Adobe Books

For the beginning illustrator/AI user, this is a great book with lots of useful techniques, easy to follow, comes with a CD.

the book does what it says. but it's full of little nice surprises. i've been using adobe illustrator for over 12 years now and it was a nice thing to find out i could still find some new tricks and different ways to use the tools that the ones I'm used to. it is really a great book for both beginners and experienced users, especially the showcase sections, you can learn a lot form that one.

This book is amazing for graphic artists. It's full of tons of tricks to perfect your design game. I recommend it!

I was very disappointed in this book. The cost of the book, even used, does not justify the content; sparse on instructions for a highly complicated program. Illustrator requires detailed instructions because it is not necessarily user intuitive nor friendly. The book features many pages of fancy colored illustrations created w/ the program but does not go into any details on how they were created. Even some of Illustrator's advanced features like Live Trace and mesh blends; not enough instructions provided. Important areas such as Pathfinder and custom brush, I felt was glossed over. The help files on the accompanying CD is no better. Tutorials on the bezier pen tool is marginal at best. You'll find much better tutorials on Adobe's website. Its a good book for getting inspiration with the full color gallery section but don't expect much on clear detailed instructions.

I had to purchase this book for a Adobe Illustrator class I am currently taking. I have to admit, this book really hasn't helped me learn a thing. It is very hard to follow and I am constantly lost during the sample exercises in each chapter. My professor has even told us to not follow quite a few of the steps and shows us the right way to do it. I'm so thankful I have a lecture to supplement reading, but at the same point that means I cannot miss one class! I have given up on the book as of now, the eighth week of class. I took a class last semester on InDesign, the text book was amazing (Exploring InDesign by Terry Rydberg)! I wish this book had the same type of format.

I've gone through Chapter 6 three times and get very confused each time. And, no, I am not an idiot.

The changes made to the ShoppingCart.as should be introduced simply, and then more elaborately. There should be a logical step-through process that doesn't rely on writing lines of code before a debug. The explanations are impossible. AND, WHY? WHY would someone name a function (addItem), the same as a property of the ArrayCollection? For someone just starting out, this kind of stuff can be very confusing and takes forever to understand what is going on.

The rest of the book is okay.

I found this book really accessible, and a great way to jump into Flex after a coding hiatus. However, Flex 3 is out and wouldn't compile my Flex 2 apps. I'm sure you can hack code fairly easily to update it (OK, I'm not sure but I guess), but you might want to wait for a newer edition.

This was my first book as an intro to Flex. Very helpful and would recommend to others.

If you're using a Mac. Don't bother with this book unless you know ColdFusion well. Chapter 17 and onwards are dependent on setting ColdFusion up. The book has no instruction in the book for Mac setup at all (it was said the Mac version wasn't ready at the time. Reasonable). Looked up the errata pages found nothing either. I searched the web a little, and was able to set it up, but couldn't get it to start correctly.

I then wrote to the publisher to ask for the instruction. They were quick to respond, but they don't have the answer. They had to ask the author. After more than a month and several emails. Nothing ever came about, which render this book useless to me.

From the 17 chapters I was able to put to use. The lessons themselves are not bad, but not great. Some issues were never clear. Maybe they will be mentioned at the later chapters, but I guess I'll never find out.

So, if you're using Windows, maybe, this book can work for you. But don't expect anything from the author if you ever decide to ask questions.

I've just purchased this book and started reading it. What I've seen is that the book is divided into lessons, and each lesson has different exercises. You can follow the lessons as you were at class, with a very good learning curve. So, if you want to have a solid base on this technology, you need a lot of time to do all the examples and exercises but, when you finish the book, you KNOW Flex 2.

If you're initiated and need a reference guide, don't buy this book. In other case, this is maybe the best book for learning Flex 2 with a training way.

