Bruce Von Stiers
Occasionally a book will be sent to me about a product that I'm already using. When reading a book like this, I often check to see if there is something that I missed while using the product or if there is some additional information that I wasn't aware of. A book that was just published by Muska & Lipman falls under that category. The book gave some tips that I didn't know, refreshed my memory on a few techniques and made me aware of third party products that sounded really cool. The book is about Ulead PhotoImpact and is titled PhotoImpact 7 Power! The book was written by Jason Dunn and James Rodel.
The book has 15 chapters with a three page introduction. It has 424 pages. The book was copyrighted in 2001.
The first chapter is called The Basics of Digital Imaging. It gives some brief information about the different ways that items developed utilizing PhotoImpact 7 can be used. It also covered the various graphic file formats that are commonly used these days.
Chapter 2 is titled Getting To Know PhotoImpact. Here you will learn briefly what a PhotoImpact toolbar is and how to modify it to your needs or build a new one. There are four pages on the different buttons on the Tool Panel and brief descriptions of what each one does. Learn about cropping an image in PhotoImpact and how to get the maximum performance out of the program.
The next chapter is called The Object-Oriented Approach. In this chapter you will be taught things like creating your own objects to use in a PhotoImpact image. Find out about cool things like the Cool Fire effect that can be added to object. You will learn about the Lasso Tool. This tool allows you to grab a specific part of an image or object.
Then we move on into working with text in Creating And Editing Text. Learn how to fix your text spacing with kerning, character spacing and baseline shifting. You will find out here how to add depth to text and place a cool looking drop shadow.
Ever wonder how some graphics had those neat looking, well rounded elements? Chapter 5 shows you how PhotoImpact makes that happen with creating and editing paths. You will learn what a path is and how to make it do what you want it to. This chapter also tells about placing text and graphics along a path for interesting results.
Chapter 6 is all about EasyPalette and what it can do for you. The chapter outlines things like being able to apply hundreds of visual effects to objects or images. Store these images in libraries and be able to manage them easily. For those of you who are into photo editing and restoring chapters 7 and 8 have some interesting information on how PhotoImpact does these things.
Chapters 9 and 10 go through the various tools that PhotoImpact has for designing for the Internet and how they work. Learn about the Image Optimizer and the Image Slicer. Chapter 10 tells about using the Transparency tool and Chapter 9 goes into the Component Designer. This design tool lets you make banners, buttons and java rollovers. Later chapters deal with things like using the Quick Commands and working with the GIF Animator.
The book has a couple of extras. Even though it is in black and white, the last 16 pages are in color. These pages show color examples of finished images and worked done with PhotoImpact 7. There is also a Trial version of PhotoImpact 7 for those folks who haven't bought it yet.
PhotoImpact 7 Power! is not the conclusive text on the how to use the program. It does have a wealth of information on one of the top rated image and photo editing programs. After reading this book, you should be able to have a better understanding of how PhotoImpact 7 works. You will be able to show your friends, and even the world, how good your graphic and image work is.
PhotoImpact 7 Power! can be found at retail book sellers like Barnes & Noble. You can also order it online from Muska & Lipman at www.muskalipman.com. The book lists for $ 29.95 U.S.