Design books
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
Over eight editions, How to Cheat in Photoshop has sold around a quarter of a million copies, with versions in French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Thai, and one or two extra languages I haven’t decoded yet. Known as HotChiPs to its fans, the book includes a companion Reader Forum which has over a thousand members and is a lively place to ask Photoshop-related questions, talk through techniques and take part in the weekly Friday Challenge.
Visit the book’s website here.
Art & Design in Photoshop
You may be adept at creating photomontage illustrations, but are your design skills up to creating a Film Noir poster? Or a blockbuster thriller cover? Can you fake a Mondrian, a Picasso or a Lichtenstein?
The first chapters in Art & Design in Photoshop explain about layout, design, typography and illustration styles, all from the Photoshop user’s point of view. The book then goes on to look at poster, novel, textbook and other design styles, with double-page spreads explaining how to create, parody and mimic well-known styles.
100% Photoshop
Photoshop is best known as an image manipulation program. But what happens when you take the photography out of the equation? 100% Photoshop explains how to create stunning, photorealistic artwork from scratch, without any photographic images, textures or backgrounds whatsoever.
Each chapter opens with a double-page spread showing a completed scene, and the chapter then goes on to explain how to build every single element in that scene.
3D Photoshop
From extruding text to inflating beetles, from revolving wine glasses to importing anatomical models, 3D Photoshop covers the gamut of Photoshop’s 3D capabilities.
“Steve Caplin has an incredible depth of knowledge with all of Photoshop. He has been working with the 3D tools from the start and is one of the few experts who understands how to leverage the 3D capabilities”
– Zorana Gee, Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager
Adobe has now, sadly, removed 3D functionality from Photoshop.
The Complete Guide to Digital Illustration
Co-written with much-missed MacUser editor Adam Banks, this book explains digital illustration from first principles, showing how images came about and detailing the most popular tools for creating them. If you don’t know your object-oriented imagery from your bitmaps, this is the book that explains all – although it’s now somewhat out of date.
Icon Design
My first book, Icon Design covers the history and practice of non-verbal representation, from hieroglyphics through to modern computer icons. It details how and why icons work, and explains how to create them in a step-by-step tutorial.
Written in 2001, Icon Design is now more of a historic relic than a contemporary guide.
Mainstream books
Dad Stuff
Dad Stuff was our first collaboration, and it proved to be a big hit – after being featured three times on Richard & Judy, it hit the top-selling spot on Amazon – above Stephen King’s latest novel!
While mums get to chat at coffee mornings and at the school gates, dads have none of this support network. And so when we have to look after our kids, it means relying on our wits, or remembering ancient games from our own childhood. Dad Stuff is packed with games, pastimes, sports, puzzles, and many more activities to ensure that time spent with your kids really is quality time for both of you.
Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-0743275743
More Dad Stuff
More Dad Stuff was, unsurprisingly, the sequel to Dad Stuff. It includes another shedload of car games, recipes, songs, puzzles, activities and pastimes to ensure that your kids continue to enjoy your undivided attention even after you’ve both exhausted the joys of Dad Stuff.
Simon & Schuster, 2007. ISBN 978-0743295406
Stuff the Turkey
You don’t have to be Scrooge to find Christmas and New Year an ordeal. So much to think of, so much to prepare, so much to eat. Stuff the Turkey is the tongue-in-cheek yet informative guide to the festive season, with enough games to entertain the children through the 12 days of Christmas. About the only thing it won’t do is stick its hand up the turkey’s rear for you.
Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 978-0743295147
Complete and Utter Zebu
We’re subjected to a daily barrage of deception so pervasive that we barely notice it any more. Although the big lies still make the headlines, it’s the small, everyday half-truths that really drive many of us to distraction.
‘Ice cream’ with no cream, ‘chocolate flavour’ with no chocolate, ‘customer service’ with no service. You have won a prize… Your call is important to us… Lies, lies and more damned lies. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Old Street Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1906964337
Fun and Games for the 21st Century Family
Forget the serious parenting: this book shows you and your family can have more fun together – the 21st-century way. From Google racing to geocaching, from code breaking to filmmaking to robot baiting, it’s bursting with over 200 new, exciting and creative ideas, for rainy days and sunny afternoons, for children’s parties and car journeys, for the few minutes before bed or the whole weekend, and for all ages from 3 to 103.
Old Street Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-1906964436