Rating: 
Summary: CD-ROM with images Accompanying Book Big Plus
Review: I don't think there is a 5 star book on Photoshop. That could be because no one book could possibly do justice to the whole of Photoshop so the books have to pick and choose where to put emphasis. I teach at a community college in an area different from this. I am taking the Photoshop course there and the book we are using is packed with so much information that I've found it worthless as a starting text, although now that I am getting the hang of Photoshop even it is useful. I now own 5 Photoshop books and they all do different things. This one's plusses are, in order: the images on the CD-ROM to do your lessons with that are in the book; the simple, straight forward style on an unjumbled, uncrowded page format and a logical, orderly way of proceeding and learning. Photoshop is considered a really tough program so I am not surprised that one book does not do it all. I would say if you are going to get more than one book, make this one of them. If you are only going to buy one Photoshop book, I honestly don't know what to recommend to you. It might be better to tackle the lessons in online tutorials in that case. The Photoshop Magazine is also excellent and better than all the books combined because it is chocked full of all color visual tutorials, every single page.
Rating: 
Summary: The best beginning book on PhotoShop.
Review: I have been using the PhotoShop tutorial, Classroom in a Book, as either a required or recommended textbook since version three. Most of my college students can not stand to read the Adobe manuals so this publication functions in its place along with me as an instructor. However, without a PhotoShop user manual or an instructor a beginner could easily become confused unless they were already familiar with an advanced level computer program. The book's enclose CD is superior to online tutorials that accompany many similar tutorial publications. The instructions are clear for both Mac and PC users. The inherent problem with all books in this beginning category is that they don't promote thinking that is outside of the box unless one simultaneously experiments (and gets into trouble) using the commands and operations with their own images. Regrettably, since version 5.5 incorporated ImageReady and its web features the breath of the book devoted to advanced-beginner usage has shrunk. Hence, the book no longer sufficiently prepares the student for the advanced-intermediate user level for which the majority of PhotoShop publications are written.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for "How?" not "Why?" or "What?"
Review: If you want the practice and need a step-by-step lesson, this is a good book. I did want the step-by-step practice, and I'm still glad I bought the book. However, it only tells you what to do. It's not very good at explaining why you're doing it or what exactly the overall effect will be. Also, any tool, filter, etc. that you don't learn about in the lessons, you don't really learn about at all. I think it's a great book for practice, but it's probably best used in conjunction with another book that doesn't have lessons but gives a better explanation of the tools, what they do, and when and why to use them. An example is probably Photoshop 6 For Dummies. I haven't bought it yet, but I've looked through it, and I think it will be helpful if used along with Classroom in a Book.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and an enjoyable read.
Review: Consistently well written with lessons used in Adobe's official training and certification program. Solid instruction book! Period! Since the book assumes no prior knowledge, it will benefit beginners the most. Topics covered include the work environment, tools and palettes, working with selections, layers, masks, channels, retouching, effects, color management, and creating images for print or the Web. Context-sensitive options bar, layer sets and layer styles, weighted optimization (which allows you to specify varying qualities of JPEG compression in a slice or image), image and text warping, and the new support for vector-based art. You'll also learn how to create slices both in Photoshop and ImageReady and rollovers and animations in ImageReady. Entire book covers: Painting, editing, and photo retouching, working with pen tools, vector shapes, and clipping paths, colorizing and applying filters, color management, preparing art for print or Web creating slices in both Photoshop and ImageReady, creating rollovers and animations in ImageReady using Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe GoLive in designing Web pages. Truly a fun and enjoyable read. This is the best book on Adobe by far! ...
Rating:
Summary: A must-have Photoshop book!
Review: Although I am pretty proficient with computers, I am not a designer, yet I wanted to use Photoshop for simple Image manipulation, enhancement, etc. When I got Photoshop I was at first intimidated. Sure, I could figure out the VERY, VERY basic stuff, but not much more. Well, this book changes everything. A huge amount of information is conveyed in an easy-to-learn format with clear examples and set-by-step instruction. Everything from the work environment, tools, and palettes , selections, layers, masks, painting, photo retouching etc. It's awesome! If you own or are getting Photoshop 6, this is a REQUIRED purchase to go along with it! You'll be glad you did!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent starting point
Review: First, let me say that it is very easy to pick apart any book that attempts to introduce a beginner to such a complex application program as Photoshop6. I am not an expert on Photoshop but I have invested a lot of time and money learning how to use it effectively in web development. This is an very cost effective approach to learning some of the useful features that Photoshop offers to the artist both in the Print media and the electronic web pallet.
