Fractal Design Painter¨ 5 for Mac and Windows

Rating:
Summary: Great book to learn the basics with
Review: This is a great book to learn Painter 5 with. It explains each function of the program. Getting this book and the Wow! book would enable you to get pretty advanced with Painter on your own. It doesn't go into detail as to how you can execute certain special effects. For that, you need to get other books but this is a book which would enable you to have a sound knowledge of the capabilities and the functions of Painter and that is very essential toward mastering an application.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good Book for Beginners
Review: This is a nicely designed book with all the basic information on using the Painter 5. For a beginner this is a must have book, however, do not expect to learn much if you are an intermediate or expert user. Actually, the book itself deserves 4 stars, but the included CD lowers the value for Windows users -- while the demo Painter 5 for Mac is there, the CD does not include the demo version of Painter 5 for Windows.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough information updated as you advance in the book.
Review: To properly utilize this book you may want to have a photographic memory. Say like you get to any chapter which refers to a previous chapter, you're supposed to remember everything that you have read so far. This also happens in the exercise; where the little help that you do get, is pictures of the pallettes that are so small, you can't read them. Qvetch qvetch qvetch. I spend a lot of time backtracking here! [e-mail] Jim Dodge