photoshop type effects

Earlier this week, I received “photoshop type effects” from New Riders. The author of this book is Roger Pring who has been at the forefront of digital art since the 1980s.

When I scanned through the pages of the book, I immediately noticed that this was no run-of-the-mill type effects book. With dozens of type effects books on the market, I assumed this was going to be the same sort of book. Instead of the standard Table of Contents, “photoshop type effects” uses small thumbnails for their contents list. This allowed me to immediately jump to the effects that, to me, looked the most interesting.

photoshop type effects

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Each effect is demonstrated in clear, concise language. Generally, each effect is covered in two full color pages. There is a screen capture for each step in the effect and they are easy to follow along.

The book starts off with Reflective effects. Included in this section are: Polished Chrome, Bold As Brass, Good As Gold, Polished Metal and more.

Solid effects are next up, some of which are: Utterly Routed, Fret No More, Number Tile, etc. These effects are “Solid”.

Atmospheric effects are based on the earth. Sands of Time, Into The Fire, Absolute Zero, and Is It A Bird? are the demonstrated effects in this chapter.

Lighting effects light up the web with effects such as Red Hot, Light Information, Terminal Signboards, and Glow Baby Glow.

The next chapter covers Typographic effects which are more simplistic in nature. I like the Warped Type, Line Up and Mountain High.

The Simulations effects include All Keyed Up. This is one of the most effective effects I have ever seen. You can create some awesome Flash movies and animated gif files using this effect.


“photoshop type effects” also includes an Appendix which covers using Alien Skin Filters, 3rd-party effects and other 3rd-party filters. Pring explains how to use Photoshop shortcuts to save you time and effort for newbies.

My favorite five demonstrated effects are Polished Chrome, Good As Gold (the best gold effect I have seen), Number Tile, Terminal Signboards (makes me feel like I am at a ballpark), All Keyed Up and Beads. The book is created for use with Photoshop 7 but most effects should work with earlier versions. The author is not platform biased either; he shows screen grabs from the Macintosh and the PC Photoshop versions.

I would suggest this book for intermediate through advanced Photoshop users. The type effects move very quickly; I am not sure new users will be able to grasp some of the techniques. After trying most of the effects, my results did not look exactly the same as the book’s examples. This left me frustrated. At $45.00, it is a little pricey, but if you win over a client by using the techniques demonstrated, I am sure it will be well worth it.

Product Rating:

Company:
New Riders

Requirements:
N/A

Pricing:
45.00

Reviewed by:
Mindy

Competition:
N/A

Pros:
all new effects, demonstrated with Photoshop 7, step-by-step explanations

Cons:
high price, fonts demonstrated are not included making it hard to reproduce exactly what the author demonstrates

Bottom Line:
A worthwhile purchase for the intermediate to advanced Photoshop user.