Synopses & Reviews
In this second edition, author Mikkel Aaland updatesPhotoshop for the Web to include important new techniques and workarounds for the latest release of Photoshop--version 5.5. The first edition was loaded with step-by-step examples and real-world solutions from some of the world's hottest Web sites. The second edition adds coverage of Photoshop 5.5's newest features, including a compression tool that ultimately leads to faster download times and higher quality Web graphics. This edition also details features new to version 5.0, including the changeable type tool, color profiling, and the history palette.If that's not enough, Photoshop for the Web, 2nd Edition also covers Adobe's ImageReady 2.0 Web graphics production software, now part of the Photoshop 5.5 package, and includes 64 pages of color inserts. You'll find information on ImageReady 2.0's image slicing, animation, and JavaScript rollover capabilities.Topics include:
- Using 5.5's powerful Save For Web feature
- Automatically creating an interactive web photo gallery with 5.5
- Image manipulation and processing with 5's history brush
- Working with browser-safe colors to create stunning images regardless of platform or hardware
- Using Photoshop 5's contact sheet feature to organize digital photographs
- Quickly building Web backgrounds, buttons, and graphical type
- Creating JavaScript rollovers with ImageReady 2.0
- Streamlining Web production with Photoshop 5's changeable type tool
- Using Photoshop 5.5's new color decontamination features
- Using Photoshop as a Web layout tool
- Customizing Photoshop for Web production, including 5's color profiling
- Improving photos taken with a digital camera
- Controlling anti-aliasing with custom brushes
- Getting rid of the dreaded halo syndrome
- Optimizing images for JPEG compression
- Coding layout information in a Photoshop layer
- Changing Photoshop's matte color to match your Web page color
- Importing vector graphics into Photoshop
- Straightening scans with Photoshop 5's ruler tool
- Working with browser-safe colors to create stunning images regardless of platform or hardware
- Integrating PS and ImageReady to create the most efficient web production environment
In its first edition, "Photoshop for the Web" has received praise from press and readers alike: * The Canada Computer Paper picked it as one of the 10 best computer books of 1998. * Hewlett Packard's E-Business Web site called it "one of the most useful Photoshop books I've ever picked up." * And My Mac magazine said, "Aaland knows Photoshop inside out and how to maximize it for Web creation."Readers were even more effusive: * "This is the first book that gives me both ready-to-use recipes and enough information to experiment with and learn my own solutions. Highly recommended!" * "Aaland has provided an excellent and detailed analysis of using Photoshop to produce web pages ... a must-read book!" * "Within minutes of perusing Aaland's book, I found exactly 4 new tricks that I immediately applied to improve my web site." * "This book now rests on my most hallowed piece of real estate - on my desk next to my mouse."
Photoshop for the Web, Second Edition shows you how to use the latest version of Photoshop to create Web graphics that look great and download blazingly fast.
Synopsis
In this second edition, author Mikkel Aaland updates"Photoshop for the Web to include important new techniques and workarounds for the latest release of Photoshop--version 5.5. The first edition was loaded with step-by-step examples and real-world solutions from some of the world's hottest Web sites. The second edition adds coverage of Photoshop 5.5's newest features, includinga compression tool that ultimately leads to faster downloadtimes and higher quality Web graphics. This edition alsodetails features new to version 5.0, including thechangeable type tool, color profiling, and the history palette. If that's not enough, "Photoshop for the Web, 2nd Editionalso covers Adobe's ImageReady 2.0 Web graphics productionsoftware, and includes 64 pages of color inserts."Photoshop for the Web, 2nd Edition shows you how to use the latest version of Photoshop to create Web graphics that look great and download blazingly fast.
Synopsis
Author Mikkel Aaland updates "Photoshop for the Web" to include important new techniques and work-arounds for the latest version of Photoshop 5. The latest version of Adobe's ImageReady Web graphics production software also is covered. Tips and techniques give users an edge on the program.