(Sorry for my English, I am Spanish and I've tried to write the best I could)

My review is from my self-learning perspective versus using the book as a classroom text. Also, I have intermediate web development experience using Front Page. That said, I found this book to be a cumbersome and difficult learning aid, compared to video courses available. The book seemed to overly complicate using Dreamweaver, starting in Chapter 1 with a lengthy explanation of XHTML, which I found tedious and unnecessary. I found the vtc.com video course I took offered a much more practical approach to learning Dreamweaver than this book. The CD in the book is helpful but basically an adjunct to the book material.

This instructional book was for a Dreamweaver class I took, so a required text. While this book was decent as far as tutorials go, it would not be my first choice. The Thomson Course Technology series (I believe by Botello) was much more thorough and had a better layout for students.

I am a complete beginner in website design, and this book is a godsend because of its simplicity. Following the tutorials is really easy and very understandable, without heavy html words and codes that somebody like me wouldn't understand.
That said, i think this book is not only for beginners but covers all aspects of Dreamweaver. A colleague of mine who is an expert in website development has recommended it because she needs it to develop her skills even further.

This book was a required text for my class...however, I would have bought it sooner if I had known how helpful it would be. Thanks!

The book I bought from Amazon was just brand new. Surprisingly, I got this was just half price of the price my school sold this book.

My goal in reading this book was to get up to speed as quickly as possible in building Flex applications. Sadly, the book did meet this goal.

As I worked through this book, three big flaws were very apparent:

First, although FlexBuilder has a nice WYSIWYG IDE, almost all of the exercise work is simply typing in source code directly. Why? Do the authors feel the "Design Mode" (graphical GUI builder) is useless? If so, it would be nice of them to explain why. Or did the authors build the tutorials before the IDE was available? If so, the book should be thoroughly overhauled. At best, the authors seem to treat the IDE as notepad with preview mode.

Second, although the authors work though many critical features, they never really explain them, expecting us, I suppose, to generalize from a few specific examples. Data binding is used throughout the tutorial, but there is hardly any attempt to explain how it works. Are there any best practices around it? Any design patterns involving transforming data? The authors are mute.

Third, a good tutorial is something that you can turn into a sort of reference book, as you look back upon how you built various things. Good tutorials have things like sidebars and foot notes that enrich the raw tutorial with detailed discussion. Not this book; it is basically a giant "diff" file that starts from scratch. You walk through an interminable series of incremental edits, and end up with a finished application.

The other reviews you see that rate this book with 2 or 1 stars are spot on. Trying to use this book to learn Flex is like assembling an Ikea bookcase and hoping to learn carpentry as a result.

Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source is definitely a good start to learning Flex. The book goes through a tutorial style method of creating an online shopping cart. While I did learn a lot about how Flex functions, and the basics of actionscript, this isn't the end-all, be-all Flex book.

One annoying thing about the book is the introduction of a new concept, and the author will tell you right off the bat that it is bad practice. They later show you the correct way to create/write what they want you to know, but it'd be nice if they showed you the right way up front. While the sample site created in the book is good, it isn't very "real world" enough. The layout of the items is very basic, and the datagrid used to display the cart contents isn't very attractive.

Despite its cons, the book does a great job of teaching you mxml and actionscript. The book also goes beyond, and teaches you the basics of shared libraries, debugging, and performance tuning.

This book has a lot of information and techniques in it that are core to learning Flex. However, in the end it makes a poor reference book. The tutorial is really creating three different applications which work as one, it is not extremely complex, but definitely not simple either.

Sometimes a chapter will have you working on three different concepts for each of the applications, but in the end I would rather see individual chapters working on each application individually. It's a bit odd, because you might do a number of steps in one chapter, but you don't see the results of that effort until several chapters later. Sometimes it is necessary because everything is interlinked, but I think the authors should rework the strategy for Flex 4, with concepts separated out better, rather than all thrown together.

In the end, there's lots to learn from this book, but trying to find information afterwards is pretty much confusing because of the layout.

