Description:
The Adobe staff continues the outstanding Classroom in a Book series with the Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 8.0 guide to some advanced tasks using Photoshop and Illustrator. Renowned graphics professionals authored chapters on topics ranging from basic image editing and compositing to the intricacies of color spaces and embedded profiles. As always, the lessons are written so that even readers with just a beginner's familiarity with the software can follow along yet more experienced users are not left twiddling their thumbs. There are thorough explanations of each step and sidebars along the way that offer further tips and insights. Working through the lessons on the computer would be most effective, though the tutorials are so generously illustrated that it's still possible to learn quite a bit by just reading. The first lesson begins simply enough by resizing and resampling an image in Photoshop, adjusting the colors and preparing it for either print or the Web. The next lesson compares shading and blending techniques in the two applications. There's an excellent tutorial on acquiring images, whether through scanning, digital cameras and Photo CDs, screen captures, or analog and digital video. It shows how to decide on resolutions beforehand and clean up the images afterward. Other lessons cover masking techniques, using Illustrator for typography and layout, learning how to master the pen tool and Bézier curves, using spot colors and creating a duotone, making an animated Web banner, and combining the two applications with After Effects to create animations (a trial version of AE is included). It's recommended that readers work through both the Adobe Photoshop 5.5 CIB and the Adobe Illustrator 8.0 CIB before starting on this book. But even if they haven't done that, anyone who works with images will find these tutorials accessible and immensely useful. --Angelynn Grant Topics covered: Topics and tasks using Photoshop 5.5 and Illustrator 8.0 not covered in previous CIB editions, including acquiring, editing and compositing images, shading and blending, working with the pen tool, masking, color management, creating duotones and using spot colors, preparing images for print or the Web, and working with animations. CD-ROM includes all lesson files, the Adobe fonts used (including Garamond Expert and Jenson), and Acrobat Reader 4 and After Effects 4.1 trial.
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