About the Author
Mikkel Aaland is an award-winning photographer and the author of nine books, including Photoshop CS2 RAW (O'Reilly 2006), Shooting Digital (2nd edition, Sybex, 2006), Photoshop Elements 4 Solutions (4th edition Sybex/Wiley, 2006), Photoshop for the Web, 2nd edition (O'Reilly, 1999), Still Images in Multimedia (Hayden, 1996), and Digital Photography (Random House, 1992). Since 2001 Aaland has been a regular guest on G4's Call For Help TV Program with Leo Laporte. In 2003 he was a guest columnist for newsweek.com. In 2004, Shooting Digital was named the best "Digital Photography" book of the year by the Designer's Bookshelf.
Aaland's documentary photographs have been exhibited in major institutions around the world, including the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and the former Lenin Museum in Prague. In 1981 he received the National Art Directors award for photography. He has contributed both text and/or photography to Wired, Outside, Digital Creativity, American Photo, The Washington Post, and Newsweek, as well as several European publications.
Aaland has been a pioneer in digital photography, an interest that dates back to a 1980 interview he conducted with Ansel Adams. When Aaland asked Adams what he would be pursuing if he were just starting out, Adams discussed at length his fascination with digital photographs of the planets. Aaland has pursued this new technology since its infancy. During the 1980s he reported on digital photography as west coast editor of the Swedish FOTO magazine, and wrote a column on the subject for American Photographer magazine. Aaland is one of the few orginal Adobe Lightroom's alpha and beta user, and he served as an unpaid advisor on the project for over a year.
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Making Photoshop Web-Friendly
Photoshop 5 color preferences
Stop wasting bytes
Other web-friendly preferences
Changing Photoshop's default background color
Selecting web-safe colors
Using Actions for web production
Calibrating your monitor
Take the time
2 Improving Photos for the Web
Global corrections
Selective corrections
Enhancing acquired images
Putting your photos on the web
3 Making Great GIFs
GIF or JPEG?
Using Save for Web
The Indexed Color option
4 Creating GIFs from Scratch
From RGB to indexed color
Controlling anti-aliasing with custom brushes
Working in Indexed Color mode
Creating an illusion of translucency
Hijacking a color palette
Creating your own browser-safe colors
On to transparency
5 Special Effects with Transparent GIFs
Save for Web
Indexed Color mode
Selecting Transparency in the Color Table
Using the GIF89a Export module
Familiarity counts
6 JPEG: All the Color You Want
Compression versus quality
Saving JPEG files
Optimizing for compression
Other JPEG issues
Pushing the envelope
7 Creating Background Tiles
Working with tiling strips
Creating patterns with square tiles
Compressing backgrounds with JPEG
Grabbing backgrounds
Remembering the balance
8 Photoshop Web Type
Working with Photoshop 5's Type tool
Working with rendered type
Going that extra mile
Blur for readability
The inherent beauty of type
Making a difference
9 Creating Navigational Graphics
Layer effects with Photoshop 5
Creating photo bubbles
Creating beveled boxes with the Gradient tool
Painting beveled buttons
Embossing and debossing type
Bullet balls with light effects
Creating flashy round buttons
Creating navigational triangles
Using found objects
Creating an interactive navigational bar
Instructions in layers
The personal touch
10 Importing Vectors into Photoshop
Importing vector files
Avoiding color shifts
Two are better than one
11 Laying Out Pages in Photoshop
Painting design on a web page
Redesigning with layers and grids
Animating your graphics with Actions
Using guides to design and crop
Keeping boundaries with templates
Working within the "live" area
Coding layout information in a layer
Unintended uses
12 ImageReady 2.0
From Photoshop to ImageReady and back
Using ImageReady
Slicing images
Animation
Rollovers
Making dolls come alive
Conclusion
A The PNG Format
B Third-Party Software
C Contributor Notes