Software Books

This book does a good job of doing exactly what the title says it would do. I bought this because at work our company has always lived in a Wintel World. But we acquired another company that was Linux centric and it was clear that us Windows people needed a crash course of Linux. I needed some quick exposure to Linux and a way to cut my learning curve by being able to understand how to transfer tasks in Windows over to Linux. This book shortened my learning curve because as good as the net is about giving information to us for free. Sometimes I just like curling up with a good book.

Firstly i live in a caribbean country ..there are no linux user groups ...any info yu get from linux if you find one, user you most likely have to pay for ..I successfully installed linux already but i had no clue what was going on after that ..i have reached chapter 3 in this book and if there were no more pages i already got my monies worth.This book is truly built with the linux dummy in mind ..thanks mr easttom

I hated Linux until i read this book. I haven't turned on my Windows box all month. Very clearly written and easy to read.

It is a book, explaining Linux in a simple,
clear manner. Best for a reader with some
Windows skills.

It was my old dream to learn Linux. I had heard that it
is a stable, free operation system. Having little
understanding about Linux before, I read the book,
installed Linux and now feel comfortable with it.

I found this particular book to be remarkably easy to follow, accurate, informative, and generally a great help. I am not a computer professional by trade, and my only experience has been with Windows. But like many people I have been quite frustrated with Windows and wished to try Linux. With this book I was able to install Linux and to use it to do all the things I had previously done with Windows.

I've always liked O'Reilly books, and this is no different. It's a small no-fluff reference that makes for a good read as well. The book is physically small enough to fit unobtrusively in your laptop bag without causing too much of a bulge.

Since it is written as a pocket reference, it of course doesn't have all the commands or even all the variants/options for commands. What is does have are the commands and syntax that you are likely to use the most with some good examples.

Just know what you are and are NOT getting. It's not a bible, a step-by-step, or a cookbook. It is (as it is labeled) a pocket reference, at which it excels. Highly recommended.

George Reese's MY SQL POCKET REFERENCE 2ND EDITION covers Version 5.1 and provides SQL statements, functions, and insights into its variations and utilities. Explanations are accompanied by tables and examples for maximum efficiency.

MySQL has gained a lot of functionality after this book was done, but if you are a infrequent developer and like to have a quick reference into basic MySQL functions this book is great.

Reese hits a solid triple to start the inning off and scores easily on the wild pitch thrown by the reader who says that the GRANT section is wrong. This book works easily and appropriately at your deskside. I found the book to be a very simple, easy-to-navigate reference text that presents the most important aspects of MySQL in the quickest, most logical manner. It is very easy to thumb through with every possible random page landing at a topic of interest. In a way, it was like working with a familiar dictionary, you know the kind, where you just kind of naturally crack it open near the word you're accessing and flip a couple of pages either direction to arrive at the exact reference location. In that vein, I'd perhaps recommend that the margins contain "bread crumbs" telling us where we are in the book, but it isn't necessary since thicker sections often obviate themselves with just another page turn. Each page does have the chapter title in the margin, so my point is really one of nit-pickieness rather than a true critique. To its credit, the layout of the book presents the content in a manner that follows the O'Reilly "risen bar" standard. It is easy to scan through the entire reference flipping pages as quickly as possible so that you are able to arrive at your sought information within as much as a second or two. The bold text draws your eye to the page and the size of the page allows one to capture everything in a single glance. In my usage of the book, I found it very accurate and useful. I am a regular MySQL user and the formatting is very familiar to me. I highly recommend this book. If you are already familiar with SQL and the basics of database schema design, this is the perfect reference. I found it amazingly faster than loading the MySQL PDF manual and searching through potentially dozens of hits for the keywords sought. Even at the full cover price, this book is a value-added service at my side. The sections on operators, functions, stored procedures and triggers make this book an invaluable tool for the DBA or programmer who knows the material, but fails to remember every single aspect about the syntax AND who is tired of seeing that familiar: "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near..." The text also finds welcomed complement from the numerous examples of using commands and SQL keywords. They are invaluable for immediately deciphering the sometimes too-numerous options of a command. I don't know that the book has taught me anything new at this point, but it certainly makes finding the details of what I already know much easier. Because of its brevity and its ease-of-use, it has made me want to play around with some of the various features of MySQL that I do not regularly use. That alone is going to teach me something new sooner or later! If your budget is constrained to a single reference item on MySQL, you can't go wrong with this very portable pocket reference. The back cover says: "When you reach a sticking point, but have to get to a solution quickly, MySQL Pocket Reference is the book you need." I agree completely.

