Desktop Publishing Books - Page 2

ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

Colin Moock

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Updated to cover Flash MX, the newest version of Macromedia Flash, ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition is the one book no serious Flash developer should be without. Author Colin Moock, one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community, has added hundreds of new code examples to show new Flash MX techniques in the real world: how to draw circles, save data to disk, convert arrays to onscreen tables, create reusable components, and preload variables, XML, and sounds. The book's language reference alone has nearly doubled from the first edition, with more than 250 new classes, objects, methods, and properties. You'll find exhaustive coverage of dozens of undocumented, under-documented, and mis-documented features. Along with the new material, Colin Moock has meticulously revised the entire text to conform to Flash MX best-coding practices. From sending data between two movies to creating getter/setter properties, the new edition of this book demystifies the often-confusing new features of Flash MX, giving developers easy access to its powerful new capabilities.

Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual

Barbara Brundage

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 89 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The popularity of digital cameras continues to grow exponentially. They are now more powerful, feature rich, and affordable--turning digital photography into a mainstream interest. And with Photoshop Elements, Adobe has created the most popular photo-editing program on the planet. Learning how to work Photoshop Elements and manage digital photos can be a challenge for anyone just getting started--from the hobbyist to the pro photographer. With the latest Photoshop Elements 4 update, Adobe delivers a powerful new program that provides photo editing and organizing functionality with improved performance. The updated version also includes new, more intuitive features that are streamlined and easier to use--when the photographer has the right learning tool in hand.

With Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual, author Barbara Brundage has written the perfect digital photography guide. In a clear, easy-to-read format, the author provides step-by-step instruction so readers can learn what they need to do to edit their photos successfully and manage their collection. This new edition also includes more than a dozen downloadable images so readers can practice using the editing tools. Readers will master useful editing techniques--from the most common to the advanced:

• Automatically correct red eye and skin tones
• Select and extract complex objects with the Magic Selection Brush and The Magic Extractor
• Create photomontages
• Restore old photographs
• Post photos on the web
• Manage and archive an entire collection
• Design a custom slide show with panning and zooming capabilities

Once photographers learn how to edit their photos successfully, they'll also learn how to post them online or upload them to the Kodak EasyShare Gallery for use in creating personal mailing lists, post cards, calendars, and much more. Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual, is for any photographer interested in learning the right editing techniques for producing and sharing beautiful digital photography.

Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual covers the Windows version of the software only. When we published the book, there was no Mac version of the software (as there is now), and for various reasons, we've been unable to update this edition to include the Mac version. Nonetheless, if you're on a Mac, you can use this book. Just substitute Command for Ctrl, and Option for Alt whenever you see keystroke shortcuts, and about 98 percent of the Editor functions will work the same. The sections on the Organizer only apply to Windows because the Mac version has no Organizer.

Mac is not a typewriter, The (2nd Edition)

Robin Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A quick and easy read for every writer who cares about looking professional. 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I'm reminded of Shunk and White's "Elements of Style". Short, correct, and invaluable. That's what Robin William's book is for people who care about the look of their written word on a computer. It's easy to make your work look professional and "The Mac is Not a Typewriter" shows you how.

Editorial Review:

One of the most popular Macintosh books ever written, The Mac is not a typewriter has been called the "Strunk and White of typography." Best-selling author Robin Williams's simple, logical principles for using type to produce beautiful, professional documents are as true now as they were when the original edition was published in 1989. This updated edition includes new examples and expanded information dedicated to the practical advice that made the first edition an enduring bestseller. Throughout, Robin shows you the small details that separate the pros from the amateurs: typographer versus typewriter quotation marks, en and em dashes, tabs and indents, kerning, leading, white space, widows and orphans, and hanging punctuation. If you prepare documents, you'll find The Mac is not a typewriter, Second Edition an indispensable guide. And those who read your documents will recognize the work of a pro, even if they don't know a curly quote from curly fries.

Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro for Avid Editors (3rd Edition) (Apple Pro Training)

Diana Weynand

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Moving from Avid to FCP? This book is great! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

We have been an Avid only edit house for years, but reciently purchased two Final Cut systems. Most of the transition was pretty easy, but trying to figure out how to do some of the things in FCP that we did in our sleep on the Avid slowed us down a bit. This book draws great parallels between the two systems.

