In terms of functionality, it told me very little I couldn't find out through the help files. Therefore the value must be in the author's professional experience where examples are worked through in order to show you WHY to use certain tools in certain situations.

The book fell short in this area because:

1) The print quality is awful, and no sample files are provided, either on a cd or the website (more of this later) thus rendering much of the content (colour correction, for example) pretty ineffective.

2) NOTHING is mentioned of Paint Shop Pro's colour management facilities- although the package is of course suited to online work where this is not always important, it is VITAL to include it as a section in any introductory manual of this type, as it gives a useful understanding of a lot of those "quirks" that often appear when dealing with other people's files.

3) Some of the "recipes" included (the section on 3D text, for example) skimp over some of Paint Shop Pro's quirks without explanation, which is fine for creating the effect shown here, but no help for creating your own.

4) "More of this in hour??" This REALLY annoyed me. In such a tricky package, statements like this are simply not helpful unless the topic has already been dealt with as a WORKING introduction.

5) The Website- have I gone to the wrong place????? I was hoping to find some image files from the book, but found only links to plug-ins for outdated versions of the software. Also, the graphics were very poor and amateurish. Given that the authour clearly is a professional, how does this help?

All in all, the examples and exercises in the book were generally too superficial- although not the worst I've seen you really need to show off with these packages to impress and inspire the reader, and I don't think the authour carries this off. It left me with lots of yawning gaps in my knowledge, and, given that I know a lot about graphics per se, I knew this stuff was there in the program, yet not covered in this book.

I know it's difficult in a book of this size, but I would recommend browsing for a book of several times this length that is comprehensive and provides sample files to work on. To verify this review, all you have to do is thumb through something like "Inside PhotoShop 6" by Bouton, Bouton, Kubicek and Nathanson on the shelf at the bookshop to see what a manual of this type should be showing you. I haven't seen any other PaintShop books at the time of writing, but I'm sure they are along similar lines to the above.

The author intruduces quickly and with just the right amount of detail all the main features and puts in additional "tricks of the trade" along the way to give you that feel-good factor.

The book does not totally hold your hand. He assumes you have read and understood previous information and does not labour all the details you need to consider to set up a new drawing or element. The book is best read cover to cover and may not be so usefull for dipping into or as a reference.

The let down is the quality of the printing. It is simply not good enough for a book about graphics. There are many examples, along the lines of "figure 1 is without feature xyz, and figure 2 with - see the difference". And of course on the page you can't see any difference!

Still, don't let this put you off too much as for the money this is a cracking good book.

It is written in a relaxed and chummy style and T.Michael Clark even introduces us to his baby daughter and himself (in suitably macho style with bare midriff) as photos in some of the exercises. Each chapter covers a major topic such as the use of masks or layers but often goes further, describing his own discoveries in creating, for example, chromium effects. He takes you through each exercise step by step and these are generally fairly easy to follow. The software itself comes with a Getting Started Guide and a comprehensive manual, so this book can be considered complimentary to these. At the end of each chapter there are FAQs, though I felt these were thought up by the author. Why is it that FAQs are never the ones that you want to ask?. One question amused me: Q. How do I use layers as frames? A. That option is covered in the next hour [chapter]. There are appendices on the installation of the software and on websites, including Michael Clark's own, where you can find plug-ins and ideas for graphic effects.

The most irritating thing I found was a skimping on the recapitulation of more difficult subjects where these had been covered in an earlier chapter, yet you are repeatedly told what a particular tool looks like right up to the end of the book. For some reason, the author keeps referring to the Flood Fill tool as the Paint Bucket. As the chapters pass, the clarity of the explanations diminish and sometimes procedures are outlined but not the reasons for doing them. The quality of the photographs is mediocre and those showing the ways of removing scratches and dust from old prints are so bad that you cannot see the original blemishes at all - the 'before' and 'after' shots look exactly the same. Finally, a glossary would be a helpful addition. Terms are defined as they arise but you forget and finding the right page again is tedious. Those of us new to graphics have to learn a whole new vocabulary and I was constantly trying to relate vectors to the parallelogram of forces I learnt at school.

It's easy to understand with step by step explanations. The layout is tidy and it is surprisingly easy to find what you're looking for.

This is good support for a not-quite-beginner and i'm sure it's a good help for the beginner as well.

Good work! More books ought to be like this one!