It's handy, but a little old and too brief with important parts left out. It needs to be updated and improved. Ie: The admin commands are poorly covered. Do not use this book to help you use Grant or Revoke. The Grant All section is simply wrong.

I already knew a lot about Microsoft Excel and I have a lot of books on Microsoft Office Excel. What first attracted me to this book is the title, "New Perspectives" but once I began using the book, I can't say enough good things about it. The learning process in this book is so clear and easy to follow and takes you through step by step instructions. I also love the laminated reference card that is part of the back of the book; it makes an excellent quick and easy reference. I did learn and apply new things from this book. I use this book professionally.

If you have read many Excel books, few of them provides the amount of practice problem that you can find here. The step by step guide makes it look easy to the beginner but the tutorials challenging enough for even the advanced users. None other books have as many diagrams to aid in your understanding, and few of them makes you want to find out more about Excel. This book stands out. After reading the whole book, you just need to practice and practice to perfect it. No need for other Excel books, you can trash them.

The book arrived in a good amount of time. The condition of the book was good. I will order from this vendor again. The book itself is useful for learning Excel.

This book is the same anywhere you go but it was the cheapest and when comes to school books, if can get deal then you should. I had no problems with delivery it was an easy process and got it in no time.

Good product. Just as it was described. I ordered this for my daughter for a college class that she is taking.

This is the best "How to" book on Oracle. I have read around 20 books on Oracle (I reviewed most of them on Amazon) and this one is the most practical Oracle book for intermediate to advance Oracle DBAs.

The book skips most of the architecture and goes directly on how to configure and use some of the most salient features of Oracle 10g.

Some of the examples are:

1)How to manually install RAC instance
2)How to migrate Non-ASM to ASM disks and vice versa.
3)How to collect AWR reports using builtin scripts.
4)How to install CRS
5)How to Flashback Database and Flashback Table.
6)How to Patch Dataguard Instances
7)How to use flashback in Dataguard Standby.
8)How to manually remove Oracle Instances.
9)How to upgrade RMAN Catalog.
10)How to use Wait statistics to measure and improve performance.

Not all the topics are advanced. But it still helps to get down to the fundamentals, even for the advanced DBA with decade or more of experience.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to expand/improve their Oracle 10G skillset.

This is a really good book to have by an Oracle DBA for Oracle 10g reference. This book will help the Oracle DBA to identify and implement Oracle 10g new features. It has good tips for performance and tuning and setting up ASM. I give this book 5 star rating.

Highly recommended reference book for DBA's that are familiar with previous version of Oracle and wants to find out the new features of 10g.

This book covers Release 2 of Oracle 10G. Concepts are presented in a clear manner. Each chapter can read in an hour or so. This is a great place to start for new DBAs. For experience DBAs, this a great book to get to know the New Features. Book is very easily read. Best book to learn Oracle 10g R2.

This book is easy to follow and drives straight into chapters essential for 10g. It does a wonderful job and covers installations on various platforms, new features and approach for identifying the performance issues. It provides practical advice using practical approach, tips and examples. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is learning or working with 10g.

I recommend this book because it is a solid and real guide to video games. It gives you real-life advice, not hype on the various gaming careers and head's up for anyone that thinks it's all "fun and games". Do you love your family and your free time? Think on that before you become a designer....

This book was extremely informative and answers most of the questions you would have about the gaming industry. I'm hoping for a second edition! Definitely purchase this book if you are considering a career in this field.

I bought this for my bf because he was thinking of a video game career, he hasn't done anything with this field yet, but he said the book was good

Are you considering going into the video games industry, but you want to find out more about it before making the decision to make the jump? This book will give you an honest and insightful look at just about every facet of this competitive industry.

Whether your serious or curious about the games industry, you'll enjoy this entertaining read. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

This book gave me more insight about what the Gaming work world is like than all the other research I did my whole life.

This is an essential read for anyone who wants to design electronic games!

A great read. Much more practical and easier reading than some of the classics in the code inspection theme.

