Reviews
Some Recent Reviews
Acrobat for beginners?
Adobe Acrobat 7 in a Snap
by Shari Nakano
Sams (January, 2005)
List Price: $19.99
Save: $6.80 (34%)
Shari Nakano has written Adobe Acrobat 7 in a Snap (Sams) for the reader who has no experience of creating PDF documents, with or without Acrobat. If you do not know the acronym PDF, don't know what preflighting is, don't know how to create a PDF from Microsoft Office or what a digital signature is, then this book is designed for you. Although there is certainly a good market for this type of information, this book seems shallow, describing the basics are and usually, but not always, telling you where to find them, but it falls short on the whys, ifs, and maybes. We suggest you look elsewhere for an instruction book. That being said, this volume would work as a textbook for a hands-on course, where the students need some grounding as they progress through other structured exercises. The book is clearly designed, with useful illustrations, and it has a lot of cross-references.
— reviewed by PG
Deke loves InDesign
Adobe InDesign One-on-One
by Deke McClelland
O'Reilly (September, 2004)
List Price: $44.95
Discount Price: $28.32/free shipping
Save: $16.63 (37%)
Deke McClelland has a love affair with InDesign, and in Adobe InDesign One-on-One (O'Rilley), he shares all the reasons and insights behind his affection. He explains everything you will need to know to become proficient with the application, and he does it with clarity, illustrating his points thoroughly and with an exactitude that his fans have come to expect. He explains how, why, and when with detailed exercises that cover all the important points and then many more. He does it with humor, as if he were sitting by your side. The book is littered with Pearls of Wisdom, that reflect current typographic and design standards, and nearly every page has short call-outs explaining why he prefers one way of doing something to another. If you are teaching yourself, teaching others, or in a class, this book will become a well-thumbed standard. It is not a substitute manual, but if you read this book you won't need a manual. This is perhaps his best book yet, and he has written many great ones.
— reviewed by JF
Maestro Deke
Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One
by Deke McClelland
Deke Press/O'Reilly (December, 2003)
List Price: $39.95
Discount Price: $26.37/free shipping
Save: $13.58 (34%)
Deke McClelland is to Photoshop what Julia Child is to cooking: a master. He is not only a very gifted author and teacher, but also knows his subject inside and out. He also has a sense of humor, which keeps this from being a dry tome and makes for interesting reading. Adobe Photoshop CS One-on-One (Deke Press/O'Reilly) is designed for beginners and intermediate users, with the occasional gem that may surprise even the pros. It has enough detail to make the reader proficient without becoming an expert. It includes about two hours of Deke's Total Training videos, each of which forms the basis for a chapter of the book. Each chapter starts with a clear introduction of what will be covered, while also imparting a little of the Photoshop mystique and philosophy. At the end of each chapter, there is a one-page summary test on what the chapter covered. The book is full of color images, which are particularly useful when learning about color. Interspersed in the text are what he calls Pearls of Wisdom, where he expands on the topic to give further understanding or cautions about issues relating to a topic. The book is concise and very enjoyable to read and is a comprehensive, if a little long, tutorial on using Photoshop. McLelland states that the book does not cover Image Ready, the filter gallery, Liquify, Actions, Photomerge, or Save for Web, which we presume will be subjects of a further one-on-one volume.
Ben explains CS2
Adobe Photoshop CS2: Up to Speed
by Ben Willmore
Peachpit Press
List Price: $24.99
Save: $8.50 (34%)
Ben Willmore’s new book, Adobe Photoshop CS2: Up to Speed (Peachpit Press)deals with everything new in Photoshop CS2. Usually when a new version of an application like Photoshop comes out, there is a spate of new books that are basically reprints of the book that was produced for the last version. So you end up having to hunt through a lot of information you already know to find new content. Willmore brings a fresh approach. He assumes you know Photoshop, are familiar with the previous version, and want to take advantage of the new features, which otherwise you would have to hunt through the application to find. CS2 has many new areas, some very snazzy ones you will see in many demos, such as perspective vanishing points and Smart Objects. But there are also many smaller refinements that you may overlook without a book like this. Sections cover layers, Smart Objects, design gems, Camera Raw, high dynamic range, and more. Willmore has done the legwork for you, and it is thoughtfully presented.
