Book Review of:
Photoshop 5.5 
for Windows & Macintosh 

Manipulating images is the purpose of this program. If Photoshop is new to you, I recommend starting with the Table of Contents. This is the arrangement of elements that the authors considered to be the best way to learn the subject. The next place is the Index, at the back of the book. Here, alphabetically, you can look for the things that mean the most to you. This is a reference book, not a novel. As a practical approach, I do not recommend reading from beginning to end. If you choose to, that's fine. But the millennium will have come and gone before you finish. I mean the next millennium. 

To give you a hint as to the scope of this manual, the list of shortcuts takes up 18 pages. My impression of this guide is that it supposes you already have the software and that you are beyond being a novice to computers. By the bye, if you already know Photoshop 5.0, go directly to Appendix D at the back of the book for the revisions and additions that make it 5.5. 

When you watch television and the images overlap and pieces fly here and there, a graphic artist has manipulated images to suit the purpose of hopefully getting your attention. This is particularly true in regard to advertisements. 

There are 21 chapters in this book and I will give you a brief description of what each one covers. 

Chapter 1 is entitled: The Basics and begins with an illustration of the Toolbox with a detailed explanation. There is an illustration and text about the Photoshop screen for Macintosh and for Windows, each being different from the other. The menus and various palettes are covered. 

Chapter 2 covers Photoshop Color and deals with explanation of pixels, RGB vs. CMYK color, image modes and Photoshop's color management features. Please read the following: Every Photoshop image is a bitmap, whether it originates from a scan, from another application, or entirely within the application, or entirely within the application using painting and editing tools. (Don't confuse Bitmap image mode with the term "bitmap.") If you comprehend the foregoing, then go to the head of the class. You're well on your way to proficiency with Photoshop. If not, come back here with me. 

Part of the chapter uses a photograph to demonstrate various changes such as dissolve, multiply, screen, overlay, soft light, hard light, color dodge and color burn. To see accurate colors on your screen, there is a ten minute process describing calibrating your monitor. It begins with an instruction to give your monitor 30 minutes to warm up. 

Startup is the title of Chapter 3. You will learn how to launch Photoshop, scan an image, create a new image, open an existing image, and place an image into Photoshop. Also, you will learn how to change dimensions, change resolution and sharpen an image after resembling. In this chapter you will learn about Thumbnails, small versions of the larger image. 

Navigate is the subject of Chapter 4. Using the Navigator palette of Photoshop you can change the view size of an image or move an image in its window. You also learn how to display one image in two windows. One to view, the other to edit. 

Chapter 5 is about selecting parts of an image to edit. Terms and tools to edit with are Rectangular Marquee, Elliptical Marquee, Lasso, Polygon Lasso, Magic Wand, Magnetic Lasso, and others. 

Chapter 6, Compositing, is described as a method for composing image elements: the Clipboard (Cut, Copy, Paste, and Paste Into), drag and drop, cloning, and pattern stamping. Positioning image elements and smoothing the seams between them is also covered. These are the mechanical tools to compose with. My opinion is that composition is a matter of ones taste and can't be taught. In the middle of this book are 15 pages of computer images. I think every tool available went into the making of these very complex images. My analogy is the artist that got 30 colors of paint and feels compelled to use every one in each painting. To me, simplification is the art. 

Chapter 7 is about Layers. Imagine (no pun intended) transparent and opaque sheets with images on them and placed on top of each other to result in an effect. You can go wild with the topics described: create a new layer, hide or show a layer, duplicate a layer, flip a layer, transform a layer, convert the background into a layer, restack a layer merge layers and flatten layers. 

Chapter 8 is History. Here you learn to use the History Brush and History palette to selectively undo up to 99 previous stages of an image editing session, called states. (Remind you of Creatures?) Whatever you have painstakingly done to an image and now wished you hadn't can be tended to in this chapter. Lights & Darks is the subject of Chapter 9. Adjustments to the light and dark of images and values in-between is covered here. 

Chapter 10 is Choose Colors. Selecting colors is the subject. If you select a color and there is no ink equivalent then it is considered out of printable gamut. I think it has to do with what you see on your screen isn't what you might get. I read this relatively short chapter several times and I remain as confused as the little boy who lost his chewing gum in the chicken yard. 

