Rating: 
Summary: There's good news and bad news
Review: "Adobe Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book" contains a wealth of information and well-designed lessons.
It also contains pages, however, which began to fall out by the time I had reached Chapter 3.
I would have been glad to spend an extra dollar or so for a product I could have referred back to time and again.
It's a shame to see this excellent content presented in such a shabby manner. Educationally, the book is well worth the price, but physically it is not.
Rating: 
Summary: The CIB is not the best first book on Photoshop
Review: For the price of a boxed Photoshop CS, the Classroom In a Book (CIB) for Photoshop CS should have been included as a free guide inside the box. While it teaches the basics of photoshop cs, the writing of the CIB is really devoid of style and humor. It makes for a passable alternate user's manual. (That's because the Photoshop CS Visual Quickstart Guide does a much better job of getting to the point.) If you are just beginning the CIB for Photoshop CS might be a useful introduction. Just be aware you have other, much better PS CS Guides.
It is so easy to get frustrated in Photoshop and to give up on this amazing piece of software if you start learning it with the wrong tools. "Wrong" is of course relative and so as far as Im concerned, the CIB is not the ideal first book on Photoshop to use.
Get yourself a lively, entertaining book on the subject. Instead of the CIB, I highly recommend the clear, and fast-paced Teach Yourself Photoshop CS in 24 Hours, and the highly entertaining, well organized Photoshop CS for Dummies (get the 10-books-in-one version!)
When you've learned the ropes you can go on to more advanced techniques using Photoshop CS Artistry or Real World Adobe Photoshop CS.
Just remember your FIRST book on Photoshop will set the "color and texture" of your own feelings towards the software. It can spell the difference between starting right or getting frustrated in Photoshop! Therefore it's best if you can browse the contents of the books yourself to see which really feels right for you before you buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a very useful book for new features in CS
Review: I am very disappointed with this book. This book does not list or highlight the new features being added to the Photoshop CS. Most of the centents are the same as "Photoshop 7 classroom in a book". If you want to learn the new features in the Photoshop CS, this is not the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Not good in a pinch...
Review: I should have realized that the Classroom in a Book series is exactly what it says - it is definietly NOT a resource guide for those with specific problems and pressing deadlines. It may be a good introduction for those with unlimited time, but as a professional, it has been more frustrating that useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for beginning and intermediate students!
Review: I teach people who are not computer professionals to create palmcards and other outreach material. The material needs to be catchy for people to read it. I use this book to teach folks how to make great literature, and classes are much better with this book than any other. Professionals this book is NOT for you. It is not meant to be a guide where you have a problem and want a one-page discussion of a fix. That is what the Bible Series (Photoshop CS Bible) is for. Or on a easier level, what the Visual Quickstart Guide series is for. However, beginners and non-computer professionals cannot learn with books like this. They need books that teach all the tools and features systematically with fun, relevant projects. The projects in this book are grouped according to skill learned, ex. layers, masking, selection tools, and are fun. Sure color would be great, but my students could not afford this. Hell, they are constantly borrowing my copy because they can't even afford the black & white copy! The lessons are so fun students don't even know how much they are learning. I highly recommend this book for newer computer students, or non-professional students. Thanks you Adobe Creative Team!
Rating:
Summary: Works for me!
Review: I'm not sure why other reviewers gave negative reviews - I think the classroom in a book is a great intro to Photoshop CS. I bought it, having zero experience with Photoshop, and in days I was manipulating photos in ways I never thought possible. My wife is working through the course now, and she's having similar results. I highly recommend this book to those who are new to Photoshop. I will say, however, that you have to have at least a double digit IQ to be able to understand and follow the steps in the lessons...
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners, frustrating for intermediate/advanced
Review: I've been working with Photoshop for a few years now, but I was self-taught. When I got CS, I decided to work through a course book to catch up on anything I was missing. I did not get as much out of this book as I hoped. It really is aimed at the newbie who wants to create & edit projects ASAP, with little explanation surronding the tools they're using. For example, you're directed to go to a tool in the Filter menu, check off these two boxes and enter 70% here, then click ok. There's little explanation for why you'd want to check those boxes, or why you'd enter 70 and not 38. I think this is a good beginner's course, especially for someone who will take the time to go beyond what's presented in the book, and play with the tools to figure out what they do.
Rating: 
Summary: Step-by-Step Lessons Really Help
Review: In addition to the Lessons folder (which contains the art source files for 20 lessons), there is a Folder with 35 Fonts, so that you can do the lessons. It starts by telling you how to navigate the application, such as understanding the tools and palettes, using the image browser, defining and saving work spaces, and jumping to Image Ready and back. (Photoshop comes with a powerful application for making image maps, animated GIFs, rollovers for the web, etc. Chapters 14 - 18 cover Image Ready and its Photoshop features.)
It tells you how to use the automated features for output. You can create a PDF presentation from the File Browser, save photos into a Web Gallery, make a Photo Package or a Contact Sheet. Lesson 6 is all about masking and its many variations, such as gradient masks. Hidden in this chapter is the Extract command, showing you how to extract an image from its background. It covers retouching and repairing photos, painting and editing, which includes blending images into a background and use of the History Palette. Advanced layer techniques (Lesson 11) include creating clipping paths, adjustment layers, knock-out masks, importing layers from other files, using the liquify tool and more. ThereÕs even a pretty good discussion of Camera Raw (page 64) and the stuff you should know about it.
Rating:
Summary: A good starting point for unseasoned Photoshop users
Review: Like many people out there, I've been using computers for decades, and while I've dabbled with Photoshop over the years to do layer-based image touch-ups, enhancements, resizes, and related simplistic tasks (making tape/CD covers, greeting cards, etc.), I've never taken the time to work through a book to learn the other features of the program. Adobe Photoshop CS Classroom in a Book (CIAB) is a worthwhile starting point for users who know how to use their computers, but might only know how to use some of the functions of Photoshop. This book spends most of its time on layers, masks, pen tools, and webpage basics (slices, animation, and image maps). I found the pen tool chapter to be the most useful, since I had never really understood how vector-based drawing worked, and I am now eager to learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator CS as well. The webpage chapters are also good for those who have lots of ideas in their mind about how their webpage should look, but don't have intuitive tools to do it. ImageReady CS (included with Photoshop CS or Adobe Creative Suite) makes creating precise web graphics, image maps, etc. almost too easy. I found several errors in the book that occur in later chapters, but none of them prevented me from completing the lessons. There are some spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors throughout the text. However, these will not prevent the average user from running into roadblocks. The biggest error occurs in Lesson 15, where the image references in the sample HTML file do not correspond with the actual image filenames. Basic HTML/text editing can fix this, but as an official Adobe product, this should have been found before duplicating the CD-ROM which accompanies this book. Otherwise, the lessons are presented well and are very easy to follow. The text is clear and easy on the eyes. I was able to complete all 20 lessons in about 4 days. To get the most out of this book, it would be wise to complete a lesson, and then apply what you learned to your own project to help with retention of the material. Overall, a good first step to other more in-depth texts. I'd like to see full-color in future installments, as well as more detailed descriptions on why certain selections and options are chosen. Also, I think the monitor and color calibration chapters should be moved to an earlier part of the book. It's odd that these are the last topics covered, especially since topics like levels and color correction precede it.
Rating:
Summary: A low quality product
Review: My main problem with this book is that 90% of it is in black and white. Now you may think that that is a bit petty but when dealing with this kind of subject matter I think that its important not to cut corners.
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