This book is a resource for web designers who want to use Photoshop to create better-looking web graphics.

When this book came out in 2006, it was one of the first Photoshop CS2 books that didn’t encourage you to use Photoshop’s generated HTML code. Instead, it saw Photoshop fundamentally as a web graphic editor and optimizer in the web design process. Yet Photoshop is just one of many tools to found in a web developer’s arsenal. While knowledge of how to actually code a website using HTML, CSS, and other web languages is important, it is not covered in this book, which is strictly about using Photoshop to create graphics for websites. I encourage you to look into the many other resources—both online and book form—that will teach you the basics of web development if you need to develop your skills in those areas.

A lot has changed in the field of web design and Photoshop in the last six years. Now at version CS6, Photoshop has more powerful filters and effects, and more efficient tools. Meanwhile, the mobile environment, responsive design, and a wider adaptation of HTML5 and CSS3 has transformed the way theWeb works and looks. I’ve updated this book to take into account the new and improved tools in Photoshop CS6, as well as recent techniques and design elements you might be seeing on the Internet. For instance, you’ll notice that buttons and backgrounds have evolved somewhat since 2006, and there are new solutions for using Photoshop’s Content-Aware technology, as well as for setting up grids and wireframes in Photoshop.

My purpose in writing this book was to provide some of the building blocks and techniques that will help you create your own cool web graphics. There’s no need to dedicate several hours each week working through an example project; the anthology format of this title enables you to quickly look up a task or effect you’re interested in and accomplish it following clear instructions.

Hundreds of tutorials exist online for creating various web graphic effects in Photoshop. This book shows you how to create many of these effects, with several solutions expanding to include a "Discussion" section that explains the concepts involved. This will enable you to understand more of how Photoshop works so that you can apply that knowledge in other situations.

As this book is primarily for web designers, I’ve covered only some of the basic and intermediate tasks related to photo adjustments and retouching. If this area is of interest to you, there are many excellent books geared towards professional photographers and artists that provide more advanced instruction than does this title.

My hope is that this book will help you build the skills and knowledge needed to become confident using Photoshop to create web graphics. Good luck, and have fun!