Recolor is Chapter 11. It has to do with adjusting a color image using the Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Variations, Curves, and Levels commands. 

Chapter 12, Paint, gets you down to the nitty gritty: line, airbrush, pencil, paintbrush, paint bucket, eraser, smudge, and gradient tools. You can paint on an existing image or paint a picture from scratch. Thank goodness for the eraser. 

More Layers is the gist of Chapter 13: Advanced techniques in layering. I guess the authors wanted Chapter 7 to soak in before throwing the whole enchilada at you. Create Drop Shadow, create Inner Shadow, Outer or Inner Glow, create a Bevel or Emboss effect. Layer masking is described. You should enjoy the 3D Transform filter. 

Chapter 14, Masks, covers two special methods for saving and reshaping a selection: alpha channels and Quick Mask mode. Alpha channels are accessed via the Channels palette. Using Quick Mask mode, positive or negative areas can be covered with a semi-transparent colored mask, which can then be reshaped using an editing or painting tool. 

Chapter 15, Paths, shows you how to use Photoshop's pen, magnetic pen, and freeform pen tools to create precise outlines (paths) that consist of anchor points connected by curved or straight line segments. Imagine a jig-saw puzzle piece. 

Type is the subject of Chapter 16. Type faces, type sizes and what can be done in relation to images is covered in length. Enigmatic terminology tantalizes you: Render without rendering. You can do things with the alphabet that Bodoni never thought of doing. 

Chapter 17, Filters: Photoshop's filters can apply many special effects to your images. Using the original image of a sunflower, effects of each filter is shown: colored pencil, cutout, dry brush, film grain, fresco, neon glow, paint daubs, palette knife, plastic wrap, poster edges, rough pastels, smudge stick, sponge, watercolor, underpainting, blur more, gaussian blur, motion blur, radial blur, smart blur and it goes on and on. But, you get the idea. 

Chapter 18, Actions: is really not an action as we know it to be. In Photoshop, an action is a recorded sequence of menu commands or tool operations that can be played back on a single file or on a group of files. 

References, Chapter 19, refers to default settings you want to save when you exit/quit Photoshop, such as ruler units or channels display in color. 

Print, Chapter 20, shows you the many ways you can print your handiwork. 

Web / Imageready, Chapter 21, covers the preparation of Photoshop images for use in multimedia and on the World Wide Web. Primarily to optimize the images you are about to foist onto an unsuspecting outside world. There is a section covering the Animation palette and refers to something called Tween. 

Following the final chapter is Appendix A: Glossary, with terms used in the book, such as Rasterize, and a brief explanation of each. Appendix B: copyright protection, ten questions and answers about copyright. Appendix C: directory of artists. Appendix D: Photoshop 5.5 is an explanation of the revisions and improvements over its predecessors. Gloriosky, Zero, this means that if you already had a familiarity with Photoshop 5.0, all you had to do is to go to Appendix D to find the latest features. 

This Visual QuickStart Guide, Photoshop 5.5 for Windows and Macintosh, was printed in 1999 by 

Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street 
Berkeley, CA 94710 
(510)524-2178 
(800)283-9444 
fax: (510)524-2221

The price of this soft cover book is USA $19.99, Canada $29.95. You can purchase it on the Internet for $15.99, but when you pay the shipping charge, you're back to square one. 

Well, there you have it. I think that if your future is in computer graphics and design, then Photoshop 5.5 is the way to go until something better comes along. Manipulating images in regard to Photoshop 5.5 is an understatement. In the world of competition out there, you need all the tools you can get. But, one thing to be aware of is that everybody else out there also has Photoshop 5.5 or something else like it. So the difference that separates us all is that knob that sits on our shoulders with little tabs to keep a hat from falling off. 

If you have plenty of free time and your spouse, if you have one, wants to keep you quiet and out from underfoot 'til suppertime and you have masochistic tendencies anyway, get this book and the software and enjoy. 

As for me, I'm retired, and have more things that I want to do than I have time for. I am trying to simplify my life, not to complicate it. So my copy of Photoshop 5.5 will find, a place on my book shelf for the occasion when I want to look up something. After all, I said in the beginning of this review, that it's a reference book.