Preface: Photoshop in the Real World

If you're reading this book because you want to produce embossed type, fractalized tree branches, or spherized images in Photoshop, you're in the wrong place. If you're after tips and tricks on how to get the coolest special effects in your images, look elsewhere. There are (at least) half a dozen good books on those subjects.

But if you're looking to move images through Photoshopgetting good scans or digital captures in, working your will on them, and putting out world-class final outputthis is the book for you. Its raison d'être is to answer the many questions that people in production environments ask every single day (and not without some frustration).

• What settings should I use in the Color Settings dialog box?

• How do I bring out shadow details in my images without blowing away the highlights?

• What methods are available to neutralize color casts?

• How do I calibrate my monitor? (And should I?)

• How do I put a drop shadow on top of a process-color tint in QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign?

• What's the best way to silhouette an image for catalog work?

These questions, and dozens of others, face Photoshop users all the time. And unfortunately, the books we've seen on Photoshopmuch less Photoshop's own online help, which is itself a poor substitute for the sorely missed manuals of yoresimply don't address these crucial, run-of-the-mill, day-in-and-day-out production issues. This book does.