Actionable Actions
Al Ward’s Photoshop Productivity Toolkit
by Al Ward
Sybex
List Price: $34.99
Save: $11.90 (34%)
Al Ward’s Photoshop Productivity Toolkit (Sybex) is basically a description of 600 Actions that he has created. While many of the Actions are inventive and may potentially save you time, the majority of them are frivolous, ones you will never use or that almost duplicate each other. The Actions are basically grouped into sections, but you still have to hunt through the Actions to find ones that are useful. The only way to really know what is on the CD is to look at it through the Actions palette inside Photoshop. Here you will see sections on photography, production, and typography. The typography section includes such items as RumpledSatin, DigiCheckers, and CloudsOverWater; production includes Snapshots, Mode Conversion Actions, and PTK-Path Tools. The instructions that come on the CD are useless, telling you nothing about accessing the files or what is included on the disk. The book has bad illustrations of some of the Actions, and others are described as Copper Jungle Mat and RGB-Grayscale-Duotone 04. Basically, we can find no redeeming features in this book. You will be much better served by freebies online or by making your own.
Animation basics
Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 2004
by Jan Dehaan
Macromedia Press
List Price: $39.99
Discount Price: $28.80/free shipping
Save: $11.19 (28%)
Most animating done with Flash is very mundane, yet it can add remarkable character to a Web site. Simple menu animation and interactive elements are often taken for granted, but they can take considerable planning and execution. Animation and Effects with Macromedia Flash MX 2004, by Jan Dehaan (Macromedia Press), shows you in a series of 10 exercises how to achieve some of the basics and also add flourishes that can make these small animations more interesting. Dehaan assumes no prior knowledge of Flash and carefully explains the interface and each element as it is used. By stepping you through the 10 lessons, she manages to cover many of the fundamentals of basic Flash animating. You will have to put your aesthetic sensibilities aside, as she is certainly no artist, but you will become proficient in animating elements, menus, and buttons. Of course, this is not the animation you find in children’s TV or South Park. It is animating interface elements and adding some movement to otherwise static Web pages. This book will teach you to do this and at the same time become familiar with the application; but we wonder if you could not learn more from the many Flash tutorial sites out there, which might be more relevant to your individual needs. We know many people don’t animate their own menus and buttons but rather download ready-made elements. But it’s good to have the basic skills, and this book covers some of them. The CD includes all the files needed to make these animations, as well as the completed files.
Learning FreeHand CD
Casual FreeHand Course
by Ron Rockwell
List Price: $69.95
Discount Price: $45/includes shipping
It’s always a pleasant surprise to find people so involved with a software product that they want others to enjoy it as they do. Here is a tutorial that will introduce you to the joys of FreeHand and set you on the road to further discovery. Ron Rockwell’s Casual FreeHand Course is excellent. The two-CD set starts with the very basics, showing users how to find things in the menus, the use of the pen tool, and the text menu and effects. His second CD contains information on more advanced topics, such as Layers, Libraries, the Mixer, manipulating objects, Styles, and Xtras. He does all this with the aid of Flash presentations. Be careful how you play the SWF files. If you simply click on the icons, you will probably open the tutorials in a browser window, which will not allow you to use the Flash Player controls. Rather, open with the Flash Player, and use Ctrl+Enter to stop and start the presentation, so you can practice along with the explanations. The Flash Player and a full trial copy of FreeHand are provided. Although it will not make you an expert, you should be able to complete projects after doing this course. Ron Rockwell is primarily an illustrator using FreeHand. If you would like to see some of his excellent work, check out www.nidus-corp.com.
