Intended for all audiences, the book starts by introducing the application from the ground up, paying special attention to its many new features. Liberal use of screen shots makes the book easy to follow, and many of the pictures are annotated, drawing attention to the feature or trick being discussed. As with most books of this size, though, the color images are limited to a gallery section in the middle. Even chapter 14, "Color Correcting and Exposure," is printed in black and white.

There are many useful examples throughout the book. "Creating Special Effects with Type" (chapter 13), "Repairing Heirloom Photos" (chapter 15), retouching with the clone stamp tool (chapter 17), and using shapes (chapter 12) are a few gems. Even if you've been using Photoshop for years, there will be a number of times when you read a trick and raise an eyebrow, thinking "Wow, I didn't know that!"

There are four main sections, beginning with an introduction to the basics, understanding color management, and acquiring and outputting images. Part II, "Digging Deeper," explores the real power under the hood--creating and using selections, creating layers to build images, and creating and using shapes. "Exploring the Cool Stuff," part III, offers some real-world examples on how to use color correction, how to use many of the available tools, and how to work with type.

Photoshop isn't the only application you get when you buy Photoshop, though. Adobe has been bundling ImageReady with it for some time now, and Photoshop 6 and ImageReady 3 make a powerful set of tools for Web artists. Because of this already large and growing market, part IV of this book, nearly a quarter of the whole, is all about ImageReady and how it interacts with Photoshop. Preparing images, creating image maps, and building rollovers are well covered. Even if you've never coded HTML in your life, ImageReady, Photoshop, and Inside Adobe Photoshop 6 make it easier than you can imagine.