I've had Photoshop for over a year. I've spent most of that time being frustrated with the program. I bought Foundation Photoshop 6 a little over a month ago and am now learning in leaps and bounds. Foundation Photoshop 6 is truly excellent for beginners, providing easily understood instructions, explanations and exercises. With this book, anyone can learn to create amazing graphics. I highly recommend it.

This is an extremely comprehensive volume that covers all the ground that designers, budding designers and photoshop enthusiasts need to know...The case study even tells you how to create a postcard ready for the printers and how to create your own site using ImageReady. There's stuff on printing, workflow, image correction, filters, as well as the obvious like layers and selection... This book is another winner from friendsofED!

For me as a beginner it was really helpful and covered a big range of topics

this is a valuable piece of anarchist literature. ward gives us real world examples of anarchy in action: societies with no central government, workers making the decisions themselves, "spontaneous order": people naturally organizing themselves with no help from outside forces, i.e. government. this is viewed as an introduction to anarchism, for people who have been led to believe common misconceptions about it. When I read this book, I was already somewhat familiar with anarchist theory, but I still enjoyed this book. This goes to show that there is nothing wrong with preaching to the choir once in a while.

This is one of the first books I read about anarchism. I must have re-read it at least 3 or 4 times. It's a to-the-point and highly entertaining introduction to practical anarchy. How do we move from here to there. It's a little out-dated though, being that it was written in the 70's but it still offers a lot of insight on building a free society. Mr. Ward discusses schooling, hospitals, crime, work, and many other urgent every-day concerns. He argues that anarchy already does exist, in the interstices of hierarchy and domination, in the everyday workings of people and their everyday interactions, in their neighborhoods. It's up to us to widen the spheres of liberty. He argues that many organizations are really quite decentralized (borrowing from the insights of systems theory and anthropology). He also borrows some ideas from Kropotkin; notably that many popular institutions today are run entirely through the voluntary cooperation of its members.

Originally published in 1973 Colin Ward brings forth a masterwork of easy to understand political philosophy. Together with Daniel Guerin's _Anarchism_ these books are the perfect introductions to understanding contemporary anarchist/ autonomist philosophy. This work focuses on the practical (rather than exceeding revolutionary and idealistic) applications of anarchist activism.

I was so excited when this book came, but after trying my first 3 exercises from this book, I was very disappointed. The authors take for granted that the reader must be a well rounded Photoshop user. I am familiar with the Photoshop basics and have been for some time, but while following their instructions, none of my results resembled those in the book.
If you are a beginner in Photoshop, I strongly recommend skipping this one.

Have been a member of Al Ward's website for years and purchased this new book. Just received my copy and I have found it probably THE best supplemental book on Photoshop 6.01 that I have - and I've got about 7-8 of them in addition to the User's Manuals. Very easy reading and the step-by-step instructions to create some fantastic Photoshop images are OUTSTANDING!

Where's the next book, Al, Colin????

this review is supposed to be helpful, so i'll state what's most important...
this is a very well conceived cookbook, but it's not just another great cookbook, it goes one step further..

Among the all the outstanding Photoshop Cookbooks, such as the WOW! and the DOWN & DIRTY, this book even covers some COMPLEX IMAGES that are ideal for PORTFOLIO(highly complex multi-layered/masked/transparent images that blend well together.. and are visually stunning) instead of merely covering cool effects and retouching tips that every other cookbooks discuss..

let me reiterate that... this book, instead of just telling you how to create individual images such as metallic letters or gel buttons.. it instructs on how to create a work of art...

but the downside to it is, the rest of the contents in the book are no different than the WOW! or any other cookbooks; a few helpful pages..

so, i guess this book is best suited to those that have no cookbooks whatsoever...