I give this book four stars because it is well thought out, efficient in its execution, clear in its verbiage and clean of misprints and mistakes. I've read Classroom in a Book for earlier Photoshop generics and I can say that Adobe has honed their teaching format down to a lean and mean science.

Does the Classroom In A Book teach you everything you need to know about Photoshop 7? No. Does CIAB go into great detail on the subjects it does cover? No. Is CIAB warm and fuzzy? No.

I went through the book with a fine-tooth-comb so to speak and here are some of my findings and thoughts. As a long time user of Photoshop on the PC I have started to collect some opinions on this software masterpiece, so be forewarned.

Right off the bat I want to irritate all the webmasters out there in Photoshop land. I have absolutely no use whatsoever for ImageReady! I may be the exception; I don't know. However, the book is constantly encumbered with the need to announce whether the next lesson is related to ImageReady or not; and in what ways. I buy Photoshop for Photoshop and nothing else. As far as I'm concerned take ImageReady out of the package and increase the bells and whistles in Photoshop. And while you're at it get that magnetic lasso and feed it to the Battle Robots; it gives me a headache. There, I said it and I'm glad.

Next a comment about the on-line Help. It appears to be quite useful and in-depth. For the most part it is of no use to me, since I never allow my business machines to come anywhere near the internet. The book contains excerpts from the on-line Help and they are quite informative.

A trick I came upon helped me with each lesson. At the end of every lesson there is a question and answer section. It is concise and to the point. These review questions often bring out points that I had just `read across' and did not identify properly. Try it, you'll like it.

CIAB covers the new Photoshop feature called `File Browser' comprehensively. Once I played with it I was in thumbnail heaven. This is a two thumbnails up feature in the new Photoshop. Although it was designed for the photographers who use this product, I want you to know that all of you will love it.

Some more complaints and compliments about the book are:
- It is inconsistent about mentioning keyboard shortcuts. Some tools, like the pen tool, are mentioned.
- It takes you on a very limited journey through the subject of photo retouching
- The subject of selections and using them is concisely introduced. Forget about learning any nuances.
- The Layers chapter was good as far as it went. Clear, concise steps led me right along. Even Layer Sets were touched upon. An excerpt from On-Line Help explained nicely the background layer and how it is handled.
- You learn to use the extraction tool.
- You learn to use another wonderful tool called the `Healing Brush'. The icon for which is a Band-Aid; go figure. I would have used a little medical `caduceus' icon myself.
- You learn all about the new Photoshop Pattern Maker. Great tool I might add.
- The lessons on working in ImageReady were of no interest to me. You're on your own here.

If you are new to Photoshop you better get this book and about 5 more. I'm a third party book user from way back. If you want `warm-and-fuzzy' when you're learning from a book, you will not find it here. Try some of the New Rider books, they have always helped me. This book will get you moving around inside of Photoshop 7. Try it, you'll like it. Paul Simone

82 of 85 found the following review helpful:


Fastest way to ramp up on Photoshop 7.0 - Tutorial Style!  Oct 05, 2003 By Harinath Thummalapalli
This book is really like being in a classroom only better because you can stop and start anytime you want. The purpose of the book is to teach you how to use Photoshop 7.0 for the graphics portion of your website design (both Mac and Windows) using a tutorial style approach. There are 18 lessons with all lesson files included in the CD that comes with the book. These lessons range from the very basic topics like the Photoshop Work Area and Basic Photo Corrections to the very advanced topics like Interactive Slices and Rollovers (advanced at least for the beginner). I am not an advanced user so I am mostly speaking from a beginner perspective.

Each lesson is very easy to follow and even though all the lessons are in black and white, it doesn't matter if you are following along on your computer as you read the instructions (since we all have color monitors). At the end of each lesson, there is a review question and answer section. This was a refreshing change for me to see a book actually give the answers to the review questions. Most other books I have seen just have the review questions or exercises and don't bother to explain the answers. There are about 15 pages at the end of Lesson 1 in full color and cover all 18 lessons. I don't quite follow the logic for doing it this way but it didn't interfere with my learning.