Practical is a key element of this book. Like Wiegers' other books, this one is well written and researched; it provides a concise guide to peer reviews along with a set of useful tools for the practitioner, or "assets" -- documents, procedures, and spreadsheets that you can implement right away to put reviews into practice.

It's amazing, but peer reviews are not a regular practice in many software organizations. Peer reviews are proven to save time, money and promote learning and understanding among project team members. Perhaps one reason for their lack of practice is that there has been, up until now, little in the literature that we can read and put into practice right away. Well, here it is!

One of the nice things about this book is that the author shows you how you can tweak peer reviews to make them work for your team or organization. He give due diligence, the psychological aspects of peer reviews. Wiegers explains all the roles involved, target work products to review, how to prepare for a review, what to record, what to measure, and even how to train on peer reviews.

The book includes a useful glossary, a set of troubleshooting review problems with symptoms and possible solutions, and those very useful assets on the author's web site(...). Example assets include: peer review process description, inspection checklist, spreadsheets for code and document inspection and a set of defect checklists.

Used in the context of careful reading of this book, teams can really do a lot to improve their products and relationships. This is a book to be read by analysts, developers, architects, project leaders and managers who care about the quality and cost of software.

I have attempted over the years to get various organizations to buy into peer reviews. We have lots of evidence why these reviews are highly worthwhile, but their implementation has not been anything to write home about. There's always many reasons why organizations don't buy in or give peer reviews half-hearted support.

In my opinion, this book is an important contribution to the field. I'm sufficiently impressed that I've passed copies of the book to a few busy software development managers, software engineers and business managers so far. They've taken the time to look at it, and they find the book talks to them -- it is clear, addresses their issues, offers practical solutions which they may not have considered before, and is persuasive. I believe the book will have a postive influence in their organizations.

I hope to see copies in lots more people's bookshelves.

Excellent up to date survey of the literature, excellent survey of the many methods and analysis of their differences. A rich insight into the area of peer reviews in general, including Inspections and their variations. Practical for the industrial user. Highly recommended.

Every developer I have known has experienced the phenomena of spending an inordinate amount of time searching for a bug only to have a colleague look at the code and find it almost immediately. Study after study has indicated that the worst review process for software is self-criticism and the best is to have other coders take a good look at it. Therefore, it is logical that a formal process for developers reviewing each others code be implemented. The problem is that the former is informal, making it "off the books" and not subject to review by decision makers. Being human, developers react differently when their livelihood is potentially at stake, which can cause problems and prevent adequate reviews of the code.
Creating a stable, scalable and structured peer review system is not something that can be done by fiat or in a short time. It requires clear managerial direction that inspires confidence and builds a sense of security for both the evaluator and evaluated. Creating such an environment is the key and that is the main point of value in this book.
Wiegers lays out in great detail how to create a culture where all involved are peers in the real sense. It is absolutely necessary that everyone in the review process understand that creating quality software is the only thing that matters. Therefore, posturing, ego tripping, ego inflating, ego protection and all related activities must be suppressed. These are the most difficult tasks for professional humans to engage in, and it requires a combination of carrying a big stick to move the process as well as a soft pillow for the necessary falls from perfection. Wiegers shows you how to do this with the skill of a counselor.
In my reading of the trade press, the recent rise in the concern for computer security has led to a great deal of coverage about errors in software. Responding to this pressure, Bill Gates has sent out a public memo noting that quality is now the number one priority at Microsoft. The best way to achieve this quality is to have an effective peer review process and in this book you can learn how to do that. In the new world order of software, your very survival may be at stake, so your plan of action should include a rendezvous with this book.

This is one of those books that falls right in between, good for a screenprinter using photoshop, an good for someone who wants to learn Photoshop basics. The first few chapters is set more for a novice. Giving an introduction to settings an key tools. Once you started half way through the book, your learning good fundementals that you can apply to your screenprinting while using Photoshop. Don't just skip to the chapter about color seperations, stay on track an start from the beginning. By doing so, you'll either be brushing up on old tips, or learning a few new tricks to help become a better screen printer.

After searching far and wide, I cam upon this book and it is a great tool!

