How to Cheat in Photoshop

Steve Caplin wrote:

It's with tremendous pleasure that I'm announcing the imminent publication of my new book, Art & Design in Photoshop. I've been working on this for over a year, partly in response to posts on this forum.

Although it's clear that most visitors to this site - at least, those who participate in the Friday Challenge - have a sound working knowledge of Photoshop, there have often been occasions when the wrong typeface has been used, or when an image doesn't flow as well as it should due to an awkwardness in composition. I've mentioned some of these briefly in the weekly round-ups, but there's much more to be said.

Art & Design in Photoshop begins with typography, explaining the importance and relevance of choosing the right font, with examples of how using an incorrect font can produce the wrong impression in the viewer. This chapter also looks at customizing film logos, font smoothing, and creating intertwined monogram letters.

Chapter 2 deals with the principles of design: the Rule of Thirds, the correct use of the horizon, flow and balance in an image. Why does it matter which way people face in your images? How do we focus viewers' attention? Why are diagonals so important to designers? Answers to all your design questions!

The Contemporary Design chapter looks at how to achieve currently popular design techniques, from stencil graffiti to The Simpsons. It also takes in such disparate styles as pixel art, steampunk, digital grids, and iPod advertising art.

The Poster Design chapter looks at posters of all kinds - from Victorian playbills and boxing promotion, Art Deco and Bauhaus through to contemporary movie posters - horror, art house, comedy, science fiction, film noir, and more.

The Works on Paper chapter deals with all kinds of paper-based design, including ransom notes, bank checks, medieval manuscripts, certificates, postage stamps and album covers.

Chapter 6 deals with books and magazines: from horror comics to news weeklies, from glossy monthlies to Victorian periodicals. Pulp fiction, thrillers, chick lit, history and technical books, kids' books, adolescent fiction - all are covered in this chapter.

The chapter on Great Works of Art shows how to emulate the painting styles of artists from Gainsborough to Francis Bacon, from Warhol to Matisse, from Roy Liechtenstein to Salvador Dali. It explores how to turn your photographs into works by these artists, as well as how to create work in their styles from scratch.

Chapter 8 looks at packaging: how to design pharmacy cartons, cereal boxes, wine labels, and so on. It also deals with techniques for creating three-dimensional packaging from flat artwork, including wrapping artwork around cans.

The Any Other Business chapter is a mixed bag of artefacts not covered elsewhere in the book, showing how to create credit cards and stone-carved lettering, stained glass windows and enamel pin badges, neon and bling, and more. This chapter also looks at some of the cardinal errors made in web design, to help you avoid falling into the traps.

Finally, the book wraps up with an at-a-glance explanation of the most common tools and techniques in Photoshop - a handy 16-page reference guide to make sure everyone's brought up to speed.

Where most Photoshop books are concerned purely with technique, Art & Design in Photoshop explains the design process itself: it's as much "why to" as "how to", and is designed to complement How to Cheat in Photoshop. The book includes a CD-ROM containing project files for the tutorials, as well as all the fonts you'll need to complete the examples.

I've invited readers of Art & Design in Photoshop to post any questions on this forum, so this section will be devoted to dealing with issues relating to that book - and to the design process in general.

Art & Design in Photoshop will be published in September 1.