Firework primer
Essentials for Design
by Sharon Lettvin Neville
Prentice Hall
List Price: $49.33
Discount Price: $49.33 free shipping
For those who teach Fireworks, Essentials for Design by Sharon Lettvin Neville (Prentice Hall) is the perfect workbook. The book contains a series of nine projects. Each project is divided into lessons that build upon a list of objectives, which in turn progress toward a comprehensive understanding of the application. If you like to learn through exercises, then this is the book for you. The Prentice Hall Web site has further exercises, and if you are a teacher, you can request a series of exams that test project skills. This is a nicely laid out, spiral-bound, color book, which explains why you are learning specific skills and even offers advice on careers in design and ways to extend your knowledge. If you complete this “course,” you will have some excellent portfolio pieces that illustrate your understanding of the application. You probably won’t find the book in your local bookstore, but you can buy it from your favorite on-line bookstore.
Picture learning
Fireworks MX 2004 for Visual Learners
by Debi Daugherty
Visibooks
List Price: $24.95 spiralbound
Discount Price: $4.95 PDF download
Some people learn by reading and others by seeing. If you are in the latter category, we have come upon just the resources for you. Of course, to make the learning meaningful, there is also some doing involved. Fireworks MX 2004 for Visual Learners, by Debi Daugherty (Visibooks) is laid out with large pictures on every page. Each page has one or two steps in very simple yet well-designed tutorials to get you up to speed with Fireworks. The book has four sections: Basics, Formatting, Creating, and Advanced Techniques. Although it will not make you an expert by any means, it will enable you to get started without needing to call for help. The text is in what looks like 24-point type with large illustrations; it assumes no knowledge. It starts with instructing you how to save content from the book’s Web site, and some graphics illustrate where the Next button is in the Windows Extraction Wizard. So this is basic stuff, and even the advanced chapter covers making GIF backgrounds transparent and getting rid of dust spots on a scan. The book was funded by the Department of Education Special Education Programs, so the potential reader is not likely to be an advanced user. Visibooks were originally created for people with dyslexia.
Quick Flash
Flash Out of the Box
by Robert Hoekman Jr.
O’Reilly
List Price: $29.95
Save: $10.18 (34%)
Robert Hoekman Jr. has written a unique book, Flash Out of the Box (O’Reilly) for learning Flash. Rather than following the common formula of first describing all the interfaces, the principles, and the theory, he jumps right into creating with Flash. The theory and the underlying technology are dealt with incidentally in a series of chapters and exercises that soon have you making movies and understanding the application in a very organic manner. There are many sidebar tips, suggestions, and notes about Flash and companion products throughout the book. Although designed for beginners, there is enough information in here to satisfy many intermediate users. We have three observations: One, it's difficult to locate information, making the book not good for reference. Two, there are some basic skills that you need that are not addressed until fairly late into the book. Three, the exercises are a little repetitive, so at times it feels as if you're reading information about things you've just been taught. But follow along; things are arranged in a way that leads to a thorough knowledge and understanding of this complex and versatile application.
Shopping the Web
How to Wow, Photoshop for the Web
by Jan Kabili and Colin Smith
Peachpit Press
List Price: $39.99
Discount Price: $28.03/free shipping
Save: $11.96 (30%)
Many people think that using Photoshop for the Web involves reducing resolution down to 72 dpi and saving as a GIFF or JPEG file, which can all be done with the Save for Web option (File>Save for Web). Some use ImageReady to make slices and alternate states for buttons. Photoshop is a useful tool for Web designers, and the How to Wow, Photoshop for the Web, by Jan Kabili and Colin Smith (Peachpit Press) is a great way to extend your knowledge and understanding. This book covers many topics that Web developers will soon come to rely upon. It’s divided into four sections: Navigation, Animation, Automation, and Sites that Wow! The first section covers such topics as image optimization, rollovers, and slicing. The second explains how to make Flash animations, animate using layer styles, animating warped text. The Automation section will speed up your Web development with ideas on site design, creating droplets, making banners, and batch processing. The last section explains how to make a humdrum site into one that will catch people’s attention. The lessons are clear and complete, and the enclosed CD includes all the files needed to complete each tutorial. Both of these authors are known for their creative teaching; Kabili for writing about Photoshop and Elements, and Smith for his many Photoshop and Dreamweaver books, as well as the excellent Photoshop Café training CDs. This is a great learning book that’s full of good ideas. If this is a new area for you, you will find it both rewarding and satisfying.
