In my opinion, most people buy computer books to learn, yet it is amazing how few of these books are actually written by teachers. Tanya Staples and I take pride in the fact that this book was written by experienced teachers, who are familiar with training students in this subject matter. In this book, you will find carefully developed lessons and exercises to help you learn Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS—two of the most well-respected graphics applications on the planet.

This book is targeted toward the beginning- to intermediate-level Web designers and Web developers who are looking for great tools to create graphics and Web content. The premise of the handson exercise approach is to get you up to speed quickly with Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS while actively working through the lessons in the book. It’s one thing to read about a product and another experience entirely to try the product and get measurable results. Our motto is, “Read the book, follow the exercises, and you’ll learn the product.” I have received countless testimonials to this fact, and it is our goal to make sure it remains true for all of our hands-on training books.

Many exercise-based books take a paint-by-numbers approach to teaching. Although this approach works, it’s often difficult to figure out how to apply those lessons to a real-world situation, or to understand why or when you would use the technique again. What sets this book apart is that the lessons contain lots of background information and insights into each given subject, which are designed to help you understand the process as well as the exercise.

At times, pictures are worth a lot more than words. When necessary, we have also included short QuickTime movies to show any processes that are difficult to explain with words. These files are located on the H•O•T CD-ROM inside a folder called movies. It’s our style to approach teaching from many different angles, because we know some people are visual learners, others like to read, and still others like to get out there and try things. This book combines a lot of teaching approaches so you can learn Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS to create Web graphics as thoroughly as you want to.

This book didn’t set out to cover every single aspect of Photoshop CS or ImageReady CS. The manual and many other reference books are great for that! What we saw missing from the bookshelves was a process-oriented tutorial that taught readers core principles, techniques, and tips in a hands-on training format. We’ve been making Web graphics since 1995, and it used to be a lot tougher than it is today. Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS are oriented toward making Web graphics faster to download and easier to create. In addition, ImageReady CS even writes JavaScript and HTML code, which is something traditional imaging programs have seldom broached.