Adobe Photoshop Cs3 A-Z: Tools and Features Illustrated Ready Reference

all I need to know about CS3 and really extraordinary

The book is not very thick and it is a concise explanation (sometimes too concise) of what each function does. But after having said that, it is well printed (semi gloss paper), in colours, and easy to read. Great reference book on CS3 and is only half an inch thick.

Even a casual reader can get tips from this book because a single topic is covered just on that page. If you have a question about a technique or are unfamiliar with some of the terminology, this is a great reference book.

Photoshop is not known for it's easy user interface or help files. There are many tutorial books that take you step-by-step through common tasks, but this is finally the book to let you quickly look up all those little things you can't remember. The book starts with about 20 pages of step-by-step summaries of common tasks (importing photos, selection techniques, retouching, etc) then the remainder of the book is an alpha listing of every Photoshop feature. Each feature has a consistent format showing a small before and after photo, the menu path for the command, the shortcut key for the command, what versions apply, "see also" and where needed a screen shot of a dialog box. There is no index - it's not needed. this is a handy size and it stays out now when I am using Photoshop.

Philip Andrew's "Adobe Photoshop CS3 A-Z" is my choice for a great desktop reference. Even though I am an Adobe Certified Expert, I still can't remember everything. This book allows me to quickly lookup something, and get a concise description or function as well as having excellent image and screen shots. It is the "perfect" size for me, in dimension and number of pages! Excellent binding, image quality, and pages. I have to mention this because I am so tired of buying a book that falls apart within a couple of weeks or has such "off" color in the images, that it makes you wonder if the author actually knows what they're talking about. Not the case here...the quality is top notch! This is not a "how-to" book but, as an instructor of Photoshop, I highly recommend this book as a reference companion to any how to book, whether you are a beginner or an expert.