After getting frustrated with "Tutorial" disks from internet vendors, too messy, not organized.
This book by far gives you all the know how and insight how to use your photoshop 7 program for screen printing.
tips and tricks and all!
I highly recommend it

If you purchase this book just to learn about Photoshop 7.0, you may not get what you expect. However the way this book deals with the screen printing attributes of Photoshop, it has been an invaluable source for setting up jobs for the screen printing business. As an advanced edition of the already powerful application, it has proved extremely useful. I would highly recommend it to anyone with the special needs of the screen printing business.

***WARNING I AM NOT A SCREEN PRINTER NOR DO I PLAY ONE ON TV***

First off Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers is written for Microsoft Windows so you Mac users will have to translate, second it expects you to already have a RIP and a printer that prints on film to do the final output. Although it does go into output media such as Vellums (A semi-transparent media that is easy to print on like paper but shrinks like the dickens.) and Specialty Films or transparencies (A true transparent media that has been reformulated for inkjet printers and such.) the book does not really give a great deal of information about their use. That is the problem here, there really is so many brands and so many ways to tackle the job that you can easily get lost in the product information available and allot of the knowledge comes from knowing your printer and your capabilities and your press.

PHOTOSHOP FOR BEGINNERS
The book is laid out more along the lines of a typical Photoshop teaching manual, which is both good and bad. You begin with your basics in the Part 1: The Photoshop Interface, T is for type, B is for brush, blah blah blah. Then we have a whole chapter in corporate artwork Part 2: Creating Artwork and Logos and then on to Part 3: Working With Clients Files which from experience I can tell you boils down to telling them for the millionth time "No! I want you to save it as a J-Peg, No not GIF, NO NO NO this is not for your website its for a t-shirt!" and playing with computer color correction voodoo like Scanner Curves and Monitor Curves and the all knowing, all encompassing, Pantone Colors. "Well that red was not sooo red on my computer screen. What? You printed 500 shirts already?!"

COLOR SEPARATIONS AND THE DAMAGE DONE
Stuffed in the back of the book after page 389 we get to the big money shot of Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers, Part 4: Color Separations, here is where the price of the job and the amount of effort in printing come into play. The decisions you make in how many screens will be used and how many screens you can afford to make for the job effect the price you quote and the quality of the work you do. Will the image be photo realistic? Will the t-shirt be white or a dark color? How many Channels or colors will you use? How many stations are on your press? Is it automatic or manual? Do you really love your job that much?

So here the book separates the various tasks into four main parts...

SPOT COLOR SEPARATIONS
Spot Colors are for the simplest tasks in Screen Printing, used for images with very few colors involved and uncomplicated designs. This takes very little effort to setup and print and it is how most Screen Printers start off and make their money.

PROCESS COLOR SEPARATIONS
Here is where the going gets tough and the tough go mental. Process Color is used for all those photo realistic t-shirts you see at rock concerts, they are difficult to create, setup and print. This is also where you will find various companies such as $Fast Films$ and $Serichrome Seps$ selling you their software or their services. They are in essence selling you Photoshop plugins or Macros that do this task repeatedly, based on formula, for you. Just stick in the number of screens you want and the color of shirt you are using and there you go. Now it is great to have push button capabilities to do this work, but here you learn what they are doing and how they are doing it, so even if you buy a software package to do this task it is good to know what is going on and how to tweak those settings and Channels, that this software spews out at you, to your needs.

INDEXED COLOR SEPARATIONS
Index Color to me is an art form; it takes a more complex picture and limits the amount of colors to be used to only the main ones found in the image itself thus making it less complicated to print. You constantly run the risk of course or grainy looking prints and posterizing the image, it can be done though and I have seen some truly stunning shirts made using this process. Here is where the Screen Printer is balancing the limitations of his press against the gamut of colors needed to create the image, and the color of the shirt itself, benefiting the customer in price with the quality of work on the actual t-shirt, it takes skillz dude!

SIMULATED PROCESS COLOR SEPARATIONS
Not much to tell on this one, basically this is simply a hybrid between Spot Color and Index Color that is all.

PRINT DAMN YOU! PRINT! NO! GET ME THE AXE!
Now comes the weird part of Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers where I find the most problems. Why did they separate out the Part 5: Printing and not do anything with it really? This part of the book does not flow for me or provide the type of support someone using this book really needs. Most people going about doing Color Separations make a decision based on the image provided and then follow through from the choice to the actual printing of the film which is different for each type of separation process. In other words the separation process dictates the printing process.