What’s new in CS2
InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs
by David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción
Blatner Books with Peachpit Press
List Price:
David Blatner has joined with Anne-Marie Concepción to produce an excellent book, InDesign CS/CS2 Breakthroughs (Blatner Books with Peachpit Press). These two InDesign experts have years of experience writing about and teaching the craft of layout on a computer. Here they have created a book that examines the issues that most trouble designers using InDesign: master page issues, importing and formatting text and tables, issues relating to transparency and drop shadows, working with swatches, long documents, and making PDFs. They both bring their own senses of humor to the book, which makes for an enjoyable read but doesn’t get in the way. They examined hundreds of users’ questions to several online boards to find the topics that people wanted answers to. They cover these all without straying too much into the routine. My only complaint is that occasionally they do not go into enough detail. But this book is a must-have, if you have ever been so frustrated with InDesign that you thumped your fist on your keyboard, as many of us have. Concepción and Blatner have done a great job of tackling the issues rather than discussing every feature. This is the first book under the Blatner Books name, and we look forward to seeing many more.
The way to learn
Painter IX Simplified
by Jeremy Sutton
PhotoVision
The way to learn I wish I had had Jeremy Sutton’s Painter IX Simplified DVD when I was learning Painter. It is an ideal teaching tool, outlining all the skills that took me weeks of experimenting to learn. This carefully detailed introduction to the application is very thorough and well thought out. Sutton starts with the equipment, moves on to the Preferences, and then covers setting up brushes and much more. While doing this, he introduces other concepts, ideas, and ways of working and shows how he thinks about his work and moves toward the desired result. By the time he has got through cloning, watercolors, using sponges, charcoal, and oil colors you have seen him create several different images. I particularly like his “Muck Up” technique, really a form of underpainting, which supports the development of a personal style. Sutton encourages students to examine the image and envision just what they want to achieve before starting. This series of four DVDs is a long and detailed course. By the time you complete the series and do the experimentation that the author recommends, you will be competent to start painting with confidence. A fifth CD has 25 of his own brushes, the original pictures, completed paintings from the tutorial, and a full trial version of the application. The little tips and skills that Sutton drops in as he covers all the basics are enough to make this a must-have set for those learning Painter and those struggling to express their personal style. As a bonus, this five-disk set comes with an extra CD, Unleash Your Creativity with Jeremy Sutton, which includes more tools to become a super-Painter user. $179.
Cher wows us again
Painter IX Wow! Book
by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
Peachpit Press
List Price: $49.99
Discount Price: $32.99/free shipping
Save: $17.00 (34%)
With this edition of Painter IX Wow! Book, Cher Threinen-Pendarvis has revealed Painter in even greater detail than in her previous editions, with in-depth discussions of Painter’s interface and tools, its brushes (old and new), and more examples. Both entry-level and experienced Painter users will find useful and practical information. The expanded contributing artists galleries, with discussions of how each image was painted, showcase the amazing stylistic diversity of the artists who use Painter—animation, book illustration, editorial cartooning, Web graphics, jewelry design, fine art (both representational and abstract), and medical illustration. The gallery also illustrates the flexibility of Painter’s digital artistic tools, which allow the many different users to work entirely within the digital realm, and demonstrates its integration with traditional artistic tools. Each of the 13 chapters—from “Getting to Know Painter” to “Printing Options”—is subdivided into coherent sections that discuss Painter’s brushes, selections, layers, and other options. These sections also contain wonderful examples (many step-by-step) for using Painter’s brushes, working with photos, working with type, animation, Web graphics, all giving the new user an understanding of Painter’s depth and providing the experienced user with advanced tips and new avenues to explore. Even if you have a previous edition, this is a must-have book!
