There are many books that will teach you how to use Photoshop. This isn’t one of them. Throughout all the editions of How to Cheat in Photoshop – a book which will, incidentally, teach you how to use Photoshop – I’ve maintained a website and reader forum to help readers with their photomontage-related problems. This has included a regular weekly contest, the Friday Challenge. And I’ve noticed that one of the major issues facing Photoshop artists is not how to use the Curves dialog, or the Pen tool, or how to save work for the web. One of the major stumbling blocks, it turns out, is the design process. There are several areas of difficulty. Typography has been a particular problem: with so many dozens of fonts shipping with every new computer, and with thousands more available through the internet, how are we to select one that’s appropriate for the task we’re working on? Is there more to choosing the right font than merely picking one that stands out on screen, or which happens to appeal to us? Of course there is, which is why I’ve devoted a chapter to explaining how typography works, and how to make it work in your favor. There are several different visual arts disciplines, and each has its own set of conventions and received wisdom. Art students will be familiar with the laws of perspective and the notion of balance; photographers will recognize therule of Thirds