Chapter 2. WORKING WITH PHOTOSHOP

IN THIS CHAPTER

Best Practices 30

File Formats 31

Understanding the Photoshop CS2 Interface 33

Photoshop Help Center 37

Grids and Guides 38

Creating a New Photoshop Document 40

If this is your first experience with Photoshop and ImageReady, I would like to bid you welcome. I am more than honored to be your first tour guide of this wonderful program. I would expect that you've heard a few things about Photoshop prior to buying the Adobe Creative Suite 2. Photoshop is always called Adobe's flagship program. Go into any bookstore and it's easy to see how popular the program is. In the computer book section you will likely find more Photoshop books than any other computer book.

There are three things that I hope you get out of your experience with Photoshop. Number one, the realization that you can't master this program without having a playful spirit. The only way you can absorb all of Photoshop is by having fun with it.

The second thing is that you realize that you are limited only by your imagination with this program. You can't say that about a lot of software, but it's definitely true here. If you can dream it and you can experiment, it can be done.

The third and most important thing to know is that even the masters of Photoshop will admit that they still have tons to learn. We are all at different levels of experience with programs. I can't count how many times in training sessions I've seen someone sit down to Photoshop for the first time and find some new control or command that does something so totally fresh and unknown that even the instructor is surprised. Enjoy your time with this software and remember this rule after you discover something new: You must share with others what you learn.