Just remember this is starting point Photoshop is an life long pursuit if you are trying produce original quality work. If you can find a good copy used. It will be a reference book that you will continue to use years after you complete the exercises in it.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I found this book to be a good solid hands-on "text-book". The hands-on lessons made sense. The lessons explained what you were doing as you were doing it. This enabled you to really learn the information so that you would be able to fully utilize all the features of photoshop. Although I don't feel the lessons about the web uses of photoshop were as thorough, I had a good enough grasp of photoshop it took very little effort on my part to figure it out. This is the best book you can find explaining how to use photoshop you can find.
Rating:
Summary: it's not bad... but it's not great!!!
Review: After finishing this book i was some what dissappointed at the fact that a company like Adobe who has created such amazing software would release a book that doesn't live up to the software itself. They must be spending their money on programmers instead of publishers and authors. This book is OK if you want to learn your way around the program at a basic level, but falls short at actually giving you enough content to feel comfortable working with the powers of Photoshop such as layers, masks and channels. For example there is a chapter on layers and one for advanced layers and after going through both chapters and lessons i was still thinking to myself "that's it!?!...there's got to be more to it than this???" The book is still very decent, and it is easy to read and to follow the lessons, but i'm sure there are alot of other books out there for the same money that offers alot more bang for your buck. I didn't buy this book thinking i would become a master at Photoshop after reading it and i hope anyone else who buys it doesn't think that either, at best it will be a good reference book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lesson In Judging Books By Their Covers
Review: The Classroom In A Book books have impressive-looking covers and the stock used for interior pages feels good in hand. For people, like myself, who just love books--who love the way they feel, the way they smell, the way they look on shelves--I would give this book high marks; it's well-designed. If you actually want to learn Photoshop, however, you would do well to look elsewhere. I would expect that a tutorial like this one would be concise; however, many of the step-by-step instructions are so brief as to be meaningless, particularly if you don't know the program already. Photoshop is very complex and the interface is not at all intuitive. The writers introduce tools and refer to other application features without bothering to explain where to find them. Many step-by-step instructions are misleading, which is to say, the results you will get by following the intructions verbatim will not match the outcomes shown or described. (Many relatively complex procedures are not illustrated at all, or not illustrated adequately.) I have found a disturbing number of instances where the instructions are just, well, wrong. (You will figure it out, but it might require another book!) Several people reviewing this book have mentioned that it would be better used as a companion to other reference documentation or as a companion to classroom instruction. I would agree; the book could be particularly effective as a classroom text. Presumably there would be an instructor to show you where to find this tool or that, or to explain why the book says "drag up from point E to the red dot" when the actual series of keystrokes require you to click and release the appropriate mouse button and then click and drag from point E to the red dot. I think the book would also be good for someone who knows Photoshop and just needs to brush up on features in a newer version. But it is not a book that I would recommend to learn this application. (I also question how much information any Photoshop newbie is actually going to retain. The book gives virtually no explanation about how the program operates or how various application elements relate to each other. You're mostly just pushing buttons. And if your results don't match the book's, tough nuggies. There is no attention given to alerting user to common errors and what to do about them.) I don't know about you, but I am real tired of shelling out big bucks for impressive-looking computer books that do not fulfill their stated purposes. This book has real value; but, if you are looking to actually learn Photoshop on your own, you would probably do better to look at another resource...
Rating:
Summary: Easy to understand.
Review: I purchased this book through a recommedation of a friend and thought I was only going to use a chapter or two. I used the entire book with the CD and felt the purchase was well worth the money. I had Adobe Photo Deluxe and I knew nothing about Photoshop 6 when I bought the book. It was easy to understand and now I use Photoshop more comfortably.
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