The Comprehensive Guide to MicroGrafX ABC Graphics Suite 7

Bixby was right on when it came to offering a book to help people understand the usability Webtricity brings to Internet Web Design. Easy to understand, nice projects and easy wording make this a book for all levels. Even the seasoned graphics designer needs some refreshing. Definetely recommend the purchase.

Go ahead and call me a cynic. I think that this book should have been packaged with the suite, but some bean counter over at Micrographx wanted to keep a certain shelf price for the program ($150) and gambled that serious users will shell out another $50 to learn to use it. All in all, that is what I did; and that is what I recommend you do if want to get your money's worth out of the program. After reading the "tutorial" that came Webtricity, I thought I had a fair idea of what the program is capable of. Yet, I was confused about many of the concepts (ie. masks, 3-D lighting, custom palettes). There were sections of controls for which I was so clueless, I did not even know that I would want them. So I went ahead and bought the book. It saved me huge amounts of time from trying to work features out myself. There are features of the suite which are not mentioned anywhere else! The writing style is clear and there are enough illustrations to help you follow along. Nevertheless, there are serious gaps such as the use of transparency to make illustrations of any shape, basic color theory is skimpy and many features are glossed over too quickly. The explanation of color palettes was excellent, though I wish the author had shared more advise about aesthetics & style, but I suppose there are other books for that. Bottom Line: Unless you are already very familiar with other graphic programs, you MUST have this book if you are serious about creating graphics for the web using Webtricity. [email protected]<P