Rating: 
Summary: Wynne Stevens MyMac.com Book Review
Review: Adobe Photoshop 7 Web Design by Michael Baumgardt is a very comprehensive study in Web design. Pages are beautifully illustrated with colorful samples and diagrams. The author goes into great detail explaining many nuances of this craft that the most of us tend to ignore. The book starts with design basics and concepts, which include interviews with professionals in the trade, plus many examples of successful designs in practice. The middle of the content gets into some Photoshop and ImageReady techniques that have application in Web design. There are a few tutorials that some readers may find helpful in reinforcing concepts. Maybe my expectations were confused by the title, but I found Adobe Photoshop 7 Web Design to be disappointing in its treatment of Photoshop as a Web design tool. The focus of the book's substance seems to be on the left brain area, to the detriment of any creative potential that might otherwise be discovered. When I want to educate myself in the technical areas, I'll buy a book devoted to that subject; to pursue the potential that Photoshop offers in Web design I'll search for a book that focus on the creative. There is really very little in this volume that does that and there are other books that do it better. If your basic desire is to understand, for example, color depth, information architecture, content authoring, image compression, the LZW algorithm, and similar topics, Adobe Photoshop 7 Web Design should probably be in your library. They are important matters but ones I don't want to deal with when I'm in a creative mode. So therein lies the reason for a negative evaluation. What I expected from this book, based on its title, was 300 pages of Photoshop techniques geared to the artistic Web designer. Instead, I found more of an overview of Photoshop fundamentals sandwiched between lots of technical information. There is no accompanying CD so any images needed for tutorials or experimentation must be downloaded. Nor is there any demo of GoLive software, which would have been helpful, since a good portion of Adobe Photoshop 7 Web Design with GoLive 6 deals with this application. There are portions of the book that are very well explained and others that are labored and awkward. Because of these disappointments it would be hard to recommend this book to any serious or aspiring graphic artist other than for the purpose of acquiring a broad perspective on Web design. Those who want a more creative approach would be better served elsewhere. Attractively presented but lacking in important content
MacMice Rating: 2 out of 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Wynne Stevens ...
Rating: 
Summary: Clear and concise
Review: Clear and concise, I had no problem understanding this book! I recommend it to even late intermediate go live users.
Rating:
Summary: Clear and concise
Review: Clear and concise, I had no problem understanding this book! I recommend it to even late intermediate go live users.
Rating:
Summary: Adobe Photoshop 7 Web Design
Review: Excellent book. I've read many books but this is the first book to totally cover making a tutorial web site from top to bottom with all of the modern tricks. I found out so many photoshop tips from this book. Blumgardt has covered web design from a to z. I recommend this book to any one that wants to be a serious web designer.
Rating: 
Summary: notice the review ratings are padded by the author?
Review: I am always extremely suspicious of any book where the author does a review of his own book and gives himself 5 stars in an attempt to influence buying behavior. Also note that there is another "name" that repeatedly assigns this book 5 stars 3 different times. Kinda makes you wonder about the book deosnt it? After looking at this book I recommend you should review this book yourself carefully before making a buy decision and not rely on the positive "reviews" you see here.
Rating:
Summary: notice the review ratings are padded by the author?
Review: I am always extremely suspicious of any book where the author does a review of his own book and gives himself 5 stars in an attempt to influence buying behavior. Also note that there is another "name" that repeatedly assigns this book 5 stars 3 different times. Kinda makes you wonder about the book deosnt it? After looking at this book I recommend you should review this book yourself carefully before making a buy decision and not rely on the positive "reviews" you see here.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on the subject. No update for CS planned
Review: I am the author of this book and if you are looking for the most advanced book on the subject, this is it. There is no other book out there that covers Web Design with Photoshop to that level. For people who look for an easy how-to book, this might not be the right choice, but for anyone who wants to be an expert in Web Design with Photoshop, you simply have to buy this one because the information that you get in this book is not available in anywhere else. For example, the information on image compression is unsurpassed and this book has many gems in it that you won't find when browsing quickly through the book. I can only encourage you to compare this book to others before you make a buying decision (it is also the most beautifully designed book on the market which in my opinion is important. After all, this is a book for designers). But the main reason for me writing a review here is to inform you that THERE WILL BE NO UPDATE OF THE BOOK FOR CS! My publisher and I decided a long time ago that we were going to skip this software release simply because it didn't have enough new web features to justify the time and cost to print a new edition (plus I was working hard on my QuarkXPress 6 book). If you own Photoshop CS and are looking for a Photoshop Web Design book, you can buy this book without having to worry about if the content still applies. It does! The only two things that have changed in CS is that you have now Layer Comps (allowing you to save a layer combination) and a different HTML export when using the slicing tool. I probably will post some updates on my web site ... Very truly yours, Michael
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: I bought this book on the basis of Scott Kelby's glowing recommendations. Having gone through the book, either Kelby's taste differs from mine or he was doing another author a favor.
There is very little on using Photoshop as a web design tool. The book, while extremely well illustrated and designed, is nothing more than another cookbook of Photoshop hints and tips. It is not particularly well written and is often sparse on detail. Many of the tecchniques are taken from others (some with appropriate attribution provided). The substantial number of pages devoted to Adobe GoLive are wasted -- unless you are a GoLive user.
Overall, not a book I would recommend and one that I am strongly considering returning while I can. Jerry
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: I bought this book on the basis of Scott Kelby's glowing recommendations. Having gone through the book, either Kelby's taste differs from mine or he was doing another author a favor.
There is very little on using Photoshop as a web design tool. The book, while extremely well illustrated and designed, is nothing more than another cookbook of Photoshop hints and tips. It is not particularly well written and is often sparse on detail. Many of the tecchniques are taken from others (some with appropriate attribution provided). The substantial number of pages devoted to Adobe GoLive are wasted -- unless you are a GoLive user.
Overall, not a book I would recommend and one that I am strongly considering returning while I can. Jerry
Rating:
Summary: Finally, the book I have been searching for!
Review: I finally found out how PhotoShop is used to create all of those graphically beautiful Web pages you see online these days. Now I know. The author has an excellent follow-along tutorial along with additional information, tips & tricks. Michael Baumgardt left NO questions unanswered.
Before reading this book I had a working knowledge of PhotoShop, GoLive, Illustrator but there were so many missing pieces when I tried to create Web designs. This book filled in the blanks and I now have rebuilt our company's intranet, a friend's club's home page, another's consulting page and my own personal home page. Buy this book, you won't be disappointed.
| 
