PhotoImpact 7
Jason Dunn and James “Iacobus” Rodel
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PhotoImpact 7 Power! Copyright ©2001 Muska & Lipman Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written permission from the publisher, except for brief passages for review purposes. Address all permission requests to the publisher. All copyrights and trademarks used as examples or references in this book are retained by their individual owners. Credits: Cover and interior design, Stephanie Japs, Cathie Tibbetts, and Kevin Vollrath, DOV Graphics; Technical Editors, James “Iacobus” Rodel, Colwin Chan (Ulead); Development and Copy Editor, Don Fluckinger; Proofreader, Rodney A. Wilson; Indexer, Kevin Broccoli, Broccoli Information Management. Publisher: Andy Shafran Technology and the Internet are constantly changing, and by necessity of the lapse of time between the writing and distribution of this book, some aspects might be out of date. Accordingly, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for actions taken by readers based upon the contents of this book.
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2001097123 ISBN 1-929685-39-4 5 4 3 2 1 Educational facilities, companies, and organizations interested in multiple copies or licensing of this book should contact the publisher for quantity discount information. Training manuals, CDROMs, and portions of this book are also available individually or can be tailored for specific needs.
Muska & Lipman Publishing 2645 Erie Avenue, Suite 41 Cincinnati, Ohio 45208 www.muskalipman.com
[email protected]
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About the Authors Jason Dunn
[email protected] www.kensai.com Jason has been using PhotoImpact for Web design and creative expression since version 3.0, and after abandoning Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 for Ulead products, he’s never looked back. As the owner of Kensai Design & Communications (www.kensai.com), he lends his skills to a variety of projects in the writing, graphical, and Web design genres. He co-authored Short Order Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 (Hayden Books) and has tech edited several other computing titles. He also has an upcoming release from APRESS on the phenomenon of web logging (think Blogger.com and others). Outside of the graphics realm, he’s a contributing editor for Microsoft’s PocketPC.com and, as a five-year veteran of the Microsoft Most-Valuable Professional program in the Windows CE arena, he spends several hours each day answering questions and assisting users in the public support newsgroups. He has been an active player in the evolving Windows Powered Devices market, and his dozens of PocketPC.com articles have also been translated into German and French. Jason also has a web log called Pocket PC Thoughts (www.pocketpcthoughts.com), and in the span of one year it has evolved to become one of the top Pocket PC web sites with daily news & views. His background is in communications, having earned a degree in public relations from Mount Royal College. When he’s not sitting in front of one of his four computers, he’s ripping one apart to upgrade one component or another. And if he’s not doing that, he’s playing bass guitar and singing, reading a good fantasy or sci-fi book, or going for a walk with his new wife, Ashley, through the Calgary, Alberta, Canada suburb in which he lives. Jason also enjoys digital photography, and he’s on the continual quest for the ultimate prosumer digital camera—which no one seems to have made yet!
James Rodel
[email protected] Iacobus (born James Rodel) is an independent Web designer for RodelWorks, a small homebased business that provides various Internet-related services in Brockton, Massachusetts. He also maintains a tutorial site at the RodelWorks Web site (www.rodelworks.com) for PhotoImpact users.
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Dedication Jason: This book is dedicated to my mother and father, Valerie and Robert Dunn. Mom and Dad, your constant support and encouragement have meant a great deal to me over the years. You’ve always been there when I needed you, and your unconditional support under all circumstances is something I’ll never forget. I also dedicate this book to my extremely patient, and always beautiful, new wife, Ashley. James: My efforts are dedicated to the victims and their families of September 11, 2001. You are forever in my woeful heart. Godspeed.
Acknowledgments Jason: I couldn’t have done the book without the help of my co-author, James “Iacobus” Rodel. James, thanks for putting in those long hours to help get this book finished. Thanks to everyone at Muska & Lipman (Andy, Don) for helping this book along, especially when it hit crunch time. To Colwin Chan at Ulead: Thanks for always being so responsive to my phone calls and e-mail, and for your patience in listening to my rants about what needs to be fixed for “next time.” My love and gratitude to my friends and family: Aaron, Cariann, Mom and Dad, thank you for your encouragement and understanding. To my friends Todd “Oilman” Frisen and Chris Whitton, thanks for your support and care. To the members of my church small group: Don, Leslie, Laurie, Shara, Kevin, and Cheryl. Thanks for your constant prayers and support! To Bryan, Darcy, Duncan, and the other church staff members, thanks for your encouragement. My gratitude to you, the reader, for picking this book up and flipping through it—I hope your imagination is lit aflame by the sparks of imagination I tried to pour into this book. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to the Creator who gave me the talent and willpower to strive for great things. VIRTUTIS GLORIA MERCES. James: Family and friends (you know who are, okay?), Music and Art for inspiration, Jason & Don for being wonderful collaborators, Andy & everyone else at Muska & Lipman for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on paper, and Colwin & everyone at Ulead for giving me the opportunity to express myself artistically.
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Contents Introcuction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1—The Basics of Digital Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 PhotoImpact: Where It’s Been and Where It’s Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Using PhotoImpact Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Terminology of the Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Important File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2—Getting to Know PhotoImpact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 A Brief Visual Tour of PhotoImpact 7.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Working With Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Tweaking PhotoImpact for Maximum Quality and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3—The Object-Oriented Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Creating and Inserting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Manipulating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Object Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Saving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Working with Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The Z-Merge Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4—Creating and Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Creating Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Creating Special Type Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 The Text Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5—Creating and Editing Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 What Are Paths? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Creating New Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Editing Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Customizing Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Placing Text and Graphics along a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6—Rich Options with EasyPalette
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
What Is the EasyPalette? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 The Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Applying Gallery Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Adding Effects to the EasyPalette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 EasyPalette Pop-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 http://www.muskalipman.com
vi Using the Object Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Managing Objects with the Layer Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Tweaking EasyPalette Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7—Basic Photo Enhancements and Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169 Getting Your Images into PhotoImpact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Digital Camera Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Post-Processing Wizard for Scanned Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Fixing Problem Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Retouching Human Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
8—Advanced Special Effects for Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 The Art of Digital Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Protecting Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Built-in Filters for Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Cool Blends with Merge Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 The Stamp Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Frames and Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Third-party Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 The Zoom Blur Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Lens Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
9—Designing for the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241 The World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 The Basics of Graphic Design for the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 The Browser-safe/Web-optimized Color Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 Creating Web Graphics with PhotoImpact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10—PhotoImpact Web Design Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .255 The Image Optimizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 The Background Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Image Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 The Button Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Rollover Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 The Slice Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Creating Seamless Tiled Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Designing Entire Web Sites with PI 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Other Ulead Web Design Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
11—Speedy Moves: The Quick Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291 Automation and Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Using Quick Commands—The Absolute Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Using Quick Commands—In Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Creating Your Own Quick Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
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vii Batch Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 The History and Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 Quick Command Panel Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
12—PhotoImpact Templates
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
The Template Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Creating Your Own Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
13—GIF Animator 5.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317 An Introduction to GIF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Customizing Your GIF Animations and How You Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 The Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 The Frame Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 The Index Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 The Best Roads to GIF Animation Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
14—Keeping Track of Your Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .361 Storing Images in Albums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Adding Image Data to an Album . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 Exporting Data from an Album . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Maintaining Albums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 Setting Up Album Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
15-Printing and Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385 Printing from PhotoImpact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Online Digital Print Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Sharing your images with others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
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Introduction
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Introducing PhotoImpact PhotoImpact consistently wins awards from computing magazines for being a great value, but a “great value” award belies the power that PhotoImpact truly has. There are many graphics applications available, but PhotoImpact offers a staggering array of features bundled in a powerful suite of applications that can compete with and, in some ways, even surpass much more expensive applications. This book is an attempt to sum up all the options that PhotoImpact has—it wasn’t easy! There are so many options, functions, and presets that trying to address them all would be impossible. Instead, what we’ve tried to do is cover the main tools, show you how to use them in creative ways, and give you the training needed to go on to explore more. If you’re an intermediate or advanced PhotoImpact user, this book will still teach you a thing or two—we have some techniques in this book that are truly unique and not covered elsewhere. The goal of this book is not to replace the PhotoImpact manual. Where necessary, we walk through an explanation of the tools to help you understand when and why you’d use them, but we try to make everything as real-world as possible. We’re not professional writers who merely convey information—we’re graphic designers who love PhotoImpact and use it daily. The examples in the book are simple to follow and serve as important building blocks for future efforts. Rather than show you how to achieve a single complicated effect, we focused on exposing you to the key functions that, when combined with each other, result in a nearly infinite number of possibilities. More than anything, PhotoImpact is about flexibility and creativity, and in this book we try to show you that.
