Hacking Photoshop CS2 by S. Singh (2005, Paperback)

This is not a tutorial book that you follow along with step by step. This book is for Photoshop users who have previuos knowledge of Photoshop and wish to get more out of the program.
It shows different ways that you can perform the same task in Photoshop.
The book has 18 chapters in full colour throught, tips, tricks, modifications and getting the most out of Photoshop CS2.
THIS BOOK DOESN"T WASTE TIME
Throughout the book you will see headings such as CAUTION, NOTES, TIPS and CROSS - REFERENCE
All these give you valuable input.
There's also a companion Website for the book which has links to other Website's for tutorials, scripts, coloour management, plug-in's,
keyboard shortcut's, etc..... Well worth a look.
You will also find URL's in the book, but be careful the URL's seem to get lost in the page, I would have liked to see the URL's in bold and in another colour, to make them standout.
The book shows you how to custmize appearance and optimize performance in Photoshop for a better and faster work flow.
Cool tricks with camera raw, masks, paths, layers and much more. 400 plus pages full of very good information. A great chapter is chapter 4 - Browsing with Bridge, this is new to the Adobe Creative suit 2. It would be hard to pick a favorite chapter, but chapter 15 - Automating Task and Chapter 16 - Outputting to print come close.

Conclusion: This is an excellent book, well written and laid out, plenty of diagram images that are clear and easy to see.
It doesn't come with a CD, but then again you don't need one.

Even though I am running CS3 I still purchased! Loads of information on how to "tweek" Photoshop to run faster! It's a well written book and one that should be in your Photoshop collection! It's loaded (over 300 ways)to squeeze more from camera raw, masks, layers, paths and more! Step by step guide on optimizing performance, enchancing the art of using palettes, super charging editing power, automating tasks, exploiting filters! You won't be disappointed..I own several Scott Kelby's books and I would rank this book right along with Scott's...less Scott's humor!

Great book to help you unleash more performance from Photoshop. Probably NOT a book a beginning user to Photoshop would enjoy, however, I am a new photoshop user but former programmer and I find the book gets me into features and settings much faster than I would have. There are a few missing links, and there are some great references that I wish were BOLD or highlighted to make them easier for a speed reader to pick out, but overall this is well-printed and about the right size and weight to be comfortable on the desk while working. Excellent desk reference, but doesn't cover everything.