— reviewed by Terrie LaBarbera
CS2 workflows
Photoshop CS2 Workflow
by Tim Grey
Sybex
List Price: $39.99
Save: $13.60 (34%)/free shipping
Tim Grey writes good books. His latest, Photoshop CS2 Workflow: The Digital Photographers Guide (Sybex), one of the first to be published on the new version, is written for photographers. The book says it is written for people of all skill levels, but I think it will be somewhat heavy going for someone new to digital photography. There are many descriptions experienced users will be familiar with, but even so, you will be surprised how well Grey is able to explain things and increase your knowledge. The book covers all the basics, yet manages to develop them to become anything but basic. The order you use to fix images is often critically important, and this book establishes a sensible workflow sequence, which will result in quicker and better final images. There is a lot to be learned from this carefully written book. Grey goes so far as to make suggestions as to where to start experimenting with sliders, and he explains the problems of going too far. After reading this book, and applying your newfound skills, your photographs will look much better, especially when printed.
Great advice
Photoshop Masking & Compositing
by Katrin Eismann
New Riders
List Price: $54.99
Discount Price: $38.29/free shipping
Save: $16.70 (30%)
Katrin Eismann has long been one of the leading teachers of Photoshop, and she has written a companion book to her very successful and informative one on restoration and retouching photographs. Her new book, Photoshop Masking & Compositing (New Riders) can teach you just about everything you’ll ever need to know about masking, which actually means selecting—a key skillo masking in Photoshop. Eismann assumes experienced Photoshop users but explains tasks with a clarity that is very rare in Photoshop teachers. She makes sure that you do the basics without talking down to you, and she takes you through the most complex masking tasks with ease and clarity. The section covering the Pen tool is perhaps the most comprehensive and clear explanation we have seen. There is color on almost every page, and the illustrations make accomplishing the tasks relatively easy. By completing the tasks Eismann presents, you will become an expert on all aspects of masking and compositing. This book is joy to read, and with the use of the many images on the accompanying Web site, a delight to learn from. There are so many techniques here that each makes this book a great buy. Certainly check out this book.
Studio Skills
Photoshop Studio Skills Collectors Edition 1
by Design Graphics
Design Graphics
List Price: $19.50 most countries
Some of the best productivity tutorials can be found in the Studio skills section of Design Graphics magazine. These have been collected into a book, Photoshop Studio Skills Collectors Edition 1 (Design Graphics). There are 42 tutorials, broken down into such categories as Mastering CS, Top Production Tips, Color, and Special Effects. These tutorials take you through procedures in a well-illustrated, step-by-step processes that not only show you how, but also explain why, and offer various alternatives. Design Graphics is always beautifully illustrated in full color, and all these tutorials are very professional and will introduce you to time-saving and useful skills. Contributors include Russell Brown, Greg Vander Houwen, and Design Graphics guru Colin Wood. A very beautiful book.
Price it right
Pricing Guide for Web Services, 3rd edition
by Robert C Brenner
Brenner Books
List Price: $29.95 bound; $26.75 PDF
Discount Price: $23.94 bound; $21.40 PDF
For those of you who are getting into freelance web design, you should read the new Pricing Guide to Web Services (Brenner Books) by Robert Brenner. This latest edition has updated information about all aspects of pricing. In here you will learn the basics of pricing, aspects so many people don’t understand, such as market and competition analysis, cost based pricing and pricing strategies and tactics. It covers estimating, bidding and negotiating, and gives actual numbers for your area and expertise. If you find yourself not getting jobs, it is probably because your competition is reading this book. Brenner Books maintains a database, called Real Prices Confidential, which is a record of the current pricing levels for U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK, and other countries. The database covers writing, editing, scanning, graphic design, desktop publishing, Web design, multimedia, prepress, printing, and much more. It’s made up of 122,000 responses that are continually updated, and it contains over 35,000 prices for Web services alone. Using this data, it’s possible to check to see if you’re competitive with people in your country, state, county, or city. The current national average figure for graphic designers is $55.22 per hour (from 2367 data points). Photoshop support averages $47.83 per hour, with a range between $8 and $250 an hour. These prices are declining as more professionals enter the marketplace, often with little understanding of job value, pricing strategies, and tactics. Three years ago, graphic design was going for more than $61 an hour. The database now also contains over 2000 virtual workers in India. A one-year subscription is $99; one month’s access is $40.