This book Yes Indeed 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

As an Avid editor and now learning FCP, I can recommend this book for helping to understand where everthing is. This book is a must unless you want to tear your hair out. If you know how it feels going from Media Composer to DS, then you will understand why you need this book and I might add others.

Editorial Review:

Using Avid images and terminology, master teacher Diana Weynand shows you how to perform the tasks you’ve been doing in Media Composer by using Final Cut Pro instead. You’ll find detailed feature comparisons, practical conversion tips, and instructions on how to use Final Cut Pro features that aren’t available in Media Composer. The book makes the transition easy. Each chapter presents a complete lesson in some aspect of Final Cut Pro with a project to complete, a review section, and exercises to reinforce the lessons.

QuarkXPress 7 for Windows & Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Elaine Weinmann, Peter Lourekas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

QuarkXPress 7 Visual QuickStart Guide 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

QuickStart Guide books have always been my first choice for learning software. They leave out all the conversation and get right to the point. Usually, I don't have time for a chat, I just want to find out how to accomplish something. If you need quick info, the QuickStart Guides are the books for you.

Although I am leaning more toward InDesign for layout now, this book is good for jumping from QuarkXPress 6.5 to version 7, One thing I particularly like and use often is the keyboard shortcut list. I wish I could say I like the application as much as I like the book.

Editorial Review:

This handy Visual QuickStart Guide offers the quickest way to begin working with QuarkXPress 7, including all the new graphic effects, Job Jackets, expanded output options, and other great workflow enhancements. In these pages, best-selling authors and veteran educators Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas use task-based, step-by-step instruction and loads of visual aids to provide a solid base of skills in QuarkXPress 7. Progressing from the basics of planning and designing layouts, working with text, and creating and importing graphics to more advanced topics like exporting documents as Web pages, this indispensable reference covers it all.

InDesign CS2 for Macintosh and Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Sandee Cohen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

You already know why it makes sense for you to learn Adobe InDesign: because major magazines, newspapers, book publishers, ad agencies, graphic-design firms, and corporate creative groups worldwide use it to increase productivity and refine creative results. And you need to get up to speed on the very newest version--Adobe InDesign CS2--today! Enter Adobe InDesign CS2 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide. Using the task-based, visual approach that has become the hallmark of Peachpit's popular Visual QuickStart Guides, this volume provides a fast, easy, comprehensive introduction to everything InDesign. You'll learn about all aspects of the InDesign interface, including its tools and palettes, as well as how to create documents and master pages, import and style text and objects, automate your work, manage long documents, use the Bezier pen tools,create interactive PDF elements, and work with color. You'll also learn how to use the new Adobe Bridge file browser to locate, manage, and drag and drop assets easily into your InDesign layouts. You’ll find a new chapter on working with InCopy, complete coverage of more advanced topics (like preflighting and advanced text control) and a thorough introduction to all of InDesign's productivity-enhancing features and tools.

Apple Pro Training Series: Encyclopedia of Visual Effects (Apple Pro Training)

Damian Allen, Brian Connor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Provides the building blocks to VFX with Shake. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Four stars. A fifth star would have been earned for a better indexing or cross-reference. Otherwise a top notch, very informative book.

I have experience with film making and with Editing on Final Cut Pro. I was new to VFX, but I'm not anymore after reading this book!

Having seen Shake in action, I wanted to learn more. This books focus on Shake and the fact that a trial version ships with the book is the reason I bought it.

This book is a reference book. It explains, in detail, terms used in the VFX industry (clean plate, matchmoving, etc.) that any filmmaker or budding VFX artist will need to know if even just to communicate clearly with VFX professionals. The entries in the book are punctuated with walk-through tutorials that show you how to accomplish (in Shake) the specific effect. This is a good thing.

I had a project on my suite that needed some pretty hefty FX work. This book armed me with the right concepts and understanding so that I could plan the steps I'd need to take to accomplish the FX. In my case it was turning the request to "Make that person a ghost" into build a clean background plate, rotoscope the actor, invent a ghosty look, and then put it all back together. Until I had read the book and understood the individual steps involved, I didn't know where to begin.