Each chapter will probably take a couple of hours to work through if you are a beginner but you will likely become an Intermediate level user if you work through all the lessons. A very unique book and definitely worth buying if you want to learn how to use Photoshop 7.0 for your graphics design. I was so impressed that I went and bought other books from this Classroom in a Book series. But I must say that this one is still the best book in the series. Enjoy this creative endeavor!

34 of 34 found the following review helpful:


Great Tutorial for beginners and intermediate users  Mar 26, 2003 By Ntsika Msimang "sakkies"
This has to be the best Photoshop tutorial I have ever read. I have tried online tutorials and I also invested in the "dummies" version 6 and they all don't compare to this book. The Classrom in the Book tutorials are clear cut and accurate. Easy to read and it looks like these guys paid a lot of thought to how their audience will utilize the book. They really know how to hit the right spot of the readers curiosity. I don't know how others do it, but when I read, I always ask my self some questions; something like what if I do it this way ? etc. For almost every question I ask, the book has an answer Its like someone is right there with you, holding you by the hand. If a book does that to a reader, that's when you know that the writers took time to assemble the book and they understand their audience; something a lot of computer and software books don't do. This is just a masterpiece and I hope they come up with an advanced version.

42 of 44 found the following review helpful:


There are better "classrooms" that you can attend  May 24, 2003 By Karina A. Suarez "Karina A. Fogliani-Ahmed"
After days of reading and experimenting with each lesson, I have finally finished this thick tome of Adobe's "Classroom in a Book Series" for Photoshop 7.0. The book is divided into eighteen lessons and includes a CD (for both Windows and Macintosh), where the corresponding files - and even additional system fonts - can be found for each lesson. The book is designed to be read in the order presented or the lessons can also be skipped at the reader?s convenience. In my particular case, I wanted to re-learn the program due to the fact that when I first studied Photoshop, its current version was 3.0. Much (almost everything) has changed since then, so this sort of introduction was a good idea. It is, however, not more than an introduction, and if you should expect to become a pro by just going through every aspect of this book, you are much mistaken. Adobe Photoshop 7.0 is in itself a very complex and immensely rich program, which I believe to be almost limitless in possibilities of image manipulation. Sometimes I even think that not even its numerous creators know what one dedicated user can achieve with it; and this book will teach a superficial approach to the program. Will you wonder? Of course you will, but only at the possibilities of your imagination. That said, I also have to add that the book is in parts inaccurate. For example, on Lesson 12, the Distort Filter does not produce the rippled effect on the Dandelion that the book says it should and if applied in such a way, one will end up with a rippled border around all the image, taking it off its quadrant and making it look really bad. Pros will realize, however, that a simple selection around the area destined for the effect to appear will suffice; but alas, it is not in the book!

Inaccuracies like this aside, I'd recommend a more in depth source, such as the "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Studio Techniques" book, or even the fantastic "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 WOW! Book", both excellent sources for the development of skills and stimulation of the imagination. Another plus of these last two books is that they come in full color, something that I appreciate, especially on highly priced volumes such as this one. After spending all that time and effort, one deserves color...

58 of 63 found the following review helpful:


Book is awesome, well thought out and put together!!!  Aug 03, 2002 By Omar
I'm very new to Photoshop but an experienced web developer. I was looking for a very good book to get me into Photoshop because every time I loaded the software I just shut it down because I was so intimidated ...

No online tutorials made me comfortable enough with the software but I always really wanted to learn. I said enough is enough and thought I would get training straight from the source (Adobe).

This book is EXACTLY what I was looking for! It's straight tutorial based but does not lack the concept-explanation approach. You work with Start and End examples off the CD to learn. This is perfect. This method is very intuitive.

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And what's more is that the tutorials aren't tutorials on how to do various tricks that leave u in the dark about the essentals. Somehow the book is set up so that the tutorials teach u the essential concepts of Photoshop through doing tricks!
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So u learn the concepts that enable you to really use the software as it's truly needed and used while learning some cool tricks.

For the first time I'm actually using Photoshop doing things I thought I would never be able to.

The book is well thought out and put together. You will get every penny's worth out of the book. If u are new to photoshop then please get this book. Then delve into other books that harp on specific approaches and methodologies.

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