Know it all
QuarkXPress 6 Creating Digital Documents
by Erika Kendra
Against The Clock
If you want to know all there is know about XPress, you should check out QuarkXPress 6 Creating Digital Documents, by Erika Kendra (Against The Clock). This book has more information about the application than any other we have seen. Although not as conversational as other books, this one is packed with information on its 666 pages. It starts from the basics and covers all you need to know to become an XPress specialist. Printed in black and white, it covers all aspects of creating and finessing a document, be it for print or Web. There are many hands-on exercises to help you master the techniques described. These are carefully constructed to reinforce previous topics. The images are nearly all screen shots of dialogs (and XPress seems to have hundreds of these), with clear examples of type and the effects of different settings. There are a lot of tips and techniques throughout the book, as well as warnings of where things can go wrong. The book is compre- hensive and technically correct, if a little dry to read. It’s a wonderful resource that you will find yourself returning to repeatedly. Quark thinks so highly of this book that they have made it the official book for studying for their Certified Expert Program. To qualify for this title you have to know this book well.
See how it’s done
QuarkXPress to InDesign, Face to Face
by Galen Gruman
Wiley
List Price: $34.99
Save: $11.90 (34%)
The problem with books that deal with converting from XPress to InDesign is that many Mac users are still using version 4.1, while some are on version 5 and a few are on 6.5. People who use InDesign are usually on version CS or CS2. Galen Gruman has written QuarkXPress to InDesign, Face to Face (Wiley), which attempts to answer switching questions to all of these mixed audiences. Mostly he assumes you are using a Mac, which in itself is not a bad thing, but dealing with issues that are for Mac users on 4.1 can be a drag. There are not too many PC users that have this problem. But the layout of this book is what makes it useful. On the left page he has Quark ways of doing things, and on the right is the InDesign equivalent. Each issue has it’s own double-page spread; sometimes he crams information onto a page so as not to go to two spreads, and often he seems to leave out bits for the same reason. In the more than 150 spreads, he manages to cover the major issues and many of the arcane ones as well. Some people will find this book effective as a reference, but we think many will find it hard to find specific information due to the naming of tasks. If you are making the switch, you should definitely check this out; it may be just what you need.
Great Draw resource
Retlab’s Basics
by Pradhan Balter
Retlab Graphics
Pradhan Balter has written an excellent introduction to CorelDraw 12. Many of you may know of Retlab’s previous books about Draw and Photo-Paint. There are not that many books about Draw available, so if you learned Draw from a book, this is one of the three you could have used. Retlab’s Basics (Retlab Graphics) starts off with the fundamentals but soon has the reader working with some of the more complex parts of the application through a series of clearly thought out exercises. The lessons are designed so that if you do them sequentially, you will soon end up being very proficient in Draw, without even noticing that you’re learning complex tasks. This spiral-bound book is a real gem for people looking to learn the application, but if you’re already familiar with Draw and are looking for a alternative to the PDF manual, this is probably not the book for you, as it lacks an index.
Catastrophe preparation
Surviving PC Disasters, Mishaps and Blunders
by Jesse Torres and Peter Sideris
Paraglyph Press
List Price: $29.99
Save: $10.20 (34%)
Do you plan for disasters or just go about your business assuming they will never happen? We are talking about PC disasters. You do know that your computer is going to fail, don’t you? It’s just a matter of when. It could be your hard drive, the motherboard, your battery, some software malfunction that blows up the operating system, or even a virus or Trojan horse. Any or all of these unnatural disasters can happen at any time, making everything you have done up to this minute unavailable to you. There are things you can do about some of these. At the very least, make regular backups of everything to external drives or media, perform regular virus scans. Who knows what else? You can know what else by reading Surviving PC Disasters, Mishaps and Blunders, by Jesse Torres and Peter Sideris (Paraglyph Press). They cover all these potential problems, as well as theft, fire, and more. The book is full of horror stories that make you think, “That could never happen to me,” until you realize that they can and often do happen to people just like you and me. By following their sage advice, it’s certainly possible to minimize the risks, if not eliminate the problems. The authors address spam, piracy, viruses, and other avoidable issues, and if you follow their advice you will minimize the other potential disasters. Not a book for the optimist, but for the realist it’s full of very astute suggestions.