Here in Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers they decided to make a whole chapter on printing again defining the four main ways to separate an image and then showing you the steps to print it out. In printing out the image there are some complex decisions to make concerning Screen Angles, Moiré, LPI, and DPI and there is allot of ground to be covered in making these choices. Unfortunately these choices are done again in the step-by-step manner (slide tab a into tab b) that is used in showing you the basics of Photoshop.

I do not find this layout helpful or very well titled or sufficiently indexed in the back of the book. Joli Ballew does discuss some of the more advanced, confusing, and critical choices of printing Halftones along the way in various side boxes and in-depth explanations but these are not readily found in the index. You are making the person find this information after you have taken them through the process of Color Separation and you have not provided a way to identify the different choices made in the process of printing. BAD MOVE! I would have plainly labeled and titled and indexed the steps for CMYK Screen Angles for Process Color Separations and indexed the hell out of it mind you, even if this meant redundancy, before providing the excellent step-by-step commentary and those great tips.

A LITTLE SOMETHING MISSING
What I see as my main complaint though... If your book depends on Photoshop 7 (Which is already outdated, such is the shelf life of Adobe software.) Why not splurge and give the nitty gritty about what brands of printers, Such as the Epson 3000 most people are tending to use due to the acidic nature of the particular Epson QuickDry™ ink used in this one *low cost model* (acidic ink and film: true solid black on film guys) and other various whys and hows of products they are using currently? Why not show how to use free Post Script emulation software such as GhostScript so as to save yourself or your company money? Maybe a whole chapter devoted to various cheap or free RIP software and how some RIPs do Halftones while others do not.

This is exactly where Color Separation can become an expensive experiment for the person just starting and where there is not a whole lot of unbiased information out there and it would have provided the ability to use Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers much more easily to begin with.

Sure, there is incredible information in this book if you already have access to a Post Script printer or RIP software and a professional inkjet or laser printer but making it cheaper or easier to get these items would have meant more people benefiting from the various instructions provided here. That would have been technically challenging but also a major selling point. Because lets face it, most people buying this book are not likely going to be able to personally afford the hundreds of dollars associated with some of this software I am talking about.

So if anyone is interested and ready for the adventure and the incredible headache in attempting try this free or 'on the cheap' get your Google going and type in the following...
GhostScript, Gimp-Print, CUPS
PRINTFAB


A SUMMARY OR SOMETHING LIKE IT
I hate being negative about Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers since it is pretty much a one of a kind book and in the end a very necessary resource for Screen Printers. I just have had to beat my head again and again and again over various topics provided in this book and in doing so have a different perspective about the subject matter. Hopefully there will be an update and maybe a rethinking of certain parts of the book so that it can only be even more useful. All in all it is impressive in the amount of information it does try to cover and it does so providing at least a solid foundation to start learning and researching the more specialized aspects of the processes and materials covered. Excellent Job!
I fully recommend Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Printers to even the most advanced users out there.

This book is essential for beginners and advances photoshoppers alike. Many of the basic elements presented are overlooked in other photoshop manuals. Easy to understand and loaded with valuable information.

This is one of the best "how-to" books on computer imaging that I ever read. Each example is complete in itself -- they can really hold my interet throughout. The steps cross-reference accompanying pictures precisely. Everything is Thoroughly and methodically laid out -- no missing pieces or glibbed over details to stump readers.

This book really allowed me to learn masking in Photoshop. The step-by-step instructions allow you to follow the descriptions on your computer and see the results. It is rare to find a great book in Photoshop that teaches you so much. I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand how to do collages using the mask technology in Photoshop. You won't regret buying this book at all. I can only wish there is the same kind of book in Illustrator and Painter and all the other graphics programs I use so that I can have a better understanding of the full special functions that are embedded in each of those applications.

Greg Haun is a master of Photoshop special effects techniques.
I was fortunate enough to take several of his classes at the Pacific Northwest College of Art here in Portland
back in '94 and '95 when 3.0 Photoshop was just out!
Greg always showed personal interest in what you were doing.
Greg is a professional among professionals, yet you would never know his level of expertise unless you asked him point blank! He was a very humble guy and believed you could learn techniques from even a novice.

Because of those early years of study, I recently achieved my expert certification in Photoshop. I doubt that I could have done it had I not had the advantage of Greg's tutelage.
He made a difference in my life. I can't thank him enough...

