My main reaction to the first 1998 edition of Photoshop for the Web was surprise. After all, Photoshop 5 was a print-based photo editor with no dedicated Web features and little to offer apart from the ability to save to JPEG and GIF. It was rather like finding a tome on book-keeping with Microsoft Word - maybe you can do it, but why would you want to?

Since then a lot has changed and the latest Photoshop 5.5/ImageReady 2 combination offers serious Web power. The old print bias is still lurking, however, and Photoshop for the Webs first chapter explains just what must be done before the program is truly set up for producing Web work, from switching off ICC profiling through to changing the default interpolation method.

The origins of this in-depth knowledge lies in the experiences gained by the author, Mikkel Aaland, from swimming against the tide with earlier versions of Photoshop, and the reader benefits greatly from the resulting hard-won practical advice. A typical example is the tip for squeezing a few per cent out of your JPEG file size by first converting to LAB mode, blurring the A and B channels and then converting back to RGB before optimising.

Its clear that no stone has been left unturned to make the most of Photoshops all-round bitmap power. With dedicated chapters on producing background tiles, type and navigational devices, all featuring illustrated examples from professional designers, this emphasis on first-hand, real-world advice continues throughout the book.

Or rather, it does until the last chapter. Sadly, when it comes to dealing with Photoshop 5.5s dedicated Web add-on, ImageReady 2, the author runs out of inspiration - and apparently even interest. The crucial subjects of HTML tables, image maps and rollovers are all dealt with in a couple of superficial pages. And when someone says, I havent found a GIF animation program thats easier to use than ImageReady, you know they havent tried many other programs.

This is a big disappointment, but as ImageReady isnt half the program that Photoshop is, its perhaps understandable. More importantly, it isnt necessarily fatal. If your needs dont stretch beyond static, standalone Web graphics, Photoshop 5.5 offers everything you need, and Photoshop for the Web will certainly help you make the most of it.