I've worked through countless code-along tutorial style books for a variety of languages. Many of them move you along at a pace that feels at best uncomfortable, lacking explanations and not intuitive to what the target reader might be thinking/wondering as they go along. Not this one. The authors, despite their extensive expertise, write to the reader (that is, someone learning Flex). Instead of lading down the early chapters with theory, and then blitzkrieging a sample app at the end (expecting that you've mastered and fully-absorbed every page up to then), they explain both concepts (theory) and clicks (practical how to) as you go. The result is a natural and enjoyable learning experience. If you like the Head First books, but maybe have had your fair share of the Head First cuteness, you will love this book. It is a Flex development best practices boot camp.

I'm still slogging through this, one of the worst-written books in the history of technical writing. What makes it so awful is that instead just telling you about some code and what it does, they literally tell you in verbal terms what to write for each lline of code: The majority of the book is comprised of this sort of stuff:

"Step 11: While still in OrderConf.mxml, locate the Delivery Date form item. Change the so the text property calls the format() method of the orderFormat DateFormatter on the deliveryDate property of the orderInfo data structure. Be sure to remove the manual date formatting from the last lesson. "

What planet is this author from? You don't tell people how to write lines of code using verbal language. You display a chunk of code and then explain what it does. Finding real information in this book is like panning for gold. I am writing only in hopes of sparing the many good people out there the pain I have been enduring reading this horrible book. Choose another. Any other.

Even though I read the whole book, the main character's homosexuality did not interest me at all. I was hoping that it would be relevant to the story. I was thinking that Donald and his wife would try to use this feature of his character to achieve something through him for the US State Dept; but it turned out as far as I could determine that the American characters were not needed for the story. In other words, if there had been an aspect of intrigue in the story due to his homosexuality, I would have found it interesting and perhaps well written.

I just finished the book and in general enjoyed it. The setting of Argentina during the Falklands war was a unique setting for a gay themed novel. I thought the characters were well developed and they evolved in ways that I was not expecting. The basic tale held my interest and toward the end it caught me my surprise. But, I do have to say the ending was a bit of a disappointment and rather left me hanging in the middle of a very dramatic situation. Nonetheless it is in the upper 10 percent of gay novels that I have read and I think that is high praise. I think few will be disappointed.

The story of the night is a very interesting story set in Argentina post-Peron. There are many wonderful review on this site that will cover the plot and I encourage you to read them. To add to the already existing review I would like to discuss the way Toibin, the author, managed information regarding the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. Many are familiar with at least some aspect of the beginning of this epidemic in America and the frustrations and difficulties with the lack of available information. What is unique about this book is how the author treats the dissemination of this information to Argentina. The reader is placed in a position of understanding that information regarding AIDS in Argentina was scarce and treatment even less available. The author provides a looking glass from which we can view the beginning of the AIDS epidemic from a perspective other than our own. If this intrigues you at all, I encourage you to look at some further reviews of this novel.

Colm Toibin is one of my favorite Irish authors writing today. Among his books that I've read to date ("The South", "The Heather Blazing", "The Blackwater Lightship", "Mothers and Sons" and this one - I haven't read "The Master" yet), "The Story of the Night" is my favorite.

Set in Buenos Aires during the Falklands war and its aftermath, the novel tracks the development of Richard Garay, a gay schoolteacher, the son of an Argentine father and English mother. At the novel's opening, the generals are still in power, and Garay is closeted and emotionally stunted. Toibin, who covered the trial of General Gualtieri as a reporter, is extraordinarily effective in conveying the sense of menace that prevails, and the way people are forced to hold their emotions in check in order to survive.

The Falklands are lost, the generals lose their hold on power, and the story traces Richard's gradual emotional development in parallel with the opening of Argentine society. The aspect of Toibin's writing that I like best is his extraordinary emotional intelligence, which he deploys here to full effect, in a sensitive and moving account of Richard's story. Richard is a complex, and not entirely sympathetic, character, but Toibin draws us in to his story, and makes us care deeply about his fate.

An evocative and moving story, which I highly recommend.

