Rating: 
Summary: WOW! Buy this book FIRST.
Review: I'm an amateur photographer. Initially, all I wanted to do with Photoshop is crop a scanned picture and maybe change a bit of its background. After several weeks of searching three other books for what I wanted to achieve, it became patently clear that 1) Photoshop was an extremely deep and complex program, and 2) I would never be able to accomplish simple tasks unless I dedicated my life to the study of Adobe. Then one day, The Photoshop 6 WOW! book's colorful presentation caught my eye. One hour later, I had not only cropped my photo and given it an entirely different background, but I fully understood what I had done and learned some additional tricks along the way. This book's graphics are delicious and the accompanying text clearly explains each step required to reproduce them. You will be compelled to try everything.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a 5 star Photoshop Book
Review: I've reviewed quite a few other Photoshop books and they've all come up short. However, I think this one goes the distance. It has a ton of color photographs which, for a change, are not other people's art work but are parts of the lessons, thankfully. For an art program that explodes with color (Photoshop), it is nice to see a book that does the same. The visuals showing you how-to operate Photoshop are simply first rate. Next, the book is well laid out, not jam packed together in an unreadable, overwhelming style or format. Third, there is a CD-ROM that goes with it to further amplify the material. Finally, it is well written yet stays with the task at hand. The authors do not annoy you with misplaced humor and witticisms throughout. Maybe there is a better book out there than this one but I've not run into it if there is. A word of caution: buy this new before accepting a used one that is missing the CD-ROM. I bought it new for this reason. I wish I had discovered this book first instead of after buying 5 other ones. I could have saved myself a lot of money.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a 5 star Photoshop Book
Review: I've reviewed quite a few other Photoshop books and they've all come up short. However, I think this one goes the distance. It has a ton of color photographs which, for a change, are not other people's art work but are parts of the lessons, thankfully. For an art program that explodes with color (Photoshop), it is nice to see a book that does the same. The visuals showing you how-to operate Photoshop are simply first rate. Next, the book is well laid out, not jam packed together in an unreadable, overwhelming style or format. Third, there is a CD-ROM that goes with it to further amplify the material. Finally, it is well written yet stays with the task at hand. The authors do not annoy you with misplaced humor and witticisms throughout. Maybe there is a better book out there than this one but I've not run into it if there is. A word of caution: buy this new before accepting a used one that is missing the CD-ROM. I bought it new for this reason. I wish I had discovered this book first instead of after buying 5 other ones. I could have saved myself a lot of money.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: In my graphic course at a local college, we worked on photoshop 6.01 but the instructor failed to mention any of the amazing things you can do with it.I am one of those people that wants the instructions without many explaination so of course I had problems with the book at start but eventually, it made me slow down and read section by section. Overall, this good is execellent as a reading material or you can skip around. Although there are some part that is a bit confusing.
Rating:
Summary: Still the Best!
Review: Jack Davis never ceases to amaze me. He has outdone himself again! I don't think there is a man on the planet that has a more in-depth, and complete knowledge of Photoshop, not even the people who developed the app or the manual writers at Adobe.
I had the opportunity to see Jack at the Photoshop Wow! Seminar for the 5.5 book. His methods of teaching are concise, intelligent, extremely well-thought-out, and easy-to-follow and understand. His pacing was so perfect, no one really lost him at all, even the beginners in the room, yet he intrigued and fascinated the experts. I learned more in a day than I had in my 4 years as a Web Designer.
The Photoshop 6 Wow! Book is a "must have" for anyone who uses Photoshop. Period. Even if you own the 5.5 Wow! Book, you still need this book. Some authors tend to "sell-out" from version update to version update, in an effort to milk the sales of a book, by offering a mildly reworded volume of useless pap. No such practice from Jack! He has extensively expanded upon an already legendary tome. I merely bought the book because I am a fan and wanted to "support the team" regardless of book content. When the book came, I realzied I got more than my money's worth, once again. The layer styles on the CD are alone worth twice the price. The chapter on "painting" will have you buying a Wacom tablet the following day [I did]. He does things that no one ever knew Photoshop could do. The gasps of astonishment in his classes are proof. And no wasted pages. Jack dives right in! Page ONE [1] actually has a useful tip on it! - making star shapes with the Polygon tool. And it's blast into orbit from there on out!
I agree wholeheartedly with the awards - "Most useful Photoshop book" ever - hands down. A vast amount of work went into this book to offer the most brilliant Photoshop book in the world. Maika'i Hana, Jack!
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
Review: Just goes to show that just because these bozos can use Photoshop it doesn't mean they can explain what they are doing. One of the worst, most over rated CONFUSING Photoshops books EVER!!! The number of glowing reviews about this makes one consider how objective these people are.
Rating:
Summary: A Work of Art
Review: Linnea Dayton and Jack Davis have done it again. The Photoshop Wow! series of books just keeps getting better (and thicker) with each new version of Adobe's Photoshop. Found on the shelves of most Web designers the Wow! series has become a standard other books can only hope to match. The latest v6 edition outdoes the previous series with over 200 stunning full-color before/after tutorials. Designed to help you get the most out of Photoshop and Imageready, this book covers the gamut from what's new in version 6, to fancy special effects, filter use, handy shortcuts, scans and color corrections, and Web graphics optimization and animation. The photo retouching chapter alone is worth the price of admission. One of my favorites is chapter 8, where you learn how to make special effects for type and graphics. Learn how Apple got that cool clear plastic look, how to do neon, glass, and custom chrome. The companion CD-ROM comes chock full of matching tutorial files, 300 preset layer styles, 50 automated rollover styles, improved actions, gobs of ready to use artwork, and more. Unlike the earlier "blow-them-away-you-already-know-Photoshop" editions, this one shows you how to work more effectively with Photoshop, *and* blow them away with your graphics expertise. The book is a wonderful way to improve your Photoshop skills, and an inspiration with its example artwork from top designers.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Distracting
Review: My first impression of this book is that theres too much glamour and colors in it. There are paragraphs in the corners with different colors and text. Little pics placed everywhere. Its just layed out very distracting, I dont know what to read first. Very pretty book, but it distracts from the content. I got this book and Down and Dirty Tricks by Kelby, and though they are different kind of books,,Kelbys book is way better in format and readability. The cd-rom seems to have very cool stuff.
Rating:
Summary: this books teaches how and why and gives you a CD with stuff
Review: No reviewers "words" can say what exactly this books holds or why you should buy it "first". Just make this your first then after you start to understand photoshop layers, blending, effects and everything else, find another book. But everyone should make this the first.
Rating:
Summary: To the next level...and beyond.
Review: Once you have an intermediate grasp of Photoshop, the Photoshop WOW! books introduce techniques that you never even knew were possible. It's as if the authors have unlocked every facet of power in the program and placed it at your fingertips. Easy to use and a "must have" for every Photoshop user, these books just continue to get better.
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