Hello
I am a beginning designer and I like to design web graphics like banners, button, headers and of course lay-outs. Do you think this is a good book for a beginner? http://www.sitepoint.com/books/photoshop1/toc.php?SID=aa6c2bcf801418dad5b920ee94d45912 or is it more for advanced designers?
Thanks in advance!
PhazeStone
I haven’t used that particular book before, but it seems to be geared toward beginners AND it is a Photoshop book specifically geared toward web designers. Try downloading the PDF preview (all the way at the bottom of that page) and see if the style works for you.
The last two sections, Designing a Web Site and Advanced Photoshop Techniques, should be full of really useful info too.
Are you doing the HTML coding as well as the design?
Thanks for the info. Yeah, I like to learn to design and (X)HTML + CSS + ASP.NET :P. But for now I want to learn Photoshop for the web and (X)HTML and CSS.
Thanks!
Woah, cool! Good luck with all that!
If you are just beginning to learn HTML and CSS as well, I would suggest HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css2/). I found it EXTREMELY helpful in re-learning HTML and picking up some pretty advanced CSS. That is, if you need it. XD
(Now I’m beginning to think I should read through The Photoshop Anthology as well… hahaha)
If you want to learn HTML and CSS I recommend the book in the Head’s First series, it’s very well suited for absolute beginners who want to explicitly learn those languages. I always felt that SitePoint’s books are less “utter newbie” friendly and more for the “enthused student” (not that there’s anything wrong with that) 
That’s an interesting thought. I’ve never thought about SitePoint’s books like that before, but it makes sense. Probably because I use them mostly to brush up on what I learned in class or expand on what I learned on my own. In that case, though, almost every series I can think of (except for Adobe’s Classroom in a Book series) is geared toward “enthused students” rather than complete beginners.
Adobe programs come with tutorials for beginners, though I think they’ve moved toward video and online resources. Dreamweaver and Flash used to have great tutorials that came with the program - you could learn almost everything from those tutorials - it’s kind of a shame that Adobe didn’t continue that when they acquired them from Macromedia.
It’s one of the reasons why I recommend the Head’s first book, it’s the only one I have seen which is truly aimed at people with no concept knowledge and guide them through the subject in a friendly way. Though students are probably the bigger market for web design books (than “household newbies”)