The only other of Toibin's books that I have read was "The Master", which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is brilliantly subtle; my slight and confusing attraction to Henry James has, probably, more than something to do with my reaction. My thought was that such a profound writer should have a few more equally enjoyable books under his belt. I was, at least as concerns this work, horribly mistaken. I did try to like this book. I kept waiting for some depth or maybe some honest emotion. What I got was intolerably lackluster 1st person in short 7 word sentences that drove me /batty/, and a 'love' that is more based on lust than anything else. There is not one drop of feeling anywhere, and this includes the protagonist's reactions to his political situation since he doesn't actually /care/ at all. I skimmed to the end of the book to see if maybe I might be missing something worthwhile, but found nothing that would have made this book worth having bought in the 1st place.

When I first read this book I was overwhelmed by the information and have had to struggle through all of the technical work. There is so much to learn, and much of it is technical. That said, Mr. Lynch goes out of his way to help his readers, and includes extra tools on his website as well as a forum. The extra tools alone pay for the book - he includes Curves and demonstrates how valuable this is. He also has tools to give you great photo frames, etc, with a few quick moves. If you are willing to put in hours learning to achieve his results you will be very happy with this book. If you simply wish a basic beginning book on Elements this is NOT the book for you. I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to be proficient with Elements 2. I am going to buy the Elements 3 book.

The tools were why I bought the book -- having access to Curves and Color Balance alone would have been worth it, but there are a lot more -- masking tools, color separations, -- I am just starting to appreciate how powerful these tools are -- for example, before buying this book I didn't even understand why you even wanted to separate color and luminosity, but now I use that tool on every single image I process.

The book: the book is different from any other Photoshop book I've read. The most obvious difference is that it comes with neat Power Tools. A more subtle difference is that in addition to showing you how to manipulate images using Photoshop Elements (which most Photoshop books do, or should), it also aims to deepen your understanding of your images and controlling those images using manipulation-by-Elements. For example, he walks you through a somewhat complicated procedure of making masks to isolate mid-tone colors in your image-- there's a Power Tool to do it, but if you go through the entire procedure you will learn a lot more about how your image is put together. Not to mention that it was a revelation to me that you could have that much CONTROL!

Because he aims to teach you about images and how to get the best image possible, as well as a good order in which to correct images, the book is sequential. Most Photoshop books I've seen can basically be read in any order, but this builds on things he's taught in previous chapters: for example, learning about tone in the earlier chapters is essential for understanding color manipulation in the later chapters. As part of this flow, there's information not only on digital manipulation but also on printing, which is an essential part of the process, which made me very happy. Just his (elementary?) explanation of the dpi/ppi/lpi needed for various outputs and how well you can print various pixel-size images has been really useful for me to have at my fingerprints, not even to mention the calibration tool noted by another review.

On the negative side: as someone who predominately uses Elements for retouching digital photographs, I didn't find the sections on e.g. animation all that useful. I would have much preferred to see more about calculations, which I thought could definitely have been given more space, being such a complex subject. There are a fair number of typos, though it's usually pretty easy to figure out what the right thing ought to be, and I understand his website has errata. Minor issue: I had a hard time installing the tools, and had to go to the website delineated in the book to troubleshoot. (Turned out it was for some reason having a hard time with my external hard drive; once I unplugged it, it was fine.)

I would strongly recommend NOT expecting this to be your only photoshop elements book (unless you are already an image manipulation guru, maybe). I personally have Photoshop Elements 2 for Dummies from a local book sale as well, and had read the whole thing and understood how everything worked in it before tackling this one-- I would've been lost if I'd tried to do it in the other order. I still refer to Dummies above this book when I want to know quickly how to do something simple or want to know what some random special effect does, neither of which are the purposes of this book.

This book gives back to you what you put into it; the more you try to understand what is really going on, the more you will get out of it. To me, this is the hallmark of a great book; I've reread it twice already and am still learning more. To others, it may not be what you are looking for, particularly if you want quick recipes or quick fixes. If you've read my examples above and you're thinking, "Gosh, that sounds like it might be sort of dense... but worth it to really understand images and controlling images better," this book may be perfect for you, as it was for me. If you're thinking, "Nuts, I just want a couple of auto-buttons to press to get cool effects or quickly fix everything," this book is not for you.

But if you have Elements 2 and are even THINKING of upgrading to full Photoshop (which I was), get this book first!

