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Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I am a commercial artist and have some computer experience, mostly word processing and the internet. I've been waiting to take the plunge into computer graphics for years, and finally overcame my paranoia and bought the software and this book. It was not a good choice. With its black and white photos, dense dry technical-writing style and limited scope, it was very off-putting: a book to reluctantly plow through, not devour. I recommend Paint shop Pro8 Zero to Hero instead. It has great color photos and is project oriented - a good approach for the artist.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for the basics of PSP 8
Review: This book is an easy read, and provides basic explanation of the key operations to be effective at a beginner or intermediate level of PSP8. The program is one of the most complicated to learn of any I have encountered, so someone relatively unfamiliar with graphics or previous editions of PSP would find this book very useful. It is much better at explaining the basics than JASC's manual, which I found quite difficult. PSP is such a complicated program, many people will need a guide to the basic functions, and this book fits the bill. Someone looking for instruction on advanced topics would probably find the text too basic. I give this an excellent recommendation for PSP beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for the basics of PSP 8
Review: This book is an easy read, and provides basic explanation of the key operations to be effective at a beginner or intermediate level of PSP8. The program is one of the most complicated to learn of any I have encountered, so someone relatively unfamiliar with graphics or previous editions of PSP would find this book very useful. It is much better at explaining the basics than JASC's manual, which I found quite difficult. PSP is such a complicated program, many people will need a guide to the basic functions, and this book fits the bill. Someone looking for instruction on advanced topics would probably find the text too basic. I give this an excellent recommendation for PSP beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Strictly for novices
Review: This book is VERY basic. It is written for people who have never used Paint Shop Pro and may be intimidated by the manual that comes with the program. If you want to improve your existing basic skills, this is NOT the book for you! As soon as I opened the book, I realized I made a mistake in buying it. As an example, on page 136, "Adjustment layers are beyond the scope of this book and will not be addressed." Chapter 10 on masks starts by saying, "Masking is probably one of the most powerful features of Paint Shop Pro.", yet the chapter describes only how to create a mask from a "canned" geometric shape. There is no instruction for how to create a mask from an imported graphic or an outline from a photo...which I want to do. I also expected instruction on blending several photos together (to make panoramas), but this is not covered at all. On balance, this book is a big disappointment and I wish I'd had a chance to look inside before buying it!
Rating:
Summary: Strictly for novices
Review: This book is VERY basic. It is written for people who have never used Paint Shop Pro and may be intimidated by the manual that comes with the program. If you want to improve your existing basic skills, this is NOT the book for you! As soon as I opened the book, I realized I made a mistake in buying it. As an example, on page 136, "Adjustment layers are beyond the scope of this book and will not be addressed." Chapter 10 on masks starts by saying, "Masking is probably one of the most powerful features of Paint Shop Pro.", yet the chapter describes only how to create a mask from a "canned" geometric shape. There is no instruction for how to create a mask from an imported graphic or an outline from a photo...which I want to do. I also expected instruction on blending several photos together (to make panoramas), but this is not covered at all. On balance, this book is a big disappointment and I wish I'd had a chance to look inside before buying it!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: This book will make learning and using PSP 8 a fun experience. I used to write computer curriculum and Ms. Koers knows her **stuff** and how to get it across using minimal words but loads of graphics with step by step instructions. Just her tips alone and the shortcuts she gives you are worth the price of this book! So do yourself a favor and buy it. I learned more in 5 minutes than the other books could teach me (Jasc manual included) in 5 months.
Rating:
Summary: All people who have PSP should own this book
Review: This book will make learning and using PSP 8 a fun experience. I used to write computer curriculum and Ms. Koers knows her **stuff** and how to get it across using minimal words but loads of graphics with step by step instructions. Just her tips alone and the shortcuts she gives you are worth the price of this book! So do yourself a favor and buy it. I learned more in 5 minutes than the other books could teach me (Jasc manual included) in 5 months.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: This is really a great book for a beginner, like me! I'm so glad I found it. Short and sweet and to the point compared to others I have purchased.
Rating: 
Summary: (2.5) No fast and easy answers here
Review: Whenever I buy a another book in an effort to unravel the Paint Shop Pro program I have yet to conquer, I have great expectations that this new one will answer the questions that plague me. I have searched through the help menu offered by the Paint Shop Pro 8, but need more visual aids.
I paged through Paint Shop Pro 8, Fast and Easy, having ordered it online, going from chapter to chapter to see what problems are addressed in each part of the book, in more detail than was available online. I am already to Chapter 15 and still haven't come to the one area that is causing me trouble, editing and pasting from one raster image to another. Plenty of pages are allocated to vector images, but my goal in purchasing this book was simply to create a variety of collaged images, most of which would require raster images.
If you are looking for information of text applications, Chapter 15-17 offers a variety of options, although none are particularly sophisticated or original, leaving you to experiment for more creative effects. By Chapter 17, we are on Web Page Components and I still haven't found a useful discussion of editing/pasting raster layers. (I realize that if you are a serious graphic artist, you won't even consider this book or this particular program. )
Another issue that is relevant for me and not addressed is print resolution. I did look for solutions to setting the appropriate number of DPIs to the print an acceptable image, but there is little material on this issue. If the image has been saved as JPEG or GIF, the image resolution lost cannot be recovered by changing printer settings. There seems to be an assumption that most are using Paint Shop Pro 8 for web images because there is virtually no information relative to printing problems or how to control the quality of the printed image.
I was told that most problems can be traced to user error, but I think that the majority of these books make certain assumptions about the user, in the same manner that programmers fail to consider different levels of understanding on the part of the user. Perhaps the problem is in the program, rather than the attempts to provide answers, such as offered in this book. In any case, both are a disappointment. Luan Gaines/2004.
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