What’s in this Book The book is organized in a linear fashion, but you can read it any way you want to. In the first few chapters, we explore some of the basic features of PhotoImpact. Beginners should pay close attention to the terms used and familiarize themselves with the toolbars and basic functions. Intermediate and Advanced users can skim these introductory chapters, but there may be some tips and tricks for speed that you aren’t yet aware of. The middle chapters focus on working with text, shapes, and photos, while the latter chapters focus on the web design tools included with PhotoImpact, keeping your images organized, and printing. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what each chapter contains:
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Introduction
PhotoImpact Solutions is divided into fifteen chapters: Chapter 1, “The Basics of Digital Imaging”—The ABCs of the graphics world. Learn about file formats, industry terms like dpi and resolution, and gain some insight into the variety of things PhotoImpact can be used for. Chapter 2, “Getting to Know PhotoImpact”—The 101 level class. How to zoom, crop, resize, open and save files, and tweak PhotoImpact’s operation for maximum speed and quality. Chapter 3, “The Object-Oriented Approach”—Creating, moving, copying, inserting and saving objects. Learn about how to create selections and the wonderful world of objects. Chapter 4, “Creating and Editing Text”—Creating and modifying text, applying effects to it, and making it really shine. Chapter 5, “Creating and Editing Paths”—Everything you need to know about how to create, edit, and manipulate path shapes in PhotoImpact. Learn how to apply text to a path and use the EasyPalette with paths. Chapter 6, “Rich Options with EasyPalette”—The PhotoImpact Easy Palette is the ultimate design tool. Learn how to use the incredible variety of presets, what options it gives you, and how to add your own presets to it. Chapter 7, “Basic Photo Enhancements & Editing”—Learn to salvage even the most damaged of images using techniques and tools found in PhotoImpact. The wonders of the fill tool and corrective hue shifting are explored. Warm up that scanner and learn how to touch-up problematic photos. Chapter 8, “Advanced Special Effects for Photos”—An eye-popping, jawdropping chapter showing you how to unleash the wonders of both built-in and third party plug-ins, frames, edges, and the stamp tool. Take your images to the next dimension! Chapter 9, “Designing for the Web”—Before embarking on creating your first Web page, learn a little about color palettes and the rules of graphic design for the Web. PhotoImpact offers methods for creating your own graphics from scratch, or you can use the built-in Component Designer. Chapter 10, “PhotoImpact Web Design Tools”—Design an entire site within PhotoImpact? You bet! Explore the HTML tools that come with PhotoImpact 7, the Image Optimizer, the Image Map tool, and learn how to create JavaScript Rollover effects. Chapter 11, “Speedy Moves: The Quick Commands”—Learn how to harness the power of batch processes in PhotoImpact to save time. Chapter 12, “PhotoImpact Templates”—Get a quick start to your projects by using a template! Learn how to create your own templates for future projects. Chapter 13, “GIF Animator 5.0”—Ever wanted to know how to create those cool animated banners? This chapter will show you how—along with some important tips and tricks on using GIF Animator 5.0.
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Introduction
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Chapter 14, “Keeping Track of Your Images”—If you have a large collection of digital images, this chapter is a must-read! Learn how to use PhotoImpact Album to track, sort, search, and archive your most important images. Chapter 15, “Printing and Sharing”—Learn about printing from PhotoImpact, how resolution works for digital prints, the best ways to share your images with others, and where to get your new digital creations printed with maximum quality.
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The Basics of Digital Imaging — Chapter 1
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1 CHAPTER 1
The Basics of Digital Imaging PhotoImpact: Where It’s Been and Where It’s Going Amazing but true: Ulead, maker of PhotoImpact, is entering its second decade of making photo manipulation software! It all began with PhotoStyler, first launched in 1990, the first true-color image editor for the Windows platform. And then, six years later, Ulead released PhotoImpact 3.0, the first incarnation of the product we have come to know and love. It was actually the first image editor to come bundled with Web-specific tools like GIF Animator and SmartSaver, as well—a couple of years would go by before Adobe would release its own program for Web designers! In 1997, the Web was exploding with content, and designers scrambled for tools to keep up. Ulead released what I believe to be its first truly killer Web product: PhotoImpact 4.0. This version introduced new Web tools, along with path tools, special effects (like particles and type effects), and an enhanced EasyPalette. I remember seeing this in CompUSA while I was vacationing in Phoenix, Arizona, and buying it because it seemed to have a lot of value to me as a Web designer. A year later in 1998, Ulead released an interim update in the form of 4.2. This fixed a few problems and added minor new features. Version 5.0 of the PhotoImpact line came out in 1999 and offered an increased focus and refinement of the Web tools: JavaScript rollover effects, image slicing, and integrated component design. The EasyPalette was a refined tool with hundreds of presets, and the Quick Commands truly became a power-user’s dream. In the fall of 2000, Ulead released PhotoImpact 6.0, which added HTML tools for Web site creation, a component designer, improved text tools, and spline path drawing tools. And then came version 7.0—read on!
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New in Version 7.0 PhotoImpact 7.0 introduces a few significant advances over 6.0. It’s an evolutionary upgrade, rather than a revolutionary one, but after using it, I was hooked. Here are some of the new things that version 7.0 has: Multiple prints on a page Zoom blur effect Beautify Skin effect Lens Distortion effect Auto photo enhancing EXIF support in PhotoImpact album for JPEG image information Enhanced Web Album and Web Slide Show support Z-Merge Tool for 3D effects Freehand Drawing Object Painting Mode Crystal effect Image Map tool Improved Slice tool JavaScript effects Link Object for Web site design SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) output Improved Layer Manager Document Manager Browse Manager EasyPalette Pop-Up History View The PhotoImpact 7.0 package you purchased contains 2600 Web components, 2000 photos, 1000 pieces of clip art, 700 textures, and an incredible 1700 EasyPalette Samples & Presets. This is in addition to the programs you’re already aware of: the core PhotoImpact program, GIF Animator 5.0, and PhotoImpact Album 7.0. In a nutshell, you’re getting a lot of value for your money. As someone who used to purchase the very expensive Adobe applications, I’m consistently pleased with the value Ulead crams into its products.
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Using PhotoImpact Images
PowerPoint Aside from the skill of the presenter, the difference between good and great Microsoft PowerPoint presentations is the quality of the graphics in the presentation. Whenever I create a PowerPoint presentation, I strive to make it unique and graphically compelling because the design conveys my message to the audience. PhotoImpact is a perfect tool to do this; there are presets for any sort of design I can come up with, and the effects I’m able to generate with it are impressive when projected onto a 20-foot screen. The image seen in Figure 1.1 shows an example of this: The multi-colored background was created in PhotoImpact using Kai’s Power Tools 3.0, while the text and images were created using PhotoImpact-specific tools. PhotoImpact’s button tools are part of the Component Designer and are also excellent for making unique bullet graphics. Figure 1.1 A PhotoImpact image in a PowerPoint presentation.
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What can you use PhotoImpact for? Well, it might be better to ask what you can’t use it for— PhotoImpact is very flexible. If you work on CMYK images in a high-end prepress environment, PhotoImpact probably isn’t the right tool for you. But if you’re a Web designer, amateur or professional, a digital photographer, or simply someone interested in computer graphics, PhotoImpact is one of the best tools on the market. Let’s explore some of the possibilities, and these really are only some of them:
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Desktop Publishing (DTP) Although the Web has overshadowed the desktop publishing realm in recent years, designing attractive brochures, flyers, and print pieces is still an important part of day-to-day business, whether you’re a small business or a church office. I personally find Microsoft Publisher 2000 to be the best program for desktop publishing; it’s fast, simple, and reasonably flexible in accommodating my needs. Let’s face it, though—most clipart is unimpressive. Using PhotoImpact, I created the title image in Figure 1.2, and by using a material preset, I created the metallic gold effect. If the dpi in your image is high enough (300), you can create logos for business cards, letterheads, and more, all using PhotoImpact. Figure 1.2 Logos designed in PhotoImpact can be used in almost any desktop publishing application.
Web Sites Web graphics are where PhotoImpact really shines. In Chapters 7 through 10, we’ll explore the ways you can prepare photos for Web display or create entire Web sites from scratch with rollovers, sliced-up images, and many other things. PhotoImpact 7.0 is first and foremost a Web graphics design tool, and nearly every aspect of the program has been designed with that in mind. Figure 1.3 shows a Web site I designed with an earlier version of PhotoImpact. The buttons are shapes drawn with the Path Tools, while the overall design was tweaked to match the client’s corporate colors.
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Figure 1.3 A Web site designed with PhotoImpact.