After five nights of really trying so hard to get through this book...and I did try, I finally decided I was so lost it was time to quit and try some other book. I know I am not at the level I want to be in Elements, but just going through steps that make no sense with this book finally got to where it was not worth the effort. I'm putting this book on the shelf and finding one that doesn't assume I know the steps he leaves out. I'm very dissappointed because I really need to know this stuff :(((

First must say all the raves you see are from professionals that have used other systems and maybe good friends of the author, as some of the reviews said, mistakes, no clear definition of way to go, confusing, believe the author once sent me an answer to a question stating he has condensed a book of 950 pages into this, Well unless your an photographic, or layout person, this book too confusing for someone starting out, I would not recommend this book to first timers

I have nothing but praise for this densely-packed book. Seek and ye shall find! The information level is as comprehensive as one could wish: Beware though, very few empty words, read carefully! Providing the hidden elements for Photoshop Elements users is an invaluable attribute.Use of these tools brings us into the realm of the full-fledged Photoshop. Thanks, Richard Lynch!

This book was simply awful. While I am very computer literate, I was completely new to photoshop 7 (and to photo-type software in general). This book decided to start by throwing me into the deep end of the pool and hoping that I could swim. I couldn't.
Not only were the explanations completely unclear, they make you do exercises without telling you why your're doing them; you can't learn when to take a specific series of actions if you don't understand when/why they would be appropriate.
Finally, the index was completely useless, at least to a beginner (perhaps if I had used prior versions it would have been more useful).
Overall, I found this book to be completely worthless. It's been sitting on my shelf gathering dust since about a week after I bought it (which was how long I tried to muddle my way through it). There MUST be better books on the subject out there. Try one. Any of them!

I was entirely new to Photoshop 7 and so I decided to go thru the book page by page. The first chapter led me thru steps, but I wasn't sure what I had done when I was thru. I was instructed to select tools that I had no reasonable way of knowing where they were located, many hidden behind tiny icons which I have come to realize is Adobe's M.O., but very frustrating to a new user. The cutsie humor is lost on a frustrated reader trying to locate a tool. Some of the time he describes in detail step by step how to do an exercise but you're not sure what you are trying to achieve. The next time he assumes you know how and you don't have a clue where to start. After the first few chapters he surprisingly starts to tell you more detailed step by step instructions. Once I figured out on my own where many of the tools, option bar selections and palettes were I got a lot of information out of the book and have gone on to enjoy it.

Granted I'm just starting to get my feet wet but this is the best book I've come across so far. The Classroom in a book series is good to start out with but to get really in depth, this is where to go. Unlike the Bible series, it gives you excercises and shows you what the tools are supposed to accomplish. I've talked to old pros of photoshop and they swear by it and as a rookie, I swear by it. I just wish a book like this existed for the other programs I'm working on. Can you tell I like it?

I read all the reviews about this book and was sure I hit gold - but This is a very big book with very little to offer in tricks and knowledge. The best example would be the lack of any important info regarding Layer Sets - I searched the book and found that it does not tell you how to avoid the effect adjustments layers ,when applied to nested layers, have on the external layers below them (the answer is to avoid the pass through blending mode which is not even mentioned in the book).

All I know about PS is from FREE video tutorials you may find on the net and some written ones. Save the money and get some Pizza.

The author of this book is the classic example of the fact that someone who is an expert in a particular field is sometimes a terrible tutor for it. Writing style is unbearable, explanations are totally unclear and this book ends up being unapproachable for newbies and useless for experts. I am sure wheter the newer CS edition is any better but I think I will stay away...

I really learned a lot with 3.0 for over year until I was ready for an advantage. I now own 6.0 and it goes smooth -- thanks to 3.0! Never regret to own 3.0.

The main recommendation I have for elements 3 is that it will install on W2k or w98se. Elements 4 is a better version and the version I use. But it only runs on XP. I think XP stands for Extra Problems, not Extra Performance. I would rather run Elements 4 on W2k. I think it is peculiar that Photoshop CS2 will install and run on W2k or XP, but Elements 4 will not run on both platforms.

