This book begins with a very good introduction to Photoshop 7's many screens, with their multitude of windows and features. Palette and toolbar screen shots are large, clear grayscale images with itemized arrows for detailed explanations. The screen shots are all Windows-only, but Macintosh keyboard commands are given when necessary.How To Do Everything with Photoshop 7 is particularly strong on basics and fundamentals, and light on project usage of them. The book's structure and concept incorporate primarily an outline-and-discussion method of presentation, with everything referenced to related chapter content elsewhere in the text.
A thorough, patient approach to under-the-hood tedium in Photoshop pervades the writing style, including Chapter Three: "Setting Your Preferences." The grayscale comparative examples, such as different filter effects on page 194, don't have much impact, but they are better than none whatsoever.
This publisher's promise of the How to Do Everything series is to get novices started without too much intimidating technical detail and jargon. Ultimately How To Do Everything with Photoshop 7 acts as a comfortable reference work for newcomers, who will really appreciate the many helpful resources listed in Chapter 14 and the crucial info on "Moving Between Applications" in Chapter 13.
WOULD I BUY IT? As a reference text.
WOULD I USE IT IF IT WAS THE ONLY PHOTOSHOP BOOK AVAILABLE? Yes, but not extensively.
DO I RECOMMEND IT? When tutorial or project books are also available.
MacMice Rating: 3 out of 5<[...]
