substantial overview of Photoshop, and subsequent chapters are arranged so that you can jump around from topic to topic as you wish. The book includes a "core facts" feature designed to save you from heavy-duty technical detail. A four-color section illuminates issues regarding scans, effects, and color. --Kathleen Caster

From the Inside Flap

IntroductionThings You Should Know

If you're reading this book, you probably don't need me to tell you what an exciting program Adobe Photoshop is. Throughout the graphics industry, Photoshop is the recognized tool of choice for creating digital images. With the populization of the Web, Photoshop's usefulness has expanded to become one of this generation's most powerful shapers of information presentation.

Okay, now that I've gotten the obligatory Adobe brown nosing (essential to any book on the topic) out of the way, let's move on with the important stuff. You're probably anxious to get started building some really cool graphics, impress your boss or your girlfriend, prove that 14-year-olds don't really know more about computers than you do, or satisfy some other motivation you have for spending long, sleepless hours absorbing cancer waves from a computer monitor. Before you jump right in, though, you way want to at least skim this Introduction to help you better understand this book. Who Should Read This Book

Because talent is a tough quality to measure, it's nearly impossible to write a book like this for everybody. Have you won awards for your amazing Photoshop abilities, or regularly give seminars on the secret design tips of Photoshop experts? If so, this book may not be for you, Is your copy of Photoshop still in its box and your dedication to learning how to use it dwindling faster than your weekly trips to the gym? If so, this book may move a bit too fast for you.

Basically. this book was written for the following people:

Your Photoshop ability falls somewhere between "basic working knowledge of" and "strong control over" the program, and/or

You've been using Photoshop for print or other media, and now either need or want to get involved with Web design, and/or

You've been working with Photoshop 4.0 or an even older version, and want a practical resource through which to understand the improvements in version 5.0, and/or

You're a relative of the author and are willing to buy at least a dozen copies to keep sales up.

If you fall into one or more of these categories, this book is for you. It's not important to have any real knowledge of HTML to understand this book, and the few pages that do reference HTML tags will explain how they are used.How This Book Has Been Written

Like the title says, this book is good "to go." That means that any information that is deemed unnecessary, boring, or wasteful has been deleted. For example, the section about file types gives you what you need to choose a proper file type for your images, but stops short of explaining how a JPEG image is built, or how color palettes are indexed. I know you want to get right into the creation process as quickly as possible, so besides my witty interjections now and then, most of the fluff, or "fat" if you will, has been removed.

It is not necessary for you to read this book in a linear fashion — in fact, I'd recommend jumping around from section to section. If possible, try to read this book while at your computer. There are a lot of follow-along examples for each topic, and practicing while you read is the best way to learn.

Throughout each chapter, you'll be confronted with an array of various symbols to help you better understand what you're reading. The symbols are:

Note icon gives a more detailed explanation of the topic.

The Warning graphic tells you when there is a potential for a problem. You'll see very few of these — in my opinion, as long as you end up in your bed at the end of the day, there are a few problems worth stressing about.

The tip icon provides additional information of the topic.

Another thing that you may notice as you read is that most all references, including screen shots, are taken off the Macintosh version of Photoshop. When I give an example and include a keyboard command, the command configuration will be for Macintosh, and the equivalent Windows command will follow in parentheses. What You Will Need

In order to get full use out of this book, there are a few things you should have available to you, not the least of which is a computer. Photoshop 5.0 is a RAM hog, and I would recommend having at the very least 32 megs of RAM installed in your system (more is better, but who am I to spend your money.)

Photoshop version 5.0 would also be a bonus to have around, but it's not terribly necessary. You can get a lot out of this book even if you are still working with version 4.0 or 3.0. Completing examples may take a few extra steps with an older version, and there are a scant few pages that will not be applicable at all to older versions. But for the most part, as long as you have a version that supports layers, you'll get a lot out of this book.

Some of the chapters will give you supporting HTML code. For that, you'll need a text editor. For Mac users, SimpleText will work just fine, and for Windows users, Notepad will do the trick. Both of these text editing programs am probably already installed on your system.

The last important item you'll need (I'm not going to go into all the non-essentials, such as an bottomless pot of coffee and the phone number of an all night pizza place), is a Web browser to check your work. Personally, I prefer Netscape, but Microsoft Internet Explorer will be fine as well (actually, my preference is unimportant — when you build Web sites you'll need to check your pages on both of these browsers anyhow).Questions, Comments, and Other Gibberish

Although my writing style sometimes takes a playfully caustic tone, I'm a pretty friendly guy. And as long as you have only great things to say about this book, I'm pretty open-minded. So if you ever want to contact me, ask me a question, or show me some of your own work that you've created using this book's techniques, you can e-mail me at jasonm@fulllscope.

That address can also be used to hire me for your next wedding or bar-mitzvah (nothing thrills a crowd more than a rousing analysis of JPEG compression techniques), or to ask me out on a date (I'm single, and like long walks on the beach). If you are Katie Couric from the Today Show (who I have an enormous crush on), you can contact me privately through my publisher, Prentice Hall.

If you'd rather use US Mail, you can drop me a line at the following address:Prentice HallAttn: Jason MiletskyOne Lake StreetUpper Saddle River, NJ

Unfortunately, neither Prentice Hall nor myself can act as a technical resource for hardware or software concerns. While I will make every effort to answer all inquiries as best and as quickly as I can, please consult the reference guide that accompanies your software or hardware to help with difficulties.

Thank you for your interest in this book, and I hope you get a lot out of the help it is meant to provide. If you don't, and you feel like you've completely wasted your time by reading it, please just ignore the e-mail address given above.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (May 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130118486
• ISBN-13: 978-0130118486
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,007,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good Photoshop 5 guide!, June 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Photoshop 5 to Go (Paperback)

I must say, this is one incredible Photoshop 5 reference. Not only a Photoshop reference, but, he also tours you through combining the powers of Photoshop to laying out web pages. This guy knows what he's talking about! Why the 4 stars instead of 5? Well, there were tons of grammatical errors that really bugged me, and the text didn't come clear to me, and I was anxious to know what it was that the person was trying to type out. Someone didn't pay attention!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, results-oriented approach, June 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Photoshop 5 to Go (Paperback)

Regardless of your experience level, this is the book to get for creating web images. It provides clear, step-by-step instructions for creating a wide range of effects for both text and graphics. Though not an exhaustive manual for Photoshop, Web Photoshop 5 To Go is a must for those who use Photoshop primarily for the web.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reference, July 5, 2000

By 

Deema Shaath - See all my reviews

This review is from: Web Photoshop 5 to Go (Paperback)

I Thought I know how to work with Photoshop, but after I read this book I discovered that I didn't. This book was extermely helpful to me in building web site graphics, and has introudced me to many different techniques that I used in to build the effects that I need in short time; Everyone was amazed, and so was I.

Most of the Books has very boring and useless Intrduction, this book doesn't. It was very useful to me ( I confess I was about to skip the first two chapters , but the writer urged the readers not to).

Although this book is useful, I was able to get all the techniques it offered in less that three days !

If you know your way well in Photoshop, don't buy this book. If you are a confused designer; you see these amazing designs and wonder How did they do it ?, then buy this book, and the best of luck.