Although this cornucopia of tips, tricks, explanations, and experienced wisdom would be useful to any Photoshop user, those most likely to benefit, and benefit a lot, are graphic designers and others working on prepress production. From bit depth to monitor settings, gamut warnings, and file formats, this book faces all those nasty problems that designers often want the service bureau or printer to fix, but really should handle themselves (if they want to have the most control over how their artwork prints).
The first chapters deal with hardware (platform, RAM), what's new in version 6, tools, palettes and dialog boxes, and resolution and color issues (including the complex area of color profiles and monitor calibration). Then there's tonal correction (using histograms and levels), RGB vs. CMYK, adjustment layers, sharpening, spot colors and duotones, working in black and white, and scanning. The last chapters explore selections (paths, masks, and channels), storage options and file formats, output methods (halftones, saving for use in Quark, PageMaker, or InDesign), and even preparing images for onscreen viewing.
This is not a book for beginners who don't yet know basics like opening, saving, and creating artwork. It's good for intermediate and advanced users needing to fill out gaps in their Photoshop knowledge and as a reference--ideal for skipping around, accessing information that's helpful when problems occur. Look up, for example, "drop shadows" and you find five lengthy tips on how to go beyond simply fiddling with the sliders in the dialog box. One lengthy tip even dissects what makes consistent and realistic shadows (where's the light source?). The writing is conversational and occasionally humorous, making reading enjoyable.
The tips are the pot of gold here; there's a whole chapter devoted to them (even Easter eggs). One example shows you how to crop a sliver off the edge of an image without being thwarted by the annoying snap-to-edge--by holding down the Control key while dragging the cropping rectangle. These tricks won't make you a showoff; they are essential time-savers and enhancements to your arsenal of techniques. --Angelynn Grant
Review
"If you're using Photoshop 6 to earn a living, this comprehensive and well thought-out book clearly explains the arcane concepts in this powerful new upgrade. With its emphasis on production techniques, including color management, its set-by-step instructions for implementing them, and a thorough understanding of how conventional methods translate into today's digital production, this book will make its readers/users more productive and in the end, their time more profitable." *--Suzanne Thomas *Desktop Connections, 6/2001 "This guide is a "back-to-basics" look at Photoshop aimed at one goal--turning good scans into great end-use images." *PC Photo, July/August 2001 *Ron Sheppard, Editor "Industrial-strength, indeed--this book is strong enough to use as a surfboard. It's tough on the core, everyday tasks that artists and designers face, like how to handle color correction, quality scanning techniques, prepress issues, selection techniques and a whole lot more. The chapter on manipulating image tone is a must-read. With over 700 pages, it may not be your first choice when you're soaking up rays on the beach, but it may well be the first book you reach for when working in the program." *--Derek Pell *Dingbat Magazine, 6/2001 David Blatner and Bruce Fraser's Real World Photoshop 6 is without peer in the world of Photoshop bookks. In it, you'll find not only the absolute best approaches for getting world-class images, you'll also find crystal-clear explanations of why they work, presented in a friendly, humorous way that makes you WANT to read the book. This book will absolutely, positively, save you far more than it costs, and you will feel much better when you use Photoshop. *--Jay Nelson *Design Tools Monthly, 6/2001 Blatner and Fraser's mammoth volume delves deeply into the management and tweaking of colors and tones, among other image techniques. *--Dan Harmon *Lawyer's PC, 5/2001
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