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Portable Computers Although relatively unknown to many people, handheld computers are becoming increasingly popular. When I’m not writing about PhotoImpact, I’m writing about Windows Powered Pocket PCs, and I’m constantly finding reasons to use them together. The screen size of a Pocket PC is half-VGA: 240 pixels wide and 320 pixels high, so most regular images don’t fit on the screen. I like to carry images of friends and family on my Pocket PC (a virtual photo album), so I use PhotoImpact to resize and sharpen the images before putting them on the Pocket PC as optimized JPEG files. Figure 1.4 shows a background that I designed for a Pocket PC 2002 device—it’s part of a customized look and feel called a “theme.” The background and planet were created using two third party plug-ins by Flaming Pear called Gliterato and LunarCell. Figure 1.4 The banner was designed with PhotoImpact.
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Desktop Wallpaper I believe computers should be customized to match the user’s interests. Changing your desktop wallpaper is a great way to do this! PhotoImpact is a powerful tool for making desktop wallpaper. If you’re into cars, people, or space landscapes, PhotoImpact is the perfect tool for resizing and tweaking the image to fit your desktop. Want to spice it up a bit? Add a frame or edge effect to your image, a soft vignette, or any number of other special effects. If you want to create a completely custom wallpaper, you can use the Background Designer or a third-party plug-in like Flaming Pear’s Lunar Cell. Figure 1.5 shows the desktop wallpaper I created using that tool. Anything is possible! Figure 1.5 Custom desktop wallpaper designed in PhotoImpact.
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Terminology of the Trade
I still have a great deal of fun experimenting with images, trying to get the image in my mind onto the computer screen. One of the greatest things about computers is that they allow users to express themselves in creative ways with a few simple clicks, even if they don’t have training in the arts. PhotoImpact is especially great for beginners because it comes with a huge set of presets that allows anyone to create an interesting project in no time. In order to get started down the road to digital-image nirvana, though, you first need to understand some of the basics. Like everything else in life, the world of digital imaging brings with it some new terms and concepts that you should understand if you want to grasp the more advanced concepts. I’m going to walk you through a few of the more important terms.
Bitmap Bitmap images, sometimes called raster images, are made up of tiny elements called pixels. A pixel is a single element of color that, when combined with thousands of other pixels, gives you the display you see on your monitor. In the case of a digital photograph, the number of pixels is defined by the resolution. A digital image that is 1600 1200 is actually 1,920,000 pixels in total (usually called 2.1 megapixels in the camera world). If you shrink that image, you’ll reduce the total number of pixels. If you enlarge the image, you expand the number of pixels in the image and force PhotoImpact to extrapolate the new pixels; this usually results in a jagged or blurry image. Bitmap images are great for onscreen display but not ideal for printing (this is explained in greater detail in Chapter 15). PhotoImpact is a bitmap-only program.
Vector Vector images, sometimes referred to as “line art,” are images that are based on lines and mathematical definitions governing those lines. Rather than being made up of individual pixels, vector images are made of up single pixels and mathematical formulas defining the shape of the pixels. This allows vector-based images to scale up and down in size with perfect quality. The downside of vector images is that it takes a great deal of work to manipulate them into having the “wow” factor that bitmap images can have in a few clicks. Traditional clip art is a good example of this: You can expand the clip art as large as you want and the quality stays constant. PhotoImpact cannot create or manipulate vector-based images. Examples of programs that can include CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator.
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Welcome to the exciting world of digital images! Ever since viewing my first digitized photo years ago, I’ve been enchanted by the way computers can help people save, view, and manipulate digital imagery. When I got my first grayscale hand scanner, many years ago, I sat down and scanned dozens of photos just so I could have them on my computer. Using rudimentary image editors, I’d recolor the images and explore the strange new world of image filters and effects. Nearly a decade later, using a digital camera, I work strictly in the digital realm until the final printed output. And when I’m not printing an image, I’m e-mailing it my friends or loading it onto my Pocket PC.
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DPI DPI stands for “dots per inch,” a concept that can be confusing for some people. A 72-dpi image has 72 dots per inch on the monitor making up the detail that you see. Computer monitors are relatively low-resolution devices (most people have monitors of 72 to 96 dpi), and this can cause significant eyestrain over time. IBM and several other companies are developing new methods of increasing the dpi of LCD screens, so eventually we’ll have screens that are as easy to read as a printed page. It gets more confusing when printing is introduced, because many people use the computer term, dpi, and the printing term, lpi, (lines per inch), interchangeably. And most confusing of all, in its New Image window, PhotoImpact refers to dpi as “resolution,” which is a completely different term. DPI is easiest to grasp when it’s expressed in a series of simple rules: If you’re scanning or creating images for display on the Web, 72 or 96 dpi will suffice. If you’re going to be printing the images on a home printer, scan or create a new file at 150 dpi. If you are creating an image for, say, a CD cover that will be printed by a commercial printer, set the new image size in inches or centimeters and choose a resolution (dpi) of 300. You should, however, always ask your printer what settings to use, because he or she will know for sure. The business card templates in PhotoImpact 7.0 are set at 300 dpi, so this is a good rule of thumb to follow.
Resolution Resolution is the measure of how many pixels are on a computer screen at one time. As I write this book, I’m in 1280 1024 resolution on my 19-inch monitor. This gives the computer a total of 1,310,720 pixels with which to create the shapes I see on my screen. The ideal resolution depends on your monitor size and eyesight, but reasonable resolutions are 800 600 on a 15inch monitor; 1024 768 on a 17-inch monitor; and 1280 1024 on a 19-inch monitor. Setting your computer resolution is discussed more in Chapter 2.
Color Depth The number of colors your computer displays on its screen has a dramatic impact on the quality of what you see. Every new computer on the market is capable of displaying 16-bit or higher color, resulting in true-to-life color images. Color depth is calculated via a simple mathematical formula: 8-bit color is really 28—256 colors. Using that formula, 16-bit color gives you 64,000 colors, 24-bit color gives you 16.7 million colors, and 32-bit is an incredible 4.2 billion colors. If you’re stuck in 8-bit color, digital images will look unrealistic and browsing the Web will be a less-than-optimal experience for you. The ideal setting is 32-bit color. Setting your computer color depth is also discussed more in Chapter 2.
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Important File Formats
JPEG—The current standard for photographic images, JPEG uses a lossy compression for saving data. What this means is that the file discards data that the human eye can’t see at low levels of compression, but the higher the compression is cranked, the more obvious the data loss becomes. Compression levels, and the side-effects of compression, are explained in more detail in the Image Optimizer section in Chapter 10. JPEG does not support transparency or animation, but progressive JPEGs function like interlaced GIFs in that users can see low-resolution versions right away and these become clearer as the download progresses. JPEGs are readable in all Web browsers and are a staple for Web image display. The file format is short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and is pronounced “jay-peg.” The file format is often referred to as “JPG.” JPEG2000—This image format has existed for a couple of years, but only recently has it started to gain traction in the graphics market. PhotoImpact 7.0 supports both saving and viewing of JPEG2000 images. JPEG2000 is an exciting format for graphics because it uses state-of-the-art compression techniques to make file sizes smaller than JPEG while retaining its quality. It uses “wavelet compression,” a new type of compression based on complex mathematical formulas. The unfortunate part is that, at the time of this writing, JPEG2000 isn’t supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Windows XP, or any image-viewing application I could find other than PhotoImpact 7.0. So, for the short term, this format isn’t appropriate for sharing images or posting to Web sites. More information on this format can be found at www.jpeg.org.
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Choosing the right file format for saving your image is at the heart of any design, because every file format has a trade-off between size, quality, and compatibility. Of the thirty image formats PhotoImpact 7.0 supports, here are some of the more important ones for you to know about, and when you should use them. GIF—GIF is short for Graphics Interchange Format and is usually pronounced “jiff,” though some people pronounce it with a hard “g.” The GIF format was a creation of CompuServe Information Service in the 1980s during the boom period of the Bulletin Board System (BBS). This format is an 8-bit, 256-color file type that supports animation, transparency, and interlacing (which enables viewing during downloads). GIF files can be made very small by limiting the number of colors contained in the image; this is easily controlled in Image Optimizer, which is covered in detail in Chapter 10. GIF is the ideal format for line art, buttons, and any other image form that is not photographic in nature and doesn’t require thousands of colors for high visual quality. It’s readable in all Web browsers and is a staple of Web image display.
