* Published in conjunction with the new release of Paint Shop Pro, this book walks readers through image-editing fundamentals as well as more advanced graphics and animation tools * Shows photography and animation hobbyists how to create quality, professional-looking graphics * Discusses painting, spraying, retouching photos, adding artistic effects, layering, masking layers, adjusting color, moving, reshaping, copying, and printing images * Also examines how to create Web images and animated graphics with Jasc's Animation Shop * Author has written more than a dozen technology books.

Very disappointing.I ordered this thinking I would be able to understand PSP. I am member of several tagging sites and wanted to learn to make them myself. I guess I'll have to look for a book now called PSP for retards. This book didn't help me. I guess my next move will be classes at the senior center.It also made me feel a lot stupider than I did before.

I've used Paint Shop Pro 8 for only a couple of months before I bought this book. I was seldom interested in using it for advanced stuff - commonly called "bells and whistles". I was only using it for simple stuff. I just wanted to know why some so-called "tools" and stuff "disappear" just when I need them, especially the Font selection and font size tool when I want to insert plain text. Two short paragraphs on page 315 do not help. And other paragraphs which mention how to use the "View" options to select various tools, palettes and such did not help either; I already knew about those. And "starting from scratch", so to speak, and following the detailed instructions on adding text, did not help either. What a waste of my money, not to mention the added aggravation.

I have used and get a lot of mileage out of Paint Shop Pro 5.01 .Higher versions 8.0 and 9.0 have more bells and whistles but for day to day task 5.01 is more than adequate. I am having difficulty in getting the write up for Paint Shop Pro 5.01. Like most of Paint Shop Pro 'help'. They give the bare information. Why don't they run the user through a typical Paint Shop Pro task that one encounters in the real world. Consider it the best of all the graphic programs. Also XP OS versions of Paint is excellent and use that often.

Paint Shop Pro 8 For Dummies by David Kay helped this dummie a good bit :) . Being a "Newbie" to Paint Shop Pro 8 I was totally lost. This book starts with the basics such as downloading your pictures to the more complicated such as turning a photo into a painting. It has been a great help to me. The reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I have found it lacking in the one area I purchased it for and that is simple photo editing. Several tools and techniques are not explained in detail and/or not at all. But overall if you are a novice to Paint Shop Pro 8 as I was you will find it more than beneficial.

Ok here is what I consider the skinny. If you have not used Paint Shop Pro before, then this book can help you get started. It is not a tutorial type of book. It tries to explain how the tools are used and what does some of the settings do.

If you have used Paint Shop Pro before, then you may want it for a reference. I do not like the way that the authors dove away from some of the tools.

Unlike their opinion, I found some of the tools VERY useful in correcting photos and should be explained. For example, they do not explain the dodge/burn tools. I knew what these tools do but the authors attitude was you won't need them. That may be true for someone just wanting to use the program for quick corrections but it is used alot in retouching.

Overall, the authors did explain why some of the tools behavior which helps understand why something did not work as you had expected. I feel that this is a good beginners book if like I stated before, you are not looking for a tutorial type of book.