This book is a must for the professional Photoshop user.

I was fortunate to take several classes from Greg during the early 90s when he still taught at the Pacific NW College of Art. He was very patient, very knowledgeable and a great guy. He always made time for you and always had an answer. This book is invaluable for Photoshop students of all levels! Buy it!

Mark Simon, Graphic Artist - Dex Media Yellow Pages - Portland, Or

As a certificate program graphic design student, I found this to be one of the best books on Photoshop, even though it was written prior to the new software versions. It is well-edited, and explains masking, layering, and blending images clearly and concisely with very helpful screenshots of what you need to do.

This is a very good presentation of Photoshop CS3 Extended's new 3-d and video features. It goes into good detail describing animation and video layering. Well worth the price.

I really enjoyed the way the book was put together. Clear step by step tutorials that walk you through each of Photoshop CS3 extended new 3D capabilities.
I found it to be easy to read and fun to work with. It will make a great reference book for future projects.

I thought that this book was written very well. I was impressed with the clear and concise way in which each feature was discussed as well as pictured. I consider this book a must for working with the extended version of Photoshop CS3. I am excited to see what the author does next!

I love how easy to read this book is. It makes learning to use the different aspects of this program more user friendly. I have been using Photoshop for several years but never would have attempted to use CS3s video and 3D features without this book.
I also love how the author used the files that are included with CS3 extended so that I could practice on my own without having to find other sources.

Thank you for writing in the way I can understand. The illustrations were so helpful when working on simular topics. It's nice to have a book that does'nt intimidate you when using it. I cant wait to see what you write next. I would love to have a simple version of Photoshop to keep with me at all times. (like a mini Bible).

For anyone who uses Photoshop in graphic design and or to correct or edit their precious photos, this book is a must have in your library of reference materials. It takes the mystery out of all those scary, misused, underused and never used filters in Photoshop by clearly showing and explaining how to use them and when to use them. This is one fantastic book.

As all the collection of this books it is good to have this in your personal library to check out how filters work with different kind of pictures, of coarse these books are directed to professional photos, but you can maybe experiment with your personal as well, I just wanted to point that out because in the book the examples given are for applying filters to pictures you maybe wanna show or give to a client.

But as a reference book is just great, I mean someone took the time to write and visually show you all the filters in photoshop and as its name it is a real encyclopedia, where you can look every filter how is going to look like and then decide.

Buy this it will always be useful

Of all the things that Photoshop can do, the Filters option certainly is one of the coolest options available to users. Taking a digital picture or just a standard graphics file, you can use the power of Photoshop Filters to create unique art for whatever purpose you want. From a colored pencil effect to blurring images to one of the newest filters "Vanishing Point", this book is an absolute gem.

If you use Filters on a daily basis and want to see what can be done to take a normal image and make it stand out from the "blah" that is out there in the world, this book is for you. If you are a heavy Photoshop user but want to go beyond the basics of just resizing images and cropping pictures, you will also heavily enjoy this book. Of the 4 books in this Photoshop line I love each one of them and feel that all readers should rush out and pick them all up for their reference.

The only downside of this book really isn't a fair one at all, and that's that I wish there were more pages and examples dedicated to all of the filters covered here. Obviously this isn't a realistic gripe so it's barely even worth mentioning.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The O'Reilly Studio put their thinking caps on for all ages and levels of expertise at Photoshop. The step by step instructions with options made this, as well as all their other Cookbooks, a delight to learn from and practice with, in an easy-to-understand format. I would love to see them come out with CD's for their books included.

To be frank, I bought this book because to get free shipping, I had to add one more book to my order of "Photoshop Cosmetic Surgery, by Barry Huggins. It was one of many that I could have chosen for this purpose, but I chose it because it appeared that it could illuminate in detail an area of Photoshop that I was interested in exploring in greater depth than I had previously been able to do. In general, I am satisfied with my choice, although there were some areas where I would have liked greater detail and explanation. This book is not for a newbie to Photoshop. It assumes a reasonable degree of familiarity with the program, and simply proceeds, without fanfare, to describe how to use the many filters and their settings. I recommend this book for a reasonably competent Photoshop user who wants to continue to increase his/her mastery over this wonderful and hugely flexible program.