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December '08 Issue:
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Monthly MemoA note from the editorBy Peter Meyers, Missing Manuals managing editor Ready for one small piece of good economic news? The Missing Manual series had a great year. As book sales overall slump downwards, we've managed to steadily grow (both in terms of revenue and number of copies sold). Why? One theory that's been making the rounds: at a time when people are worried about money, there's a so-called "flight to quality"... no more grabbing 5 books off the shelf when it's time to learn Photoshop or Excel. Instead, readers are picking the one title they know they can trust -- ours. Now, don't get me wrong. It's clear that, country-wide, things are going to get worse before they get better; that may well include our business. And I certainly don't mean to flaunt our success in the face of others who aren't faring as well. But I do know that lean times are helping us focus on our main mission: Create great guidance that engages, explains, and inspires. That's what we'll be doing as we tackle some of our most exciting 2009 projects, including a completely overhauled Web site (with much more ready-to-consume online material); books on iWork, Snow Leopard, and -- get this -- Living Green; and a wide variety of Webcasts (online seminars) on niche topics like using Quicken for long-term financial planning. As the year winds down, the days get a bit darker, and the news a bit gloomier, that might be the best economic strategy of all: Make great things that people want and make them well. Here's wishing you happy and healthy holidays. 
Five Fast Photo Effects in Photoshop CS4Lesa Snider King, author of Photoshop CS4, The Missing Manual has five tips for managing color in the newest version of Photoshop. 1. Quick black-and-white with color tint. Photoshop lets you easily convert a color image to black-and-white without harming the original image. First, create a Black & White Adjustment layer by clicking the half-black/half-white circle at the bottom of your Layers panel, and then choose Black & White. Tweak the various sliders in the resulting Adjustments panel for maximum contrast, and then add a color overlay by clicking the Tint checkbox at the top of the panel. Photoshop assumes you want to give your image a brown (sepia) tint. To use another color, click the little brown color swatch to the right of the Tint checkbox and pick a new color from the resulting Color Picker. 
2. Partial-color effect. To really draw viewer's eyes to the focal point of your image, make the focal point colored and the rest of the image black-and-white. By using the layer mask that tags along with each Adjustment layer, you can hide the effect of a Black & White Adjustment layer and bring back the original color. (Think of a layer mask as digital masking tape.) To create this effect, add an Adjustment layer by clicking the half-black/half-white circle at the bottom of the Layers palette, and then choose Black & White. Tweak the sliders for maximum contrast, and then, on the Layers panel, click once to select the Adjustment layer's mask (the white thumbnail to the right of the layer thumbnail). Press B to grab the Brush tool and, at the bottom of Tools panel, set the foreground color chip to black. (In the realm of the layer mask, painting with black conceals and painting with white reveals.) Next, mouse over to your document and use the Brush tool to paint over any area you want to bring back its original color. If you bring back too much color, press X to flip-flop your color chips so you're painting with white, and then paint that area to make it black and white again. 
Motion Presets in Flash CS4By Chris Grover This screencast, adapted from Flash CS4: The Missing Manual, reviews the changes to making motion tweens in Flash CS4. 
The screencast covers the following:
Five Practical Tips for Web Site Authors
Web site developer and Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual author Matthew MacDonald shares five important — and sometimes overlooked — tips that Web site authors should keep in mind as they develop their pages.
See the Missing Manuals Team
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