FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT EBOOKS
"What is an ebook?"
Ebooks are digital or electronic books, designed to be read read on personal computers, or on dedicated hardware devices known as e-book readers. These e-books are best enjoyed on a computer, because you'll want to zoom in on the images. For certain books (such as the Retouching book) this provides a great advantage over a printed book, as you can examine the images in greater detail. In Adobe Reader, words within the text can be searched automatically, and cross-referenced using hyperlinks. You can jump straight to any page directly from the contents page. This makes e-books an excellent choice of format for texts that benefit from search and cross-reference capabilities, such tutorials, reference books and textbooks. Text-to-speech software can be used to automatically convert e-books to spoken books, and Adobe Reader has this functionality built-in. An ebook doesn't need to be held open like a book, so it can be much more comfortable to read hands-free. If you have a laptop you can open the e-book on the laptop next to your main screen, and follow the tutorials on your main computer. No environmental resources are consumed by e-book production.
"How do ebooks save me money?"
Ebooks are usually priced at half the price of printed paper books, so you save roughly 50%. This also an environmentally friendly option. Our e-books can of course be printed out hi-res, but to save a few trees we recommend that you only print the sections you really need.
There are no shipping charges. You can download the book online as soon as your payment has cleared. In most cases this is instant, but if you are using e-cheque it may take a few days to clear.
Instant delivery (well almost), if you compare a few minutes wait to ordering a paper book and waiting 2 to 3 days for delivery by snail mail.
They save you precious time. Get live hyperlinks to resources online. Search for specific text in an ebook, and cross-reference easily.
"How do I download an ebook?”
When you purchase the PDF ebook, you will be taken straight to a download link, and as soon as you click on it the file will download automatically to your computer. Our ebooks are formatted as PDF files. You can read them in the Adobe Reader. However they are password protected and the password will be delivered to you in the same ZIP-file as the book itself.
"How do I read ebooks?"
Click here to get Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading ebooks, it's FREE and easy to use. These books require Adobe Reader 6.0 or later. The latest version is Adobe Reader 9, and is a great improvement on previous versions, with a cleaner layout and dynamic thumbnails as you scroll through.
"Do I have to be online to read ebooks?"
No, you can read an ebook whether you're on or offline.
"Can ebooks be read on a MAC or a PC?"
Yes! PDF files were created to be read on any platform, as long as you have Adobe Reader.
Can I read eBooks on PDAs?
In principle – yes, you can read PDF eBooks on a Palm OS device using Adobe Reader for Palm OS v3 or higher, if the device has a high amount of memory. You must first download the eBook to a PC or MacOS X computer using Adobe Reader 6.0 and then transfer to the PDA. Bear in mind that the size of these ebooks may be too big for most of these devices, as they contain a large amount of hi-res images.
"Can I print portions or the whole ebook?"
Yes! With our ebooks, you can print the entire book or only the pages you need, as long as you do not distribute them to others. These ebooks are copyright protected.
"How do I purchase an ebook?"
You can buy from the home page, the book's Contents & Preview page, by clicking on any of the Buy buttons. We accept Paypal and Google Checkout, and all major credit cards are accepted by both of these. We have a really fabulous guide to purchasing and downloading online, and downloading our products. It's a step-by-step guide for both PayPal and Google Checkout. It helps you make sure that you make your purchase the right way, whether you have an account with them or not. Once it's taken you through the purchase pages, with screenshots all the way, it then takes you through the downloading and unzipping – all the steps with Mac screenshots.
"What if I have a problem downloading the Ebook file?"
99% of the time the downloads go smoothly, but sometimes the Order Info email doesn't come through to the buyer, because you may have over-zealous spam filters, making it impossible for the automated email to come through. We therefore supply the passwords with the book itself, so that each buyer gets the password without delay. Also check the abovementioned purchase and download guide.
Please make sure that spam filters are turned off on the account that you're using for buying things online, especially if you are using e-cheques, as we rely on the automated email to get through to you, so that you can download the book when the e-cheque clears.
If you are using e-cheque you will NOT be taken automatically to the download link, but you'll recieve an email when it clears. This might take up to 10 working days. To be honest, we find e-cheques problematic, because people are often unaware that they are using them, and expect their digital goods straight away. This happens when a) your bank account is funding the purchase (ie. not the funds on your PayPal account) or if your funding Credit Card is expired and not updated with PayPal. Unfortunately, because they don't explain it clearly enough – we have to!
If you have read the above, and still have trouble with the download, please contact support@grygarness.com
"What if I prefer good old paper books?"
We are considering print books in the future. Please fill in a feedback form in one of the tutorials or the form that comes with the ebook, to register your interest in print books, and we will keep you informed.
"What if I have other questions or concerns not covered here?"
Email us for more information. Send your questions to support@grygarness.com
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