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PNG—A powerful hybrid of GIF and JPEG, PNG (pronounced “ping”) supports 48-bit color, transparency, and lossless compression (meaning no data is lost when the file is saved). The file sizes are much smaller than TIFF or BMP, but because of the lossless compression, the quality is just as high. PNG is the perfect file format for image archiving: It’s a blend of reasonably small file size and perfect quality. Although it may someday replace both GIF and JPEG as the dominant Internet image file format, current browser support for PNG is weak. Unless you know with 100% certainty what browser your Web site visitors are using, stick to GIF and JPEG. TIFF—“TIFF” is an acronym for Tagged Image File Format. An older format, TIFF is still the standard in the print world for photographic images and images requiring a clipping path (an edge that allows designers to remove image backgrounds). TIFF supports 24-bit color and lossless compression (meaning perfect quality), but the file sizes are enormous. TIFF support is important for PhotoImpact to have, but I don’t recommend using this format for saving your images unless you plan on passing them to a commercial printer. BMP—The standard image format for many Windows images, BMP is a format that any Windows computer can open and view. BMP, usually called “bit-map,” supports 24-bit color, but no animation or transparency. It has no compression, so file sizes will be huge. (BMP is the format for Windows desktop wallpaper.) It’s unlikely you’ll ever use BMP for saving your PhotoImpact projects. UFO—The Ulead File for Objects is a file format specific to PhotoImpact. It supports up to 48-bit color, objects, embedded HTML content, lossless compression, and more. I haven’t seen a specification for the format (it’s a proprietary format, after all), but it’s your only option for saving multi-object images. I keep a UFO source file for all my work in case I need to go back and modify it later. This format is good for sharing PhotoImpact projects with others, but unless the other party has PhotoImpact, it’s best to stick with a standard format like JPEG. ICO—I was a little surprised when I first realized this, but PhotoImpact can read and write Windows icon files. This means you can create custom program icons or edit current icons. PhotoImpact 7.0 introduces more robust icon support, allowing for icons up to 255 255 pixels, and 24-bit color. You’ll learn about creating and editing icons in Chapter 15. PSD—This standard Adobe Photoshop file format allows you to share your multi-layer projects with Photoshop users, and vice-versa. PhotoImpact can open up layered Photoshop files and manipulate the images. There are some limitations, though—you can’t edit text from a Photoshop file. SVG—Short for “Scalable Vector Graphics,” the SVG format is an open standard based on XML. Similar to Macromedia Flash, SVG graphics are vector-based and can scale to larger sizes without a loss in quality that scaling a JPEG would create. SVG has a bright future, but with no built-in support for SVG in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Netscape 6.1, users are forced to download a third party plug-in before viewing the content. As native support is added to the browsers, this format will become more common. http://www.muskalipman.com
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2 Getting to Know PhotoImpact
A Brief Visual Tour of PhotoImpact 7.0 In this section, we’re going to look at the toolbar system, which is one of the core elements of PhotoImpact and what you see when you first start up the program. Almost all functions begin with an option from the toolbar, so it’s important to get to know the names of the tools and how to find them.
What You See on Your Screen After you’ve installed PhotoImpact and start it up for the first time, you’ll see a screen that should resemble Figure 2.1 (without the open image of course!). Your screen may vary depending on the resolution of your monitor. By default, the EasyPalette, Layer Manger, and Quick Command Panel are active.
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Most Windows-based programs follow a series of standards that make for ease of use, and PhotoImpact 7.0 is no exception. For example, under the File menu of every program, you can expect to see the standard functions of New, Open, Close, Save, Save As, Print, and so on. You can right-click on any part of the screen and view options to choose from, an especially useful function when you’re dealing with objects (see Chapter 3). One particularly impressive fact about PhotoImpact and the way that it works is its pedigree: Unlike most graphics applications, PhotoImpact is 100 percent PC-based. It didn’t evolve from the Apple platform, as did, for example, the PC version of Adobe Photoshop. The result is a program that doesn’t have those dozens of Mac-like quirks that simply don’t exist in the PC world—PhotoImpact works the way I do!
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Figure 2.1 A typical PhotoImpact window when first loaded.
TIP If you want to make the images on the EasyPalette easier to see, change the size of the preview images. By default, it’s set at 32 32. Using the Thumbnail Size button (far right button on the EasyPalette), you can change this to 64 64 or larger.
Customizing the Toolbar & Panel Layout If you have the space on your screen, you may wish to take advantage of it by having more of the PhotoImpact tools readily available to you. Figure 2.2 shows an example of how the interface can be customized—I’ve added in all the interfaces for the common tools, giving me quick access to a huge variety of functions.
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Figure 2.2 Activating toolbars and panels.
Figure 2.3 Tool menu customization.
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It’s easy to customize the tool layout in PhotoImpact—select View > Toolbars & Panels, then check the box for each tool panel you want to activate. As each tool panel appears, you can move it where you think you’ll have easy access to it. Alternatively, you can right-click on any part of the gray toolbar where there are no icons and a menu will pop up, allowing you to select which tools you want to add (Figure 2.3). Each toolbar or panel can then be re-positioned by clicking and dragging.
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Toolbar Options There are three toolbar options that affect all toolbars in PhotoImpact. These options are accessed by right-clicking on the gray portion of any toolbar and selecting Options. Figure 2.4 shows the options window. Figure 2.4 Toolbar Options.
The toolbar options are: Large Buttons: This option enlarges the toolbar buttons approximately 200%, making them easier to see. Note that it doesn’t change the size of any panels like the EasyPalette. By default this option is turned off. Color Buttons: This option lets you view all toolbar and panel icons in grayscale or color. By default, this is set to color. Show Tooltips: This option allows you to turn Tooltips off and on. Tooltips are the small yellow boxes that appear over a tool when you leave your mouse cursor over them and tell you what the tool does. By default, Tooltips are turned on.
Building your own toolbars Perhaps the most powerful way to create a working environment that is perfectly suited to your tasks is to customize the toolbars themselves to add functions that you use most often. PhotoImpact allows you to add nearly any function to a toolbar, making it simple to create your own. In the example below, I’m going to build a toolbar for digital photo editing and include links to tools like Remove Red Eye, Monochrome (for making images black and white), and one of my favorite plug-in effects. 1.
Bring up the toolbar options window as described above (or select View > Toolbars and Panels > Options).
2.
Select Customize, and the Customize Standard Toolbar window will appear (Figure 2.5).
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Figure 2.5 Customizing a toolbar.
3.
In the left column on Figure 2.6, you can see the Available Buttons list—a list of default buttons. In the right column, you can see the selected buttons—these are the single row of icons that make up your Standard Toolbar. We want to add buttons that aren’t on the Available Buttons list, so click More.
Figure 2.6 Customizing Buttons.
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You’ll see the Customize Buttons window appear (Figure 2.7)—this is where we’ll select our custom functions. The interface is organized into Categories— you need to know what functions you’re looking for and where they exist on the PhotoImpact menu system. Since I’m looking for the Remove Red Eye function, I’ll look under the Effects category.
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Figure 2.7 Adding Remove Red Eye.
5.
After selecting the Effects category, I scrolled down in the Command list until I found Remove Red Eye. As Figure 2.7 shows, you can select one of ten bitmaps to be the icon for the function you’re selecting. Unfortunately, PhotoImpact only has these ten to choose from—you can’t add your own or browse a bigger selection. As you might imagine, it will be hard to tell your custom buttons apart if you add more than ten. You can also enter your own Description—this is what appears as a Tooltip.
6.
After selecting Remove Red Eye, choosing a bitmap, and entering my custom Tooltip, I click OK. Make sure you select the correct options for your buttons— PhotoImpact won’t let you edit the bitmap or description after you’ve clicked OK.
7.
This takes me back to the Customize Standard Toolbar window (Figure 2.5). Since I want to add more functionality to my custom toolbar, I’ll repeat steps 3 through 6—once for each of the two effects I want to add (Monochrome and the Flaming Pear plug-in “Aetherize”). Once complete, they’ll be added to the bottom of the Selected Buttons list (Figure 2.8).
Figure 2.8 Our custom functions have been added.
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8.
We’ll want our custom functions to be separated from the other items on the toolbar, so by clicking on the first new item (in this case, Remove Red Eye), then clicking the Separator>> button, we’ll put in a space. I’ll select two separators by clicking on Separator>> twice. You can also re-arrange the order of the buttons through this interface—if you wanted to change the order of your buttons on the Standard Toolbar, you could do so using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
9.
As Figure 2.9 shows, I’ve added our new buttons to the Standard Toolbar (the three buttons on the far right). Now, instead of searching the menus for these functions, we have easy access to them
Figure 2.9 The Standard Toolbar has been customized.
