Welcome to the April 2005 Newsletter. We've listed all of the changes to the website below. Good luck to everyone in the Contest. Winners will be notified within the next 2 days. For the May Newsletter Contest, all current subscribers will be added automatically.
Photoshop 9 (CS2) Is On Its Way!
According to news sources, Adobe is about to announce the release of Photoshop 9 (CS2) and plans on shipping it in May. We'll make sure to have the latest news about the release, as well as complete coverage of what's new in this version. We'll also be presenting some exclusing Photoshop 9 video training clips to show you some of the new features. So stay tuned!
Latest Site News
All searches are now powered by Google. On our Advanced Search page you can read tips on how to improve your results when searching the site.
Photoshop Blog - Featuring Free Tips
Make sure to read through our Photoshop Blog, where you can find a collection of free Photoshop Tips that are reprinted by permission, and sponsored by The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). The Blog also has an RSS feed available for those of you who have a newsreader.
Visit the Photoshop Blog
Advanced Photoshop Tutorials Page
We've put together a page with links to some advanced Photoshop tutorials. There are links to sample chapters from the Designer's Notebook series which show you techniques for working with photomontages, digital illustrations, and photo retouching.
You'll also find two tutorials that deal with comic book art and how to color them digitally in Photoshop, and tutorials on how to create realistic stars and planets, as well as links to three matte painting tutorials by Sebastien Gaucher that show you how to create matte paintings in Photoshop. They are detailed and include large versions of the images so you can study the effects closely.
Visit the Advanced Tutorials Page2 New Tutorials from Jennifer Apple:
Photoshop Tips And Tricks For Beginners
These Photoshop tips and tricks for beginners address some of the most common things you'll do in Photoshop, and learning them will save you lots of time down the road.
Photoshop Tips and Tricks for Beginners
Wrap Text Around An Object
Learn a quick and simple technique that will let you wrap text around an object. Plus you can download a free high resolution version of the photo used in the tutorial.
Wrap Text Around An Object
Editors Keys — Photoshop Set
We've been testing the Photoshop shortcut stickers on our keyboards and have a short review up. There's a also a link to a special page where you can get a 25% discount with any purchase of an Editors Keys set.
Visit the Editors Keys page
Cool Tool — SimCam: Film and Digital Camera Simulator
The SimCam is an online camera simulator designed to teach basic photographic principles. There's Shutter and Aperture, where you adjust the camera settings and examine the results to understand the relationship between shutter and aperture. There's Film Speed, where you shoot the same scene with two different film speeds and compare exposures side by side. And there's Camera Shake, where you compare wide-angle and zoom examples side by side. Sweet.
Tablet Book From Cher Threinen-Pendarvis — Free Chapters
If you need some instruction on the use of a tablet when working in Photoshop, there's a good book out — The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis. You can find links to partial sample chapters posted on Cher's website that allow you to downlaod PDFs of chapters 5, 8, and 10. Go to Cher's website and hover over Resources, and then click on Tablet Book. You'll find the links there. We've also put together a product page for the book that has links to amazon.com for those interested in buying it.
New Wacom Tablet Page
All of Wacom's tablets are pressure sensitive - they literally feel the full range of pressure from the pen on the tablet. With a pressure-sensitive tool, such as Photoshop's Rubber Stamp or History brush, you get unparalleled control. Press hard, and you get a more opaque clone, a fatter paintbrush, a darker stroke. Press lighter, and you have a transparent clone, a thin brush, a gentle stroke of color. It's intuitive, because it's how tools work in the real world. An Intuos tablet can even sense the tilt of your pen, giving you the ability to tilt your brush for cool effects.
See our Wacom Tablets page for more information
Path Styler Pro for Photoshop
Path Styler Pro for Photoshop is part professional designer tool, and part crazy toy. You'll spend hours exploring the amazing presets, and hours more creating and saving your own styles. The interface is easy to work with and within minutes you'll find yourself up and running and creating stunning effects with very little effort at all.
Read our review, download a 30-day demo
Tip Of The Month: 
Fonts, Fonts, And More Fonts
Here's a tip to quickly change typefaces and see the change while you make it. First, highlight the type you want to change, and then press Command-H (PC: Control-H) to hide the highlighting (the type is still highlighted; the highlight is just hidden from view). Then, up in the Options Bar, click once in the front field, then use the Up/Down Arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through your installed typefaces.
Save $80 On Photoshop CS Training (Limited Time Offer)
We're happy to announce that we have an exclusive web offer that will let you save $80 on Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS. In this comprehensive training, Deke McClelland, Photoshop expert and best selling author, demonstrates the latest tips, techniques, and useful tricks for Photoshop. With in-depth instruction, you’ll learn to perfect your skills with Total Training's "hands on" approach to get all the training you need to advance your skills to a new level. Everyone, from first time users to seasoned professionals, can benefit from this effective and comprehensive 24 hour training program.
This is a web-only offer available through the Total Training online store (no phone orders accepted for this special offer).
Save $80 on Adobe Photoshop Training (Limited Time Offer)
A Thank You To Our Friends, Partners & Sponsors
We'd like to thank our friends, partners and sponsors: Power Retouche, AbsolutVision, Peachpit Press, O'Reilly Media, Hostway, Total Training, and The National Association of Photoshop Professionals.
May 2005 Newsletter Preview
That's all for this month's newsletter. Next month we'll cover all the latest updates with links to each entry in the April newsletter. Also in May we'll have some more exclusive discounts and specials for Newsletter members.
Until then, Happy Photoshopping!