Overall, this is a very informative reference book written in a witty and accessible style. It is VERY Shake oriented, which is, again, WHY I bought it. This is the kind of book an FX pro (or newbie) will reference many times as they work on future projects.

Editorial Review:

This is the ultimate recipe book for visual effects artists working in Apple Shake, Adobe After Effects, and Apple Motion. An impressive lineup of Hollywood and independent effects pros have pulled together this compendium of the coolest and most useful effects from A to Z ("Adding Clouds" to "Z-Depth Effects"). The book includes everything from practical everyday commercial techniques to breakdowns of well-known shots from blockbuster films. Readers learn to create light sabers from the artists who created them for Star Wars Episode 3; learn to freeze time from the wizard who invented the effect for The Matrix; and learn to create matte paintings from the pros who did them for Lord of the Rings. Coverage includes rotoscoping, painting, warping and distortion effects, dramatic lighting, adding lightening and fire, matchmoves, 3D CG integration techniques, advanced blue- and greenscreen techniques, and much more. DVD-ROM included. Foreword by Ron Brinkmann.

Adobe Acrobat 9 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide

John Deubert

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Editorial Review:

Adobe Acrobat 9 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide walks readers through tasks that are enhanced by numerous screenshots to teach beginning and intermediate users how to take advantage of the productive power of Adobe Acrobat. Author John Deubert takes readers through all of the basic Acrobat 9 features, from the basic tools used to create PDF documents and the newly enhanced review functionality, to the advanced tools that create digital signatures, interactive forms, and PDF Portfolios. Beginning users will find a thorough introduction to this indispensable application, and Acrobat power users will enjoy a convenient reference guide that relies on straightforward language, clear steps, and practical tips to explore Acrobat’s many capabilities.

Visual QuickStart Guide—the quick and easy way to learn!

• Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through Acrobat and show you what to do.

• Concise steps and explanations let you get up and running in no time.

• Page for page, the best content and value around.

• John Deubert is a longtime consultant and instructor in Acrobat and PDF, having worked with both since the mid-nineties. He has extensive experience in PostScript and JavaScript and is the author of Adobe Acrobat 8 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide, and two books from Adobe Press: Creating Adobe Acrobat Forms and Extending Acrobat Forms with JavaScript.

Programming with Quartz: 2D and PDF Graphics in Mac OS X (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

David Gelphman, Bunny Laden

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Written by members of the development team at Apple, Programming with Quartz is the first book to describe the sophisticated graphics system of Mac OS X. By using the methods described in this book, developers will be able to fully exploit the state-of-the-art graphics capabilities of Mac OS X in their applications, whether for Cocoa or Carbon development. This book also serves as an introduction to 2D graphics concepts, including how images are drawn and how color is rendered. It includes guidance for working with PDF documents, drawing bitmap graphics, using Quartz built-in color management, and drawing text. Programming with Quartz is a rich resource for new and experienced Mac OS X developers, Cocoa and Carbon programmers, UNIX developers who are migrating to Mac OS X, and anyone interested in powerful 2D graphics systems.

* This is the definitive guide to the revolutionary graphics system of Mac OS X that uses the Portable Document Format (PDF) as the basis of its imaging model.
* It contains the latest on programming with Quartz for Mac OS X version 10.4.
* Carefully crafted and extensive code examples show how to accomplish most of the drawing tasks possible with Quartz.

Apple Pro Training Series: Motion (Apple Pro Training)

Damian Allen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This Apple-authorized guide to Motion lifts the curtain on Apple's revolutionary new software for motion graphics design. A comprehensive book-DVD combo, it starts with motion graphics fundamentals and takes you step by step all the way through Motion's powerful advanced features, delivering comprehensive training-the equivalent of a three-day course-in one project-based book. Professional, hands-on projects help you learn as you go. All the files you need are on the DVD. Readers will harness the magic of Motion's Real-Time Design engine, behavior-based animation, and remarkable gesture-driven workflow using a graphics tablet. Topics covered include particle dynamics and behaviors, multi-layer composites using transfer modes, keying and compositing bluescreen elements, stylized title animation, and DVD motion menus, plus dozens of visual effects techniques using filters and transformations, and much more. Whether you're just entering the motion graphics field or are already an accomplished designer, this book will have you working in Motion in record time.