TIP
The menus in PhotoImpact are “smart.” If you don’t have an image file open, they won’t display nearly as many options. For instance, there is no Effect menu when no file is open. Once you open or create a file, the proper menus will be added (as Figure 2.1 shows). The reason for this is simple: Everything other than the basic File/Edit/View/Web/Help menus all modify images or objects. PhotoImpact keeps things simple! NOTE If you’re running your screen resolution at 1024 768 or higher, you may wish to enable the Color Panel. It’s under the View menu > Toolbars & Panels > Color Panel, or you can press Shift+F3. Conversely, if you’re running in 800 600 resolution or even in 640 480 resolution, you may want to deactivate all of the floating panels. You can do this by deselecting the EasyPalette and Brush Panel under the Toolbars & Panels section of the View menu.
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If you’ve made changes to the Standard Toolbar and you don’t like the way they’ve turned out, you can right-click on the toolbar and select Reset to Default. This will restore all toolbars back to their default state, erasing any changes you’ve made. Be careful with this, because you’ll have to re-do your toolbars from scratch. PhotoImpact has no capability to export toolbar customization.
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Getting To Know The Tool Panel There are certain parts of PhotoImpact 7 that you’ll get to know very well as you use the program. One of the most important is the Tool Panel (shown in Figure 2.10), because it contains the most frequently used tools in PhotoImpact. Each tool also has a keyboard shortcut. In order from top to bottom, these tools are: Figure 2.10 The PhotoImpact ToolPanel.
Pick Tool: This tool is used for selecting objects, masks, text, and essentially any other item that can be moved. You can also use this tool to move selections without converting the selection to an object. Keyboard shortcut: K, W keys. Selection Tool: This tool is used to create and manipulate selections (we’ll discuss this in detail in Chapter 3). If you click and hold your left mouse button while hovering over this tool, a menu appears that shows the different settings this tool has. Keyboard shortcut: M key rotates through the various selection modes below: — Standard Selection Tool: This tool is used for making regular selections in a click-and-drag motion, with options for fixed sizes and shapes. — Lasso Tool: This tool is used for making irregularly-shaped selections by drawing a path with selection points and then closing the path. — Magic Wand tool: This tool is used for selecting areas of an image based on similarity of color or shade. — Bézier Curve Tool: This tool is used for irregularly shaped or artistic selections by drawing a curved path and closing it.
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Z-Merge Tool: Used to manipulate objects along a third axis, elevation, or depth. Discussed further in Chapter 3. Keyboard shortcut: B.
T
Text Tool: This tool is used to create new text or to edit text currently in your image. We’ll delve into text issues in Chapter 4. Keyboard shortcut: T. Path Tool: This tool is used for creating and manipulating paths. (You’ll learn about paths in Chapter 5.) Keyboard shortcut: D. Click and hold on this tool to see the following options: — Path Drawing Tool: This tool is used for creating path shapes.
— Outline Drawing Tool: This is similar to the Path Drawing tool, but the shapes are outlined instead of filled in. — Line and Arrow Tool: This tool has lines and arrows galore!
Crop Tool: This tool performs the function of cropping, which is the trimming of an image. Keyboard shortcut: R. Eraser Tool: As the name suggests, this is for erasing parts of your image. Keyboard shortcut: O. It has two modes: — Object Paint Eraser Tool: This tool neatly erases inside an object without touching the surrounding area. — Object Magic Eraser Tool: This tool is used for area-based erasing of an object, using color similarity. Transform Tool: This is a powerful tool that lets you adjust a variety of size and perspective characteristics. Keyboard shortcut: Q. Eyedropper Tool: This simple tool allows you to sample colors from anywhere in your image. This is useful when you need to color-match a background with the dominant color in a logo. Keyboard shortcut: Y, C.
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— Path Edit Tool: This is the tool you’ll use if you want to edit a path that’s already been created.
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Zoom Tool: You can zoom in and out from your image with this tool. Keyboard shortcut: / and C. Retouch Tool: This is a flexible set of tools that provides quick access to a variety of image retouching and enhancing tools. You can find more about this in Chapter 7. Keyboard shortcut: H. — Dodge Tool: Based on classic photography darkroom techniques, “dodging” is the art of lightening parts of an image. — Burn Tool: Another darkroom technique, “burning” involves darkening part of an image. — Blur Tool: Fine control over blurring parts of an image. You “paint on” the blur—great for those witness protection program photos! — Sharpen Tool: Fine control over sharpening. As you paint with this tool, you sharpen the image. — Tonal Adjustment Tool: With this tool, you can adjust the tones of colors in an image, such as highlighting and darkening, by painting them on. — Smudge Tool: As the name suggests, this tool smudges part of an image. With a small brush size, you can have razor-sharp control over this tool, using it to fix cracks and erase wrinkles. — Saturation Tool: Resaturate images by painting on the effect. This works well on faded images or washed-out skin tones. — Warping Tool: You can stretch parts of an image with this tool.
— Bristle Smear Tool: This is an artistic smearing effect, as if you were to take a stiff wire brush to wet paint. — Remove Red Eye Tool: Just as the name says, it removes that red glare from your subject’s eyes. — Remove Scratch Tool: A variation on the Blur Tool, this helps you remove scratches from scanned images.
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— Remove Noise Tool: Perfect for removing “noise” or “static” from an image, such as background speckles that detract from the focal point of the image. — Color Transform Pen: Replace one color with another using this tool.
— Colorize Pen: Add some color to black-and-white images with this classy tool.
Tool: One of the core elements of every image-editing program, the Paint Tools in PhotoImpact offer a variety of presets: Paintbrush, Airbrush, Crayon, Charcoal, Chalk, Pencil, Marker, Oil Paint, Particle, Drop Water, Bristle, and Color Replacement Pen. Chapter 7 deals with painting. Keyboard shortcut: P.
Clone Tool: You have a wide variety of brush styles to choose from when performing the cloning function: Clone-Paintbrush, Clone-Airbrush, CloneCrayon, Clone-Charcoal, Clone-Chalk, Clone-Pencil, Clone-Marker, Clone-Oil Paint, and Clone-Bristle. Chapter 7 will delve into cloning. Keyboard shortcut: N.
Fill Tool: A myriad of different fills can be performed with PhotoImpact, all based on four distinct settings. Keyboard shortcut: F. — Bucket Fill Tool: This tool does straight, solid fills, from one color to another. — Linear Gradient Fill Tool: This tool does fills that gently transition from one color to another along a straight line that you define. — Rectangular Gradient Fill Tool: This is similar to the Linear Gradient Fill tool, but the fill flows in a rectangular pattern. — Elliptical Gradient Fill Tool: This is also similar to the Linear Gradient Fill tool, but the fills flow in an elliptical pattern. Slice Tool: Used for slicing up images during preparation for Web display. Smaller images mean less wait time for Web site visitors. We’ll explore this in Chapter 10. Image Map Tool: This is for creating hyperlinked zones out of images. We’ll look at image maps in Chapter 10. Keyboard shortcut: U.
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Stamp Tool: Use objects like paint. You can explore this fun feature in Chapter 7. Keyboard shortcut: . (period key).
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Show/Hide Slice Line: This function toggles between showing the slice lines caused by the slide tool and hiding slice lines. Keyboard shortcut: Shift+F7. Show/Hide Image Map: If you want to hide an image map you’ve created, you can use this function to safely turn off the display of the image map without changing the image map. You can turn it back on using the same method. Keyboard shortcut: Shift+F8. Show/Hide Mask Mode: Displaying the current mask on the screen. Keyboard shortcut: Control+K. Show/Hide Ruler: This function displays or hides the ruler function in the image. Keyboard shortcut: Shift+V. Swap F/B Color: Swaps the foreground and background color.
Image Adjustment: These controls are used to adjust the levels of blue, green, and red in an image. They are also used to adjust the overall brightness and contrast of an image. Control+B gives you a more accurate interface for adjusting brightness and contrast
And there you have it—the PhotoImpact Toolbar! The functions on the toolbar will be used time and time again, so be sure you know what each function looks like before you continue.
The Value Slider An important feature of PhotoImpact 7.0 is one that I call the “Value Slider.” In many parts of the program, there are boxes where you can insert numerical values for such things as the size of an image or the dimensions of a crop box. You can enter a specific value in the box, use the small up and down arrow keys (also called the spin buttons), or click and hold on the small drop-down arrow and slide your mouse left or right. You’ll see the value change rapidly or slowly, depending on how quickly you move your mouse. This is great for speed, but not for accuracy. If you have a specific value you need in the boxes, it’s best to type in the number yourself. See Figure 2.11 for a better look. Figure 2.11 The Value Slider.
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Working With Files Knowing how to properly work with your files is critical in PhotoImpact. Developing good techniques for file management will help you work faster and smarter. It may even save you some hassle along the way.
Creating a New File Creating a new image file in PhotoImpact is simple. Either click the New icon or go to the File menu and chose New. Either way, you’ll end up with the New File window as shown in Figure 2.12. Figure 2.12 The New File window.