Generally, all Adobe Classrooms in a Book are the best of their class, and this Elements 3.0 book is no exception. If you haven't upgraded to Elements 4.0, you need this book to help you get the most from your software. The lessons are easy to follow and really teach this program well.

I would recomend this book to anyone using Photoshop. It teaches through logical steps and really makes learning easy.

I guess I knew more about Photoshop Elements than I thought, because this book was too basic for me. It was very easy to follow, and did have accurate information - it was just all stuff I already knew.

If you are a web developer with some code experience this book is for you, the samples here are easy to follow and can give you a great start up with flash. This is a good book if you are planning to dept into flash

I LOVE THE WAY THIS BOOK IS DESIGNED. I HAVE AN ONLINE CLASS THAT USES THIS BOOK AND BECASUE I CANT MEET MY TEACHER FACE TO FACE I NEED A BOOK THAT CAN TEACH ME STEP BY STEP. THIS BOOK IS IT.

This book offeres all the step by step instructions which i found very helpful for doing home works. I got pleasure for discovering a mis-step or two in the instructions. When I got stuck, that's when i really going extra hard to go back and forth to pull my self out of a jam, and I learned more in doing so.

As a teacher in Multimedia/Art at Ventura College, CA, I review and use many books as reference. Flash CS3 Professional by Todd Perkins is a step by step tutorial to a total creation ending. The fact that this "Hands on Training" under the auspices of lynda.com/ Peachpit Press is accompanied by lynda.com training videos, makes a coordinated package for the individual learner or a classroom environment. Each chapter is illustrated with examples and tips, a valuable reference for Flash enthusiasts, animators and web developers alike. Too bad the books fall apart!

Required text for a class. It is OK so far for the most part I guess. This is a totally new subject for me so I dont know what to compare it with. It is similar to other tutorial books I have used. What I find exasperating about this book is the author constantly telling you "...you will learn more about that in chapter XX..." or "...more about that later..." It isnt like it happens once in a while it is like several times on every page. Now that I am into chapter 8, the author has added "...you learned about that in chapter 4..." or "chapter 6" or... What keeps me going and not throwing the book across the room and dropping the class is that the subject matter is quite fascinating.

This is a paper-bound book that can be used as a quick reference for this very deep program for photo editing. It is relatively easy to use, but doesn't have all the information for the avid digital photographer.

This book is pretty good, but lacking in good examples in my opinion. The techniques are fine but I thought the examples and the instructions given in Scott Kelby's book are better.
I had to choose, I think I'd buy Kelby's digital photogrpahy book (plus it's for Photoshop 7 and includes info on the new Camera Raw plugin)

This award-winning book,complete with color illustrations and a very helpful CDROM with quicktime tutorials, is one must read for photographers. Thoroughly explaining everything from monitor calibration right up to the tricks of the trade to create effects seen in magazines, Martin Evening has a real valuable read for anyone serious about Photoshop. Although concentrating more on prepress and printing than web usage, the techniques he applies range from basic to expert, including how to remove fogged film cast, which my own Photoshop instructor thought impossible! I would very much like to see more books by this author on Photoshop's capabilities.

Here's my scoop:
1) The author assumes you already know PS6.0. At least an intermediate user.
2) The author also assumes you are book publisher and knows what is a prepress plate, etc...
3) Key-strokes/mouse-clicks about a feature to perform an operation in examples were not indicated clearly in his book. E.g. "Double-click the highlight eyedrop-per icon in the dialog box" when there are 3 eyedrop icons. Which one is he talking about?
4) The explanations about Levels in Chapter 8 can be expanded much further to explain in more details what each button means and why I need to do it. How is it related to photography.

In short, I'm very disappointed and frustrated with this book and pretty much fooled by its title.

I understand this book is about serious stuff, but heck it could be a little bit more easy to read. I bought it especially because everybody said the Color chapter was the best around, well, after reading it all I can say is that is boooooooring. My God there must be a better way to write all that knowledge down!!