Photoshop has set a standard that has yet to be eclipsed by other image- editing packages. As the quintessential image-editing package for graphics professionals, its users number in the millions. And with sales of products such as cameras on the rise, and billions of photographs taken each year worldwide, the need for a high-end, concise reference guide like Photoshop in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition also increases. Professional graphics designers and enthusiasts alike will turn to this book for information on the topics and tools in Photoshop 5 that they really want to know.

Photoshop 5 is poised to meet the ever-rising demands for quality image editing with the addition of key new features in an already comprehensive feature set. These new features include the History Palette, Editable Text Layers, Spot-ColorChannels, and color management support. Each is richly detailed in the second edition to the bestselling Photoshop in a Nutshell. Part of O'Reilly and Associates' outstanding series of In a Nutshell books, this book offers the reader an extensive, focused reference to Photoshop 5. Whether toiling with images for the Web, video, or print, in the home or office, this book enables Photoshop 5 users to focus their creative energies on their designs, and not on where to find a certain tool or the right combination of filters and effects.

The advent of Photoshop 5 will mean the addition of many new users. Consequently, the range of purposes for which they use Photoshop will also be more varied, increasing the need for an easy look-up reference like Photoshop in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition. This book explains and expounds on every tool, command, palette, and submenu. Each item is accompanied by a list of its most common uses and misuses. The book also includes step-by-step techniques for common uses and experience-based advice and solutions for common misuses. The information is organized in an encyclopedic format, following the structure of Photoshop itself. All topics are easy to find and fully cross-referenced, which lets the reader intuitively explore the cause-and-effect relationships of each command.

The book also includes the following:

• An intensive study of Photoshop's new ability to handle and create color profiles, including real-world examples and troubleshooting techniques
• Information on color-correcting tools that include more cause-and-effect descriptions of image adjusting vs. the final on-screen or printed piece
• An updated techniques appendix that still contains nearly 200 step-by-step items

Photoshop in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition offers its readers a comprehensive reference guide that drills down to the smallest detail to cover every aspect of version 5, including its newest features. Like other bestselling In a Nutshell books, this is a book that will be valued by both professionals and sophisticated beginners.