Medical illustrations
The Digital Biomedical Illustration Handbook
by Mike de la Flor
Charles River Media
List Price: $59.95
Discount Price: $37.77/free shipping
Save: $22.18 (37%)
We can learn from some unlikely sources. The Digital Biomedical Illustration Handbook, by Mike de la Flor (Charles River Media), is a series of comprehensive tutorials on digital illustration. The author uses Photoshop for the 2D images and 3D Studio max 6 for the 3D images. The images are detailed, and the exercises step the reader through making images realistic, descriptive, and detailed. If you need to improve your illustrative skills, then this book may be just what you need. The enclosed CD has the images used in the book so you can enlarge them to see the details; it also has the basic images for all the tutorials. Using this book, you will have access to all the basic digital illustrative skills needed for technical illustrations.
Ready-made ideas
The InDesign Idea Book
by Chuck Green
Logic Arts
List Price: $59.95
Discount Price: $59.95/free shipping
Chuck Green is a man dedicated to making our lives easier but maybe not more original. He has three new books out published by Logic Arts each of which contains over 300 templates. The books are The QuarkXPress Idea Book, The InDesign Idea Book, and The PageMaker Idea Book. Chuck says, “If it makes your life a tiny bit easier, I’ll feel as though I’ve done something big.” He starts each book with useful advice about addressing your audience, customizing the templates to fit your needs, selecting paper, and printing. He is obviously a person who has experience in the field. The majority of the book is illustrations and short descriptions of each template. These are separated into different types, such as advertising, book design, direct mail, newsletter, and promotional material—19 categories in all. Each template is complete on the enclosed CD. Some styles may be considered boilerplate, while others are original and eye-catching. Each can be easily altered to suit individual needs. The author assumes you know how to use the applications and does not teach; he just supplies you with enough inspiration or ready-to-use templates to get you started right away. Although we are not great fans of templates in general, having them for such items as business and Rolodex cards, CD cases, coupon books, time sheets, certificates, and so forth can save an enormous amount of time. If you do corporate design or have a very varied workload, these books, although not inexpensive at $59.95, can save countless hours of work. Even for those with an aversion for templates, they make a great starting point. Thanks, Chuck, you’ve done something big.
The manual you should have had
The Missing Manual Dreamweaver MX 2004
by David Sawyer McFarland
O’Reilly
List Price: $34.95
Save: $11.88 (34%)
David Pouge started the Missing Manuals series of books partially as a reaction to the lack of printed manuals that used to ship with software. Now manuals are supplied as PDF documents. You can actually buy a manual from Macromedia called Using Macromedia MX 2004, which is a printed version of the Help files that come with the application. It costs $40 and is basically a list of menu commands and all the features. The Missing Manual Dreamweaver MX 2004, by David Sawyer McFarland (O’Reilly), costs less and is organized to do several things: First, it tells you what all the parts of Dreamweaver do, how it works, and how to create basic pages. Second, this large volume (836 pages) teaches you many of the basics of creating Web pages and many elements of popular pages, such as forms, libraries, snippets, and using CSS, with many detailed tutorials. The book is extremely thorough, covering some complex issues such as building dynamic Web pages, working with databases, and programming servers. It’s very well illustrated and generally well laid out, but as you will probably use it a lot, we’re not sure how long the binding will hold up. This is a great book for beginners and those with a good understanding of the application. It’s not an advanced book on specialized aspects of Dreamweaver, which are often the subjects of other books of equal length.
Ready-made ideas
The PageMaker Idea Book
by Chuck Green
Logic Arts
List Price: $59.95
Discount Price: $59.95/free shipping
See The InDesign Idea Book above for full review.
