Photoshop 6 Web Magic (Magic (New Riders))

A quick introduction leads into 21 tutorials for doing specific Web-oriented tasks in Photoshop. In projects 3 through 5, for example, seamless tiles and textures are created from scratch, and used as background elements on Web pages. Other projects deal with creating elements that are designed to be animated, such as rollovers, warping text, and pop-ups. Some projects are oriented toward the newer Photoshop user, while others are more geared toward the Web designer, but all offer useful tips and techniques.

The sections on ImageReady and JavaScript include important, real-world information about the various file formats--and the advantages and tradeoffs of each--plus clear functional examples of common JavaScript code that every Web developer should know. Handsomely produced, each page is in color and two-column format, and the book lies flat on your desk. Graphics and screen shots accompany every step of every project, and the author writes in a clear, concise style. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all of the project files and related material, as well as some bonus material: additional patterns, shapes, brushes, and styles. There are also numerous JavaScript examples.

Photoshop 6 Web Magic provides valuable examples and sparks countless ideas. If you use or are planning on using Photoshop and ImageReady to create Web graphics, the tutorials in this book are fun, educational, and inspiring. --Mike Caputo

Product Description
Photoshop is releasing a new, updated version of Photoshop, creating the opportunity to create new and much more exciting web graphics. Our last book was written for version 5.0. Building on the success of Photoshop Web Magic and Photoshop 5 Web Magic, this book will open the horizon to creating more interesting web pages through the use of integrated graphic programming. Content for this book will be determined when the beta version of Photoshop X is released in May or June. We expect the live release to come in Fall 2000. Each exemplar project will be from 3 to 10 pages in length and designed in a 2-column format with step-by-step instructions on the left and corresponding graphics (or code) on the right. In addition, sidebars will be used to provide additional tips and tricks. Any effect, technique, or tip can easily be customized to fit a your own design needs. The CD-ROM includes Project files.

The book is well formatted and look's good on a coffee table. The cover is nice, the layout is nice. But they book's content is very shallow. The first 4-5 lessons were pretty good in my opinion but after that the book became very redundant. Every lesson starts with applying a style to slightly different shape, and ends with creating a SLIGHTLY different gif animation in Image Ready. Any half intelligent human would only need 1/4 of this examples. Do you really need someone to show you how to animate a blue sailboat across the screen, then follow that up with how to animate a green sailboat, then a yellow one. Hey Mr. Foster what happens if I'm ever am confronted with a purple sailboat, I won't know what to do?! There was no sailboat lesson really, but my point is the book teaches the same concepts over and over and over. 15 of the 21 lessons are slight variations of the exact same concept.

The quality of the end result in most cases is also fairly low. Gif animations are ugly and annoying enough usually, but if you use the authors examples... well, please don't. Examples include, the old text 'Sale' in an exploding star shape animated to fly at the viewer; animations of text dripping and twisting and bending and twirling (all different lessons of course), and looping over and over again.

There seem to be 2 types of Photoshop users, those who want to press a button and be immediately sastisfied with an instant 'magic' result, and those who want to understand how the program really works. I would like to think that users with experience (which is this book's target) would not fall into the instant result category, but based on the number of 5 star reviews of this book, this is not the case. I suspect some of these reviewers haven't finished the book, I liked the book when I was on chapter 4.

The book should be really be called 'PS 6 Style Application Gimmicktry'. This is not a 5 star book. There are so many great photoshop books available that it would be best to get another one with more insight and less gimmicks. Generally the magic books are a good series, but this one's an exception.


What I was looking for   August 29, 2001
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I am teaching a high school course in web programming. The course will cover HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web graphics. The ideal book on Photoshop for this class would: 1. be focused on Web graphics (Photoshop is not just a web tool, and other books spend a lot of time on other aspects). 2. be clear, with bite-sized examples and step by step instructions 3. include as topics creating background graphics, animation, and image map rollovers 4. be inexpensive Well, three out of four is not bad. Photoshop 6 Web Magic is too expensive to require students to buy it. Otherwise, it is what I was looking for. The price of the book probably is due to the high cost of color reproduction. If your idea of a book is large quantities of verbiage, then you will feel very cheated here. But for my needs, less is more. I can use the examples in this book to give students a sense of accomplishment. This should be better for them than a comprehensive treatise that is less accessible. Should you buy this book? My guess is that you will like it more to the extent that: --you prefer learning from examples to learning from theory --you prefer a book that is organized around particular problems or projects to one that is organized around the features of the software --you really want to focus on the Web aspects of Photoshop 6.0 I fit that profile, and I am pleased with the book.


Opens the horizon to creating more interesting web pages   July 5, 2001
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Building on the success of Photoshop Web Magic, Jeff Foster opens the horizon to creating more interesting web pages through the use of integrated graphic programming in Photoshop 6 Web Magic. Each project is 3 to 10 pages in length and designed in a two-column format with step-by-step instructions on the left and corresponding graphics (or code) on the right. In addition, sidebars are used to provide additional tips and tricks. Any effect, technique, or tip can easily be customized to fit a your own design needs. Photoshop 6 Web Magic is ideal for anyone new to Photoshop and wanting to employ terrific ideas and graphics to their personal or professional website. 1 CD-ROM, 336 pp.