In my opinion, this book is not for beginners using Painter 5, and definitely not for beginners using photo-enhancing or graphic design programs. The opening pages of the book contain a message for beginners stating which chapters the author highly suggests reading and what the book assumes the reader is already familiar with, which is helpful. The opening chapter is all about using the basics of the program. It explains how to open and save files and reviews the different file formats that one can save files as. Chapter 4, the other chapter recommended for beginners, also discusses the tools bar, the different icons presented, and their use.
Every chapter contains tips regarding various techniques and tools.
I found this information to be useful as I went through the chapters. However, all of the information is cluttered up together. Each page contains a lot of information via the text in the chapter, plus multiple graphics on each page, mainly visually describing what the chapter is discussing, and then a few tips on top of that. I found this layout to be overwhelming, especially for my novice self. Book 3 Geekheads for Readability.