Painting instruction
The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book, Creative Techniques in Digital Painting
by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis
Peachpit Press
List Price: $44.99
Discount Price: $32.44/free shipping
Save: $12.55 (28%)
I had a passing thought that Cher Threinen- Pendarvis’s new book, The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book, Creative Techniques in Digital Painting (Peachpit Press) might not have much to offer me, as I’ve been using Photoshop, Painter, and a graphics tablet for a number of years. Instead I found that the book offers a wealth of information and examples for both the knowledgeable user and for anyone with minimal experience with Photoshop, Painter, and graphics tablets. It’s well-organized, with 14 chapters, beginning with an introduction to setting up a digital studio, graphic tablet basics, and an introduction to brushes available in both Photoshop and Painter. The next chapters offer drawing and painting exercises using a graphics tablet, which will certainly help the beginner and which offered this experienced user additional ideas and approaches. The remaining chapters discuss techniques for working with scanned drawings, using a photo reference for drawing and painting, refining the details in the artwork, working with textures, mixed media, and photographs (retouching, tinting, and painting), and compositing images. A gallery of images is included at the end. The author’s writing style is informative, open, and relaxed, making an inviting read. Many interesting, well-thought-out examples are provided throughout the book, along with excellent quick tips. The author has taken the time to compare and contrast not only brushes available within Photoshop and Painter but also between Photoshop and Painter. Sample images are created in both programs showing the individual brushes, which allow users to not only see what can be accomplished in each program but also show those familiar with only one of these programs what they can create within the program they use. This is an excellent addition to the library of both experienced and entry-level users
— reviewed by T. LaBarbera, sysop, Compuserve’s DTP forum
Dreamy solutions
The Photoshop World Dream Team Book, Volume 1
by Kevin Ames, et al
New Riders
List Price: $29.99
Save: $10.20 (34%)
The Photoshop World Dream Team Book, Volume 1 (New Riders) is two things-in one. First, it is a book with many interesting Photoshop techniques and tutorials. Second, it is an advertisement for NAPP, Photoshop World, and Scott Kelby. Dealing with the latter first, they have a lot to be proud of, having created a small empire that includes a successful and informative magazine, nationwide teaching seminars, many video and DVD tutorials, and the highly successful Photoshop World conferences. There is a lot of self-promotion and congratulatory stuff in this book. But each chapter comprises a mini tutorial on using Photoshop. Some are sort of frivolous, and many are really instructive. Chris Murphy writes on color management, Russell Brown writes on fixing panoramas, especially variations in skies, Jack Davis deals with blur and focus, Todd Morrison and Vincent Versace cover portraiture, and Ben Willmore deals with filters and blend modes. A host of other contributors offer informative and new looks at the uses of this versatile application. Nearly all the screen shots are from Macintoshes, the exceptions being the husband-and-wife team of Adobe evangelists Daniel Brown and Julianne Kost, who both use Windows. Definitely worth checking out.
Ready-made ideas
The QuarkXPress Idea Book
by Chuck Green
Logic Arts
List Price: $59.95
Discount Price: $59.95/free shipping
See The InDesign Idea Book above for full review.
AxKit
XML Publishing with AxKit
by Kip Hampton
O’Reilly
List Price: $29.95
Save: Save: $17.97 (60%)
Give your Web site team the gift of a new strategy: Experienced site implementers know that hard-coded HTML (generated manually or automatically) is not only expensive in terms of production costs but can also delay upgrade plans for a Web site. Usually these issues manifest themselves when one attempts to reorganize and redesign the look and feel of a site. The short reason for this problem is that HTML is ambiguous, in the sense that structured or semantic information is not present. Separating source content from final output format is the opportunity that XML publishing provides. Not only can site redesigns be performed without touching the content (so it’s less work), but non-HTML output formats, such as PDF, RDF/RSS, WAP, TEXT can also be supported. The new O’Reilly book, XML Publishing with AxKit, by Kip Hampton, offers an overview of XML publishing with emphasis on server-side XML processing. The author introduces a specific implementation of an XML framework called AxKit, which uses Apache, Perl, and other Open Source tools. I believe the book will become an indispensable resource for developers interested in XML publishing because it ties together a number of concepts and techniques that are not documented elsewhere. However, note that to be productive with AxKit you may likely need to use other (freely available) resources, such as the AxKit package documentation and the AxKit mailing list archives.
— reviewed by DK Smith, www.mediaweb.com
