I have found that this book is a great place for a beginner or someone trying to improve on their graphic abilities to start. This book can be a very good tool to help review and remind you of some thing that my have slipped your mind. If you need to rate this book on the 5 star scale then I would give it a 4 . The reason it fails for the full 5 stars is that it only had a few full color pages(16) and in some small areas, it is hard to find some things it asked you to process. You have to changed a few things (setup view), then they are where they say they are. One more little bit of info, if you are looking to buy this software and use this book, buy the book only and download the try me version of the "Illustrator CS". This way if you don't like the software then your only out the cost of the book.

Wil Bailey

LaGrange, GA

WGCFUG.org

I am a complete novice to any drawing software. So when I bought Adobe Illustrator CS and listened to the accompanying "training" tape, I knew I had to have a lot more instruction. I have found that most software manuals are like dictionaries--fine if you already have a good idea of what you're looking for, but not if you don't. So usually a great place to start is a "good" Dummies book. This Dummies book is better than most. It is written in a clear, concise manner with instructions on how to accomplish each feature covered in the chapters. If a simple earlier instruction is needed in a later chapter, it is repeated instead of referred to from the earlier chapter. This saves a lot of time flipping back and forth. And I appreaciated Ted Alspach's humorous approach to topics--at least the first time around. If you have to go back and re-read, it just gets in the way. The only drawback to the book is that it needs either an accompanying CD filled with Illustrator graphics for practice or an Internet source for such vector graphics. Often the instructions say, "Select a piece of artwork..." and I'm left struggling to find a decent example.

This book is a great place to start learning. The information is accurate, well written and excellent. Alspach uses humor to make the learning of Illustrator a little less intimidating. The illustrations are well done and explain the theory well. The book is full of tips that will make the reader more productive and efficient with the application. Maybe not for intermediate or advanced users but a great starter book for Mac and Windows users.