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There are several things to be aware of when you look at this window: Data type: This is the bit depth, or number of colors, that your image will have. Your choices here, from left to right, are Black and White, Grayscale, 16 Color, 256 Color, and True Color. Unless you specifically need one of these other modes, always start in True Color. Even if you’re planning on ending up with a black-and-white image in the end, many filters don’t work on anything other than 24-bit color images. Remember you can always scale down your color depth later. Canvas: This is the color of your background. In most cases it’s safe to leave this as white, because you can always fill in the background later. If you’re planning on using the image on a Web page, you may want to choose the Transparent option so you can see how the image will “float” on your background transparently.
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Image size: As you might imagine, these settings allow you to set the size of the image you want. There are more than two-dozen choices in the Standard selections, all measured in pixels, inches, or centimeters, and these are great for starter projects. If you need to create Web banners or micro buttons (sometimes called “badges” on a Web site), the templates are here. Active Image creates a new blank image with the same dimensions as the current image. This is useful when you want to closely match a current image by size. Same as Image in Clipboard creates a new image with the same dimensions as the image you have on the clipboard. Lastly, User-defined allows the user to pick a specific image size in pixels, inches, or centimeters. TIP If you have a specific size of image that you’re constantly using, you can add it as a preset to the User-defined section. To do this, set the size you want, and click on the Add button (see Figure 2.13). You’ll then be prompted for a name for the preset, and it will reside in the menu permanently. Perfect for those large jobs where speed counts!
Figure 2.13 Adding a userdefined image size for fast access later.
Resolution: This is where you can choose the resolution of your new project. If you’re doing Web work, leave it at 72 dpi. If you’re designing a logo or something for printing, you should bump it up to 300 dpi or so. The final number depends on what kind of printer you’ll be using. Experiment a little if you plan on doing a lot of printing using PhotoImpact images. Preview: The Preview feature allows you to see the relative size of your image based on the selected resolution. This can give you an idea of how large your image will be on the user’s screen. This can be particularly valuable if you’re running in a high resolution, 1024 768 or greater. When running at a high resolution, I often forget how big my images are on the screens of users with lower resolutions. If you’re creating a Web logo, preview the proposed size on the 800 600 setting. How much screen space does it take up? Too much, too little? Put yourself in your visitors’ place and all your Web graphics will be better for it! http://www.muskalipman.com
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Cropping Learning to crop is a critical skill when working with graphics, because cropping helps you reframe the photo and can improve any image. Cropping is defined as removing everything in an image except what was selected. If you had an image of an apple on a table and wanted to draw attention only to the apple, you would draw a selection around the apple (selections are discussed in Chapter 3) and crop out everything else. Especially in the realm of digital photography, cropping is critical. The difference between good and bad photography often comes down to framing the image. Where is the subject in the photo? In the center or off to the side? Is the subject the focus of the image, or are distracting elements coming in from the side to create visual confusion? Cropping can often make a poor photo into an acceptable one, and it gives you some interesting composition options. Examine Figure 2.14. Figure 2.14 Our image prior to cropping.
CHAPTER 2 In Figure 2.14, we have an image taken with a digital camera. The framing of the subject in the photo is quite good—the subject is firmly in the middle and there are no distractions in the background or sides. But what if we wanted to get a closer shot of the girl in the photo, with less distraction from the background? Cropping tools come to the rescue in Figure 2.15. Figure 2.15 The Crop Tool’s options. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Before we start, it’s important to understand some of the options the Crop Tool gives us. First, by entering values or dragging the value slider, we change the location of the crop box in relation to the left or top part of the image. We can also set the exact size value, and, if you have a crop that you’ll be performing on a series of images, you can add your crop as a preset to the EasyPalette by using the Add button on the Crop Tool’s Attribute Toolbar. In order to crop, follow these simple steps: 1.
Click on the Crop Tool.
2.
Draw the crop box around the part of the image you want to keep (see Figure 2.16).
Figure 2.16 Drawing our selection for cropping.
3.
Adjust the crop box. You can move it around or change any of its dimensions by either adjusting the numerical values or dragging the handles of the box (see Figure 2.17).
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Figure 2.17 Adjusting the crop box.
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4.
Click the Crop button to see the final image as shown in Figure 2.18.
Figure 2.18 Our final cropped image.
5.
If you’re unhappy with the crop, press Ctrl+Z twice and try it again.
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Another interesting use of cropping is to crop specific parts of an image to achieve a certain effect. In Figure 2.19 I’ve cropped the image so that the focus of the image, the girl, is off to the right while there is open space to the left. If I put text in the open area to the left, it would make an interesting banner! Remember that the difference between good and great photography is how you frame the subject. Experiment with the cropping tool and make your photos shine! Figure 2.19 Different cropping styles can produce interesting results.
TIP If you’re looking for the fastest way to crop, try this method that I use: Create a selection using the Standard Selection tool, then press Ctrl+R on the keyboard. You’re done!
NOTE PhotoImpact uses handles for adjusting certain effects and selections. A handle is denoted by a small box that can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the mouse (see Figure 2.20). The mouse cursor will change to small arrows showing you the direction you can adjust the handle. And if you hold down the Shift key while adjusting the handles, you can constrain the aspect ratio. This means that all the sides will be even, allowing you to make a perfect square.
Figure 2.20 Adjusting handles.
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RAZOR-SHARP CROPPING You may also incrementally adjust the border of the crop box pixel by pixel by clicking and holding a particular handle and using the cursor keys on your keyboard.
Cropping Before Printing Online Most online print services like Ofoto (discussed in Chapter 15) have a service called “Zoom and Trim.” What this means is that since different sizes of photos have different aspect ratios, their printers will automatically crop the image for you in order to make it fit on the print. How much of the image will fit depends on the “aspect ratio”—if your subject is in the middle of the image and some of the photo can be trimmed around the edges without ruining it, you don’t need to pre-crop your photos. But if your photo is framed tight (meaning the subject is near the edges), you don’t want an automated system to crop the photo for you. Framing is a critical part of great photography, and you don’t want to trust a computer to frame your images for you. You need to crop it yourself, and base it on the proper aspect ratio.
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The aspect ratio is based on math, but it’s easy to understand. A piece of paper that is 1 inch by 1 inch would have an aspect ratio of 1 to 1 (expressed as 1:1). Another piece of paper that is 2 inches by 4 inches would have an aspect ratio of 1:2 because one side is twice as long as the other. The most common photo print sizes are 4 6 inches, 5 7 inches, and 8 10 inches. Each print size has its own aspect ratio as shown below:
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Figure 2.21 8 10 photo aspect ratio.
Figure 2.22 5 7 photo aspect ratio.
Figure 2.23 4 6 photo aspect ratio.
Figure 2.24 Canon S110 aspect ratio.
Notice how the 4 6 print is taller and thinner than the 8 10 print. This is because the aspect ratio is different—you need to crop your image to the proper aspect ratio before printing, and that aspect ratio will depend on what size of photo you want printed. Figure 2.24 shows the aspect ratio of an image from my Canon PowerShot Digital Elph S110 camera. Notice how its aspect ratio is different than any standard print size. This means that if I don’t want an automated system to crop my photos for me, I’ll need to crop them all myself. If I don’t crop them and tell the automated system to not crop them, I’ll end up with white borders. Confused? Figure 2.25 illustrates this.
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Figure 2.25 Borders from not cropping.
The white box represents an image from my Canon camera with an aspect ratio of 1:1.3. The black box represents the aspect ratio of a 4 6 print. If I don’t align the aspect ratios of these two images, I’ll end up with white borders on my photo, which I don’t want.
1.
Our starting image is an unaltered photo from my digital camera, with a resolution of 1600 1200. This is a 1:1.3 aspect ratio, and since I want to get this image printed at 8 10, I need to change this. First, click on the Crop tool.
Figure 2.26 Creating a crop box, any crop box.
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Unfortunately, PhotoImpact has no simple tools for helping you crop your images to the proper aspect ratio—there’s only the manual method, and it takes a little effort and thinking to get right. Let’s get started, and remember: Practice makes perfect!
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2.
Click and drag to draw a crop box inside your image—it doesn’t matter what size it is. It should be near the center of your image, but exact positioning isn’t important (Figure 2.27). We need to create the crop box because PhotoImpact doesn’t allow us to set crop sizes until it first has a crop box to work with.
Figure 2.27 Setting the crop size.
3.
On the Crop toolbar, set the width and height to the aspect ratio you need. I normally do this by starting at 100. For example, I want to crop this image to an 8 10 aspect ratio, which is 1:1.25. This means that for a horizontal 8 10 print, I’d need it to be wider that it is tall. So I’ll enter a value of 125 for the width and 100 for the height. If you were cropping for a 4 6 print, these values would be 150 wide and 100 high (1:1.5). Once I have my initial crop box, I have the aspect ratio, which is the hard part of this process. The relative size of the crop box will vary depending on how large your image is—my image is quite large, so the 125 100 crop box looks small.
Figure 2.28 Resizing the crop box.
4.
While holding down the Shift key, click and drag the handle of the crop box to make it bigger. You can move the crop box around, but always hold down the shift key when resizing it! The Shift key maintains the aspect ratio, ensuring that your crop is still correct for your print. In Figure 2.29, I’m resizing the crop selection to the full size of the image while maintaining the aspect ratio.
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Figure 2.29 Maximum crop size.
5.
Figure 2.30 Our final cropped image.
If you’re wondering why I’m so adamant about the importance of aspect ratio, you’ll quickly understand the first time you get a set of digital prints back and you either have white borders around the edge or your photo subjects are only half in the frame. Take the time to learn this important skill! http://www.muskalipman.com
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Eventually the crop box will be as large as it can get while maintaining the correct aspect ratio. As Figure 2.29 shows, the area of the photo to the right of the crop box will be cut out, while everything inside the box will remain. By moving the crop window a little to the right, I can cut out the distracting background at the far left of the image. My final image (Figure 2.30) is a perfectly cropped file ready for 8 10 printing!
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TIP As you can imagine, calculating the aspect ratio every time you want to crop an image gets a little tedious—I hope someday Ulead will add this feature. You can add cropping presets, which helps save time. When you’ve created the aspect ratio you need in Step 3, click Add on the crop toolbar (far right icon). This is added to the EasyPalette so you can have quick access to it in the future. I’ve created a set of these cropping presets as part of the PhotoImpact Resource Kit if you want to avoid re-creating all the variations yourself—http://www.muskalipman.com/photoimpactkit/
TIP Remember that just because the digital image is in landscape mode (wider than it is tall), you don’t have to crop or print the image that way. Some interesting effects can be achieved when you do a vertical crop on a horizontal image. Experiment and have fun! One of the biggest advantages of digital photography is how you can make mediocre images look great with a little editing!
NOTE My preferred online digital printing service is Ofoto (www.ofoto.com). The site offers free software called OfotoNow for download, a truly excellent utility for cropping photos to the proper aspect ratio. Figure 2.31 below shows it in action, and you can see how it gives a preview of how the image crop will look based on the aspect ratio. It’s a great tool to have in your graphics arsenal!
Figure 2.31 OfotoNow cropping in action.
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Zooming Zooming is simply the function of telling the program to make the image pixels larger or smaller, showing you more or less detail. This function is useful for a few different reasons: Zooming in on an image to find things that you can’t see at regular zoom Zooming out to see more of a large image so you can crop it Zooming in on an image to correct flaws, like red eye or background flaws Zooming out to see what an image would look like smaller (useful for Web design) In the movies and on TV, zooming is a magical thing. The camera zooms in 500 percent and the quality is still fantastic. In real life, things are a little different! When zooming in, you’re looking at the same pixels as before, but they’re enlarged. So the more you zoom in, the more pixelated the image will appear. And, despite what the media would have you believe, you can’t click the magic “enhance” button and have it look perfect. When you click on the Zoom Tool, the toolbar will load and you’ll see the Tool’s Attribute Toolbar as in Figure 2.32:
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Figure 2.32 The Zoom Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
The Zoom Tool’s Attribute Toolbar offers a few simple options: You can use the Zoom Level slider to choose a zoom level, or you can enter a specific value in the number box. The three View options allow you to show the image at a 1:1 ratio (100 percent real size), show as much of the image as your screen size will permit, or restore the last zoom setting. By clicking and checking the Adjust Window box, PhotoImpact will automatically adjust the window size to fit the absolute edges of the image as you zoom in and out. You can also add a custom zoom setting to the EasyPalette by using the Add button. To see zooming in action, let’s take a look at a high-resolution image that I took. The image is 1600 200 in size, and since the image window is less than that size, I can’t see the entire image at 100 percent zoom. By zooming out to 50 percent (Figure 2.33), I’m able to see the entire image. By moving up to 100 percent zoom (Figure 2.34), I can see much more of the detail that the camera captured. I can make out some of the details on the books, like the title. Since I’m really curious about that book, I’ll zoom in to 500 percent (see Figure 2.35) to see if I can make out who the author is … no such luck! It’s just a blob of pixels. I bet Fox Mulder from television’s X-Files could do it!
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Figure 2.34 The same image at 100 percent zoom—its actual size.
Figure 2.33 A high-resolution image at 25 percent zoom.
Figure 2.35 The same image at 500 percent zoom.
TIP If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, hold down the Control (CTRL) key on your keyboard while scrolling, and you can zoom in and out very quickly! If you don’t have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can press Ctrl+Left click to zoom in and Crtl+Right click to zoom out.
Moving Objects, Selections, and Text A wide variety of items can be moved in PhotoImpact; anything that isn’t merged with the base layer can be moved. Objects, text, and even selections can be moved. The key to figuring out what can be moved is to watch for the cursor change as Figure 2.36 shows. Figure 2.36 Moving objects is easy— look for the cursor to change over what you can move.
If you want to move an item, first select the Pick Tool, and then select the item. You’ll see in Figure 2.36 that when your mouse cursor moves over the item, the cursor changes to the movement tool. Left-click on the object and, while holding down the mouse button, drag the item to its new location. Release the left mouse button and the item has been moved. The procedure is exactly the same for moving selections, masks, and text.
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TIP For pixel-perfect moving of items, use the arrow keys on your keyboard. First select the item using the Pick tool, then use the arrow keys to move it in any of the four directions, one pixel at a time. You can hold down the arrow key for faster movement. When combined with a tight zoom, you can get perfect positioning every time!
Resizing Resizing images is one of the most common tasks in PhotoImpact. I take a lot of photos in the high-resolution mode on my digital camera (1600 1200), and, as such, I need to make them much smaller if I want to post them to a Web site. You may also run across images that are too small and need to be made larger, thus, the resizing tool is the ticket. There are two ways to resize: Bring up the Dimensions window to resize your image. You can look under the Format menu and choose Dimensions. You can also press CTRL+G on your keyboard. I prefer the keyboard method for speed purposes. You should see a window that matches Figure 2.37:
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Figure 2.37 The Image Size window.
TIP You may find that resizing your images makes them a little blurry. The easiest way to correct this is to run a sharpen filter on the image. Look under the Effects menu, find Blur & Sharpen, choose Sharpen, and pick the level of sharpening that is appropriate for your image (usually the lowest setting).
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There’s a lot of important information in this window, so take note: Active image: this information tells you the current size of the image. This is useful for guessing how much smaller to make the image. New image: The choices here are all related to how much bigger or smaller you want your image to be. The Standard choices offer all the choices you have when creating a new image (discussed above), while the User-defined settings can be whatever you want them to be. You should normally keep the box checked off for Keep aspect ratio, unless you want your image to look distorted. “Unit” options include Pixels, Inches, Cm (centimeters), and Percent. In most cases, choose “Percent”—it’s easier to visually gauge. Resample method: This method offers three choices: Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear, and Bicubic. Always choose Bicubic because this offers the highest quality of resizing, although it may take slightly longer to finish. The other two will sometimes make your image look jagged when resized smaller. Apply to: This function serves to give you a choice of which part of your image gets resized: the Base Image, the Selected Object, or all Images and Objects. Choose the one that works best for you. Unless you have multiple objects in your image, only Base Image will be available as a choice. Preview: This gives you an idea of how your image will look when printed, or how it will look on a computer screen of various resolutions. This is the same preview you get when creating a new image. TIP If you have a lot of images to resize, don’t do it manually! In Chapter 11, I’ll tell you about Quick Commands, and they’ll make resizing many images a breeze!
Data/Image Type Images are digital data, and there are various ways of displaying the data. In addition to image resolution, image type is what controls how the colors of the image look on the screen. Image type is also referred to as data type, color depth, or bit depth. The options PhotoImpact gives you are 8-bit Grayscale, 8-bit Optimized Indexed 256-color, 8-bit Web Optimized, 24-bit RGB True Color, 8-bit Indexed 256 Color, 16-bit Grayscale, and 48-bit RGB True Color (sometimes used by newer scanners). Changing the data type of an image in PhotoImpact is a quick, two-click process. 1.
In the bottom right corner of the PhotoImpact program window, click on the Image Type Icon.
2.
A menu will open, allowing you to select between a variety of image types (see figure 2.38). Choose the appropriate type for your image, and a new image will be created in this format.
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Figure 2.38 The Image Type Menu.
TIP If you don’t want a new image to be created when you choose a new Image Type, uncheck the Create New Image box on the Image Type menu.
TIP
Tweaking PhotoImpact for Maximum Quality and Performance PhotoImpact is a flexible tool. It offers power users several nice options to tweak the program to work the way they want. The goal of this section is to show you a few of the most important options. Feel free to explore the rest on your own!
Making Sure You Have the Right Hardware Before we get into the PhotoImpact settings, it’s important to make sure your computer is set up properly to run the program. The system requirements state that any Pentium computer with 32 megabytes (MB) of RAM and 270 MB of hard drive space can run the program. However, unless you have a great deal of patience, you’ll want more than this. The larger the image you’re working with, the more CPU and RAM you’ll want. A decent machine for using PhotoImpact would be a 350MHz or faster CPU with 64 MB or more of RAM and at least 500 MB of free storage space (you’ll need space for all the wonderful creations you’re going to make!). Of all the hardware, RAM is the most important for speed—buy as much as you can reasonably afford. If you want to make it hum, 256 megs of RAM or more on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP-based system should do the trick! http://www.muskalipman.com
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Although it might seem like the easiest way to get a black-and-white image is to select 16-bit Grayscale from the Image Type Menu, you can’t apply any special effects to grayscale images. A better way is to choose Effect > Special > Monochrome. This gives you a B&W image, but with full access to all effects and plug-ins.
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If you’re planning on doing a fair amount of graphics work, spring for at least a 17-inch monitor—or a 19-inch monitor if you can afford it. You’ll love the ability to run at high resolutions and see more of your images! Flat panel (LCD) monitors are still quite expensive, but they’re easier on your eyes over the long term, so if you can afford one, go for it.
Setting Resolution and Color Depth To change your resolution, right-click on your desktop, select Properties, and go to the Settings tab. Depending on your operating system version, it will say “Resolution” or “Screen area.” If you have a 14- or 15-inch monitor, try 800 600 (if your monitor supports this). If your monitor is 17 inches, try 1024 768, and if you’re lucky enough to have a 19-inch or larger monitor, try 1280 1024. The higher the resolution, the smaller everything is, and so the more you can fit on your screen at once. The most important thing to remember is that the higher resolutions are better only if you can see everything properly. As for color depth, this is on the same Display Settings tab and will likely be called Colors. Your choices will vary depending on your hardware, but try to set it at a minimum of 16 bit (64,000 colors). If you can set it at 24 bit (16.7 million colors) or 32 bit (4.2 billion colors) and still run in your favored resolution, do so.
Customizable Settings In PhotoImpact Under the File menu, you’ll find an item called Preferences (Figure 2.39). And from that item you’ll see three options: General, Customize Standard Toolbar, and Color Management. As you might imagine, the latter two are for making your own toolbars in PhotoImpact and setting up color matching for on-screen display and printing. The most important options are in the General settings (also directly accessible using F6 on your keyboard), so we’re going to look at some of those now. Figure 2.39 The General Preferences window.
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Setting Undo Levels An important feature in PhotoImpact is its ability to undo and redo functions. By default, it’s set at ten levels of undo. You can set this number to a maximum of ninety-nine, but the practical number depends on how much system RAM you have. Each level of undo is stored in RAM, so you’ll need a lot of RAM if you plan on keeping ninety-nine versions of your graphic in memory! A safe setting for an average machine is twenty-five for a machine with 128 megs of RAM. The more RAM you have, the higher you can make this number.
Setting Generation Quality Certain filters and settings require PhotoImpact to regenerate the image. This setting affects the speed and quality of that regeneration. I always set mine on Best because there’s no substitute for quality!
Setting Resample Method There are three options available: Nearest Neighbor, Bilinear, and Bicubic. Bicubic produces the best overall quality; make sure you choose this method. For more on this, look earlier in this chapter under “Resizing.”
A Scratch Disk, also called virtual memory, is the location where your temporary files are stored as PhotoImpact executes your commands to resize, enhance, and so on. Depending on the size of images you’re working with, you may want to set this on a drive where you have a great deal of space. For the average user, as long as you have at least 200 megs free on your main system drive, you’ll be fine. To be on the safe side, however, I always set mine to another partition with plenty of space. You can’t be too careful! Refer to Figure 2.40, presented earlier in this chapter. Other options on this screen include limiting hard disk usage and limiting RAM usage, but these are advanced settings that work well at their current defaults. Figure 2.40 The System Preferences window.
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Setting Your Scratch Disk
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Setting the Plug-in Folder Plug-ins (also known as “filters”) are basically mini-programs that can do as little as a simple effect (like create a kaleidoscope image) or as much as an entire three-dimensional landscape (Kai’s Power Tools). There are many freeware and commercial plug-ins available on the Internet (a good start is www.plugins.com). Many of my favorites are made by Flaming Pear Software (www.flamingpear.com), and we’ll discuss these in Chapter 7. When you’re looking around the Internet for plug-ins, don’t be surprised if you don’t find any made specifically for PhotoImpact. The dominant graphics app in the market right now, although definitely not the best for the Web, is Adobe Photoshop. Many plug-ins are designed for Photoshop, but many will work in PhotoImpact as well. Experiment and find out! This setting in PhotoImpact controls where the program should look for these plug-ins. It’s often best to keep them in a separate folder, away from PhotoImpact, so you can organize them better and delete ones you don’t like. PhotoImpact will automatically drill down through subfolders to look for all available plug-ins, so you need only set up the main folder as shown in Figure 2.41. I keep my plug-ins in two folders: one for plug-ins that I’ve purchased or freeware plug-ins that I’ll keep, and another for trial plug-ins that I’m experimenting with. You can’t delete, manage, or sort plug-ins from within PhotoImpact, so you need a good system outside PhotoImpact for managing your plug-ins. Two folders was the system I chose, and it’s worked out very nicely so far. Figure 2.41 The Plug-in Preference window.
File Associations PhotoImpact allows you to have complete control over which types of files it will open for you (see Figure 2.42). This long list of files contains nearly every graphics format imaginable, and PhotoImpact can open all of them. Remember, though, PhotoImpact is a large program and takes several seconds to load (depending on your computer speed). Do you want to use this program to view JPEG images? Probably not—pick a small and fast image viewer like ACDSEE (www.acdsystems.com) for viewing file formats that you’ll be looking at frequently. But make sure the box for UFO (Ulead File for Objects) is selected, because only PhotoImpact can read these files. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Figure 2.42 The File Associations window.
Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro File Settings
Figure 2.43 The PSD Settings window.
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PhotoImpact is a versatile program, and part of its strength is its ability to work with a wide variety of file types. Two of the most critical in the business world are PSD (Photoshop’s native format) and PSP (Paint Shop Pro’s native format). When I design Web pages for my clients, I often need to get a high-res version of their logo from the graphic designer who created it. More often that not, it’s from a Mac user who’s using a version of Photoshop. Being able to read these files is critical! The settings here and on the PSP Settings window are usually fine at their default value (see Figure 2.43), but it’s important that you know they are here.
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3 The Object-Oriented Approach Layers are the backbone of most of the major graphics applications on the market today. When you’re constructing an image out of different components such as text and multiple images, each component is it’s own distinct layer added to the whole. If you want to move one component, you need to first select the layer it’s on before you can move it or edit it. Layers in Photoshop are sometimes frustrating to deal with, so when I discovered PhotoImpact back in version 4.0, I was very pleased with the way dealt with multiple-component images: Everything is an object, and objects are much easier than layers to work with. Figure 3.1 shows a multi-object image. Figure 3.1 Every item in this image is a unique object.
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To me, the two most important elements of any graphics program are ease of use and speed of use, which are usually tightly bound together. Designing Web sites for clients usually means two things: lots of repetitive work and tiny modifications to meet specifications. It’s critical that whichever graphics application I’m using allows me to work quickly, and that’s exactly what objects allow me to do. In the above illustration, you can see a quick image I tossed together using some of the built-in images PhotoImpact has. Each item in that image is a separate object: the hand, the building, and the text. Each of these can be moved, changed, or deleted using the Pick Tool. There’s no need to move over to a layer manager to first select the layer on which the object resides. Also, because PhotoImpact has extensive right-click support, you can make changes very quickly to the object. We’ll discuss this in more detail later, but if I wanted to add a drop shadow to the text, it’s literally a three-click process, and I never have to leave my object to go up to the system menus. Now that’s speed!
Creating and Inserting Objects In Chapter 6 you’ll learn about the EasyPalette and all the options it gives you. One of my favorite things about the EasyPalette is the way you can use it to build up your own set of object resources. