WHILST IT'S WONDERFULLY CONVENIENT that we can buy books online from the comfort of our chairs and then have them delivered straight to the door, it does unfortunately take away the ability to thumb through the pages to get an idea of the book's content, as we could if we had pulled a copy from the shelf of the local bookstore.

To help bridge this missing link there follows a list of the chapters within, with a brief synopsis of what each contains. As well as the descriptions there is a sample spread from each chapter; to view it, click the relevant chapter heading.

1SELECTION TECHNIQUES Learn how to combine selections, make detailed cutouts, isolate areas for painting and applying filters, and much more. 7LIGHT AND SHADE Add shadows and shading to flat images to create the illusion of depth. Create spotlights, change day to night and much more!
2WORKING WITH LAYERS Create and import layers into your document. Automatically align image components. Use styles and blend modes, and more! 8 SHINY SURFACES Make glossy product shot style reflections, put people in jars, create shiny liquids or conjure up water from thin air!
3TRANSFORMATION AND DISTORTION Learn how to scale and distort images, wrap objects around surfaces, create folds and ripples, and more! 9 MATERIALS AND TEXTURES Create woodgrain, stained-glass effects and paper textures. Give edges a torn effect, and much more!
4HIDING AND SHOWING Use masks, blend modes and other tricks to selectively and non-destructively hide and fade away parts of an image. 10 PEOPLE AND ANIMALS Remove blemishes, lose a few pounds, or years! Swap people's heads. Create pop-art portraits, Hollywood chic, and more!
5IMAGE ADJUSTMENTS Clean up, repair, and sharpen your images. Selectively change colours in an image. Replace dull skies, and much more! 11 THE THIRD DIMENSION Learn how to work in perspective. Open up solid objects or closed doors. Create an out-of-bounds image and more!
6 WORKING WITH TEXT Discover how to make neon-style text, warp text around a circle, make 3D gold logos, carve lettering into stone, and more! 12 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES Work with complex selections. Create reusable images. Make clever animations. Save web-friendly images.