Photoshop is one of the most commonly used tools in the web designer’ s arsenal. From the prepar ation of initial design comps to generating optimized graphics for a web page, most web designers rely heavily on this powerful program. In this introductory chapter , I’ll cover some of the basic tools and tasks that we’ll draw on in later chapters. I’ll also share some of the shortcuts and time-savers that I frequently use. This chapter will stop short of providing an exhaustive review of the many effects that Photoshop can achieve (where would it end?), but it will provide the bare bones that will help.