The inspiration for this book came when Felix saw what the car payment would be on a new Porsche Boxster. He came to me and said, “Dude, I gotta write a book.” Okay, you know we're kidding, but admit it—don't you secretly wish that for once, when someone was doing something strictly for the money, they'd just come out and say so. Just once, wouldn't you like to hear someone admit it? Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I can tell you unequivocally that Felix and I absolutely did not write this book for the money. We wrote it to get free drugs. All authors get free drugs—it's in every book contract. Always has been.

Actually, the reason we wanted to write this book is because of something that is already in almost every Photoshop book ever written: the tips. You know—those cool little tips littered throughout the sidebars of all great Photoshop books. We found that those little tips were often our favorite parts of the book. In fact, Felix and I agreed that frequently we'd read all those little sidebar tips first—before we'd ever sit down to actually read a chapter. It's those neat little tips that the great authors include that make using Photoshop so much fun (and make their books so great). The only problem is, there's just not enough of 'em.

So we thought, “Wouldn't it be cool if there was a Photoshop book where the whole book, cover-to-cover, was nothing but those little tips on the side!” Then Felix jumped up and yelled, “Let's write that book!” I jumped up and yelled, “Yes, yes! We have to write that book. It's our destiny!” Then Felix yelled, “Then I can get my Porsche!” I mean, he yelled, “This book will help humanity and be written for the common good” (or something like that. I can't remember. Probably because of all the drugs).

Is this book for you? Are you kidding? This book is so for you that it secretly freaks you out. Look, we don't know you personally, but we know Photoshop people. You're just like us—you love those little sidebar tips just as much as we do. If you didn't, authors would've stopped adding them to their books years ago, because, frankly, they're a pain in the butt to compile. But we know what you're thinking. Sure, you love those little tips—those inside secrets that make you look smart at parties and gain respect from your peers, homies, peeps, and other esteemed colleagues, but you want something more. You want the one thing that those cool little sidebar tips never seem to have. That's right, graphics. As cool as those sidebar tips are, they're always just a tiny little box with a couple of lines of text (like the sidebar we added above left). So we thought we'd expand the explanations just enough to make them more accessible, and add an accompanying graphic to enhance each tip's innate juiciness. They must remain “juicy.” They must be “juicy tips.”

Now you're probably wondering, “Guys, Photoshop is one amazing program with an unrivaled power and incredible depth. Couldn't you have come up with at least 1,000 Photoshop tips?” Absolutely. We could have included loads of tips, such as “F7 brings up the Layers palette,” and “Press G-Shift-G to get the Paint Bucket tool,” but the problem is, those aren't “Killer Tips.” Every Photoshop book has those tips. Heck, books about gardening probably even have those Photoshop tips. For a tip to get in this book, it had to be a “Killer Tip.” Each tip had to be one that would make the reader smile, nod, and then pick up the phone to call another Photoshop user just to “tune them up” with their newfound power. Remember, these are killer tips, so be careful. Someone could get hurt.

In my previous Photoshop books, Photoshop CS Down & Dirty Tricks and The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers, I used a technique that really worked well. I gratuitously mentioned my other books in the introduction, just in case I didn't get to plug them later. No, wait… that's not it. What I did tell the reader was that my books aren't set up like a novel. They're purposely not designed to make you start at Chapter One and read your way through to the back (where hopefully, I'll again have an opportunity to plug, I mean casually mention, my other books). Instead, this book is designed so you can jump in anywhere, in any chapter, and immediately try the tips that interest you the most, regardless of your level of experience in Photoshop. You don't need to load any special images from a CD-ROM or go to a website to download special photos—these are just cool tips. No flaming type, no multilevel glows—just timesaving shortcuts and efficiency tips that will make you faster and better at Photoshop than you'd ever thought you'd be.

Also, like my previous books, we spell out everything. So if you've been using Photoshop for years, don't let it frustrate you because instead of just writing, “Create a new layer,” we usually write, “Create a new layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.” We do that because we want everyone, at any skill level, to be able to open the book to any page and start applying these cool tips to their work immediately.

This book is built on the premise that “Speed Kills.” Because after all, if you get faster at Photoshop, you'll have more time to be creative, and the more time you spend being creative, the more fun you'll have.

This book is not only for Mac and Windows users, it's for people who don't even have a computer. In fact, it's ideal for anyone with $29.99 (kidding). Because Photoshop is identical on both the Macintosh and Windows operating systems, the book is for both Mac and Windows users. However, the keyboards on a Mac and PC are slightly different, so every time we give a keyboard shortcut, we give both the Mac and Windows shortcuts. (Well, there is one other difference—in Mac OS X you'll find Photoshop's Preferences under the Photoshop menu instead of the Edit menu like it used to be in the Mac OS and still is in Windows.)

This book is designed to be read while moving at a high rate of speed. If you're barreling down the highway going 80 mph, weaving in and out of traffic, that's the ideal time to turn to Chapter Six to read the tip on “How to assist EMS workers with using the Jaws of Life.” Okay, admittedly, that's probably not a good idea, so instead, just make sure you open this book in front of your computer so you can dive right into the tips. Remember, the one who dies with the most cool tips wins.

You're almost ready to get to the tips, but first a word of caution: “Caution.” There. Now you're ready. Actually, we did want to point out that the only two actual sidebar tips in the entire book are on these two pages. So, don't go rippin' through the book looking for all those little sidebar tips, because we intentionally left the sidebars blank. Why? So we could write another book called The Missing Killer Tips Sidebars, just in case Felix ever sees what the payment is for a house on the beach.