Amazon.co.uk Review
The Adobe Staff continues their outstanding Classroom in a Book series with the
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 8.0 guide to some advanced tasks using
Photoshop and
Illustrator. Renowned graphics professionals were invited to author chapters on topics ranging from basic image editing and compositing to the intricacies of colour spaces and embedded profiles.
As always, the lessons are carefully written so that even readers with just a beginner's familiarity with the software can follow along, yet more experienced users are not left twiddling their thumbs. There are thorough discussions on the reasons behind each step and sidebars along the way that offer further tips and insights. Working through the lessons on the computer is best, however the tutorials are so generously illustrated that it's still possible to learn quite a bit by just reading.
The first lesson begins simply enough with resizing and resampling an image in Photoshop, adjusting the colours and preparing it for either print or the Web. The next lesson compares shading and blending techniques in the two applications. There's an excellent tutorial on acquiring images, whether through scanning, digital cameras and Photo CDs, screen captures or analogue and digital video. It shows how to decide on resolutions beforehand and clean up the images afterwards.
Other lessons cover masking techniques, using Illustrator for typography and layout, learning how to master the pen tool and Bézier curves, using spot colours and creating a duotone, making an animated Web banner and combining the two applications with After Effects to create animations (a trial version of AE is included).
It's recommended that readers work through both the Adobe Photoshop 5.5 CIB and the Adobe Illustrator 8.0 CIB before starting on this book. But even if they haven't done that, anyone who works with images will find these tutorials accessible and immensely useful. --Angelynn Grant, Amazon.com
Topics covered: Topics and tasks using Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 8.0 not covered in previous CIB editions, including acquiring, editing and compositing images, shading and blending, working with the pen tool, masking, colour management, creating duotones and using spot colours, preparing images for print or the Web, working with animations. CD-ROM includes all lesson files, the Adobe fonts used (including Garamond Expert and Jenson), and Acrobat Reader 4.0 and After Effects 4.1 trial.
Product Description
If you've already mastered the basics of Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and Adobe Illustrator 8.0, then you're ready to move on to more challenging features and effects. Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 8.0 Advanced Classroom in a Book is full of exercises that incorporate advanced typography, image compositing, painting, and image-correction techniques. Not only does the book teach you how to use Photoshop and Illustrator for complex tasks such as gradients and masks, it also tells you when to use which program.
Adobe's training experts created the book's self-paced lessons, which lead you through advanced projects that will sharpen your print, Web, and multimedia skills. The cross-platform CD that comes with it contains all the files you need to complete the lessons and provides hands-on experience in working with Photoshop and Illustrator at the professional level.
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