This book has a lot of artworks inside it, every artwork are used to explore advanced tecnics, some of then are avaible on the cd so you can explore it.
To use this book you have to know the basics of this software. For novices I recomend the Anessa Hartman "Exploring Illustrator CS".

I'm new to Illustrator, having only experience in Photoshop. This book was not designed with me, a beginner, in mind. The first 40 pages are filled with "new & improved in Illustrator CS" tips, which make little sense at all to a person who's never used the program, even when sitting in front of the PC with the book open. The Zen of the Pen section, designed as a finger exercise to get a person used to clicking with the right hand and using shortcut keys with the left hand, is confusing, and lacks enough step-by-step info for a true beginner to get through it and feel confident.

The accompanying CD has lots of finished art on it, but no tutorials, and seems to be organized in an unusual structure. It's as if the author is using her book to showcase her fellow artists' work and not to show exactly how these things were created. There are a few deconstructing exercises, but again, not very beginner-oriented. I longed for bezier curve exercises, how-to's, etc., but was left disappointed. The CD is useless for learning, to be blunt.

I would have given this a 2 if not for the wonderful color illustrations, and the fact that it's probably and excellent book for someone with previous Illustrator experience. I'm using this book for a college class, and about 70% of the class, over half of which HAVE Illustrator experience, are disappointed in the tome's info as well.

For a beginner, I'd recommend Classroom in a book, or some other, 1-2-3 type book. I wanted detailed information on how to accomplish concrete tasks, and instead I got a book that skims over techniques with a lot of pretty pictures.

I read the reviews here before purchasing this book and was encouraged by some of them. In addition to this book, I purchased Illustrator CS Killer Tips and Adobe Illustrator CS Idea Kit. Now, not to the insult the author, but this book was horrifying. I felt like I was reading a boring, difficult college textbook! I'm not new to Adobe or the interface, and I self-taught myself Elements and Photoshop. I must say that I was severely dissapointed by the lack of visual aid, visual detail, and failure to get me intrigued - how could I be with pages and pages of text to read with one or two pictures of angles or crappy artwork? I have to find another Illustrator book so I actually learn something...what a dissapointment! The CD was also relatively dissapointing - nothing was interactive and was not at all well-explained in the book or the content on CD. Plus, some of the lessons were advertisements for Steuer's online classes. Ha! The only good thing was the art that it did have was in color, and color is good - which is why I gave it one more star than I would've. If you buy it, don't open the CD so you have the option of returning it.

The ideas and concepts in this book are excellent. However, there is a significant amount of redirection...if you like, this look in this chapter, or we'll see more on this later in this chapter. Combined with the many sidebars and tips, the overall effect is a little distracting, and gets in the way of some very valuable information and concepts.

This book is one of the better books I've come across as far as learning the tricks that you need to make realistic artwork and almost anything else. The tutorials do take a lot of practice and adjusting on your own to really figure out what they are offering. They dont go over things step by step by step like beginner books do so if you dont have the basics down dont bother. Once you get those basics down though, this should be the first book you get. It teaches you all the tricks of the trade that are necessary to be true masters of Illustrator.

I am an Adobe Certified Photoshop user and member of the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals - http://www.photoshopuser.com) and a self-taught designer. So, I pick up things pretty quickly. However, I am a novice when it comes to Illustrator. This book is HORRIBLE for beginners. The complete lack of detail for the lessons is terrible. The author should stick to design and forget about teaching and writing books. It is difficult to find quality Illustrator CS books and this is definately not one of them. Stick to the Adobe Classroom in a Book series - even though their Illustrator CS books has some errors to it. I gave this book 2 stars only because it has great art in it. It was not for the quality of the lessons. This book sucks.

I find this book even more than the actualtutorials I've watched in the college classroom in person and live. I highly recommand buying this book if you want to learn Illustrator.

I have been using vector programs as my main graphics tool almost daily since 1991. I have instructed and trained quite a few people in the use of vector graphic programs. I try to get people to think vector rather than just learning techniques of various vector applications; I believe this will help a designer's thinking and execution in both vector and raster work.

Until last week I never looked at any of the Illustrator WOW Books because the title seems to point to the kind of instruction I don't care for. I recently looked through and then purchased Sharon Steuer's latest Illustrator CS Wow Book. I was very impressed with how she teaches the ideas behind vector art while still covering the application techniques. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of vector art. This is about as good as it gets.

Sharon Steuer's approach to vector art builds the users knowledge about how to think in vector. This makes the user more aware and understanding of raster also. Sharon Steuer knows these principles and makes them the foundation of the art she picks and the method of her demonstration. Sharon Steuer is the only writer I have encountered that locks down these concepts from the simplest of her instruction through the most esoteric of her lessons. She will be the first writer I recomend to people at any level of ability that wants to learn or expand their graphic art understanding.

Roger Harris
Eikon Studio

The latest addition to Sharon's long list of fabulous 'WOW' books has arrived at the Design-Bookshelf.com, and everyone agrees it's not only the BEST of the WOW series, it raises the bar for illustrator how-to books from this day forward.

Agreed: Sharon has retained some of the lessons from past WOW books. These lessons still hold true to the spirit of essential training, and should never be discarded. The pull-out "Finger Dance" card is indispensable, and no one -- read my lips -- no one does a better job of teaching the Pathfinder tools and the Gradient Mesh. Sharon's visual explanation of Clipping Masks and Opacity Masks in just a few pages goes further than 20 pages in the pulp books.

The new content easily offsets the price with glorious color visions of the most striking Illustrator work being created today. And then you get the insider details on how they were done. It's not just about teaching the software. You can lecture on Envelopes and Warps until dark, but nothing comes close to the "how-did-they-do-that" spark of enlightenment to fully learn the technique. Along with the "how" there's got to be a "WHY" or you're spinning your wheels.

We seriously disagree with another reviewer here who seems to find a lack of "WOW" in the new edition. Hold a mirror under his nose! If the Gallery samples are not wowing you, and the new series on typography doesn't wow you -- and the warping, crunching and filters section doesn't wow you... or the fabulous art and tutorials on the CD don't wow you . . . you may not be breathing!

I fully recommend this book to my "Intro To Digital Graphics" students at James Madison University. And, with each new roll-out of Illustrator, I find the WOW books the most inspiring and most useful teaching aid available today. I encourage the students to have the spine shaved off and the book drilled for 3-ring binder use -- so it lays flat for use during the exercises. They do it and they thank me. I also believe the Illustrator Visual Quickstart books are excellent. I require them as well for use as a "shop manual" -- but the Illustrator WOW book is the one that inspires the students to greatness.

If you've never purchased an Illustrator WOW book, then you MUST. We at the Design-Bookshelf.com believe that no matter how many WOW books are on your shelf, if you paid your blood-money to Adobe for the CS version, your investment in software will go much further by adding this new WOW book!

I've been faithfully buying each Illustrator WOW! Book since they came out and am generally pleased with the amount of content covering the new release. I can't say the same for the CS version of this book. I was a bit underwhelmed with the focus they put on the 3D features. Nothing really WOWed me and I felt I could find the same examples and information via the Adobe site.

On the other hand, if you're just starting out with Illustrator and have a good understanding of the basics, this is a good book to get for a look into seeing what most of the tools and commands can do.

I liked this book, but I was really hoping for more tips, shortcuts, tricks etc, especially for the new stuff in CS. If you're looking for a book for inspiration of whats possible in Illustrator, this is good. If you want tips and tricks it's just okay.

The Bad:

I had heard in many reviews that the cover would seperate from the pages, and vice versa. I got the book, and noticed it right away. Thankfully, I remembered a trick back in undergrad: set the book on its side so you can pour Elmers Wood Glue were the cover meets the base of the pages: carefully seperate the cover from the back of pages just a little bit (with a pencil tip, pocket knife, whatever); now pour the glue back there, and let it flow all the way through to the bottom side. This way there is glue between the book cover and the base of the pages where they meet the book cover.

When done, compress the book and let dry over night. That's it!

The Good:

Graphics, layout, and effective illustrations - Excellent!

Despite not knowing a single thing about Illustrator, chapter one got me up and running faster than any book. Moreover, I have a better understanding of Photoshop now.

I then jumped up to chapter 5 on layers. I felt that was important for me - I never quite got it in Photoshop. I felt it did an extraordinary job of training me on layers. And it had many pages of tricks that were very useful. I'm really liking this Illustrator! Who would have knew?

And then finally, I went to chapter 6: fonts. The real reason I wanted illustrator was to work on great fonts for logo's. Then export them to photoshop for final touches.

Im just beginning in Type. But now I clearly see why Illustrator is where you want to be to make our type! Not photoshop! Incredible stuff! I can also see where the Wacom tablet would be great to have!

OVERALL:

Shame on Peach Pit press! You can't get away with sending out books that are already falling apart upon delivery! I am certain that many people, not knowing how to fix it themselves, will likely never opt for another 'Wow' book again! If you aren't going to do it right, then don't do it at all. I can just imagine how many people you made very angry! You have likely hurt your future sales, and will spend untold money refunding this crappy binding.

Book writer and editor: Bravo! I wish all subjects were taught your way: great clearity, thorough, and wonderful illustration for those of us who hate reading much stuff anyway!

If it weren't for the rotten cover, I would have given it 5 stars!

(7-Jan-04)
Update to Original Review:

I received a replacement after the original began to fall
apart after only 30 minutes. My overall rating remains a
a four, because the binding still is not of high quality.
Amazon (of course) gets high marks for great customer
service, and timely deliver of a new copy.

The contents of the book are VERY good, which seems well
suited for my purposes of gaining creative technique and
insight to use Illustrator more productively.

While the binding on the replacement is better than
the first, it still is not of high quality. PeachPit needs

to improve their quality.

Though I would hate to rate the book any lower than a four,
because it's contents are so good. It's too bad that
the poor quality of PeachPit is effecting this otherwise
wonderful (and nearly perfect) book.

-----------------------------------------------------
(28-Dec-03)
Let me start by stating that I am giving two ratings.

The first rating is for the contents, which seem to be VERY good.

However, that is based on only 1 hour of "browsing" through the book. It looks very useful, and similar to the Photoshop Wow book, which I also find to be very good.

Now, for the "other" rating. Perhaps it was because I was one of the first to receive this book, having pre-ordered it two weeks before it shipped. However, the binding was VERY poor quality. It began to fall apart upon the first opening of the book. After only 30 minutes, I was afraid the entire book would become unbound, and fall completely apart.

I am now returning it to Amazon, for replacement. I'll update this posting when I see the quality of the replacement book.

If the quality is good, I may even go up to 5 stars. If it isn't good, it will likely go to 2 or fewer stars. We'll see...

Funny, I recently got this book....the cover design is different than what I am looking at now on this Amazon screen...despite purchasing it from Amazon.

I had the 9.0 Wow book and it helped me tremendously. This book has done the same thing. Despite some other books I have recently purchased targeting folks like me that have purchased the entire Adobe CS Suite, this book does a good job in highlighting the significant new features in Illy CS. Especially the 3D area. The supplemental CD-ROM is helpful also. I only gave 4 stars because of the book cover artwork (makes me suspicious) and, out of Sharon's control, but the residual techniques from prior versions are delivered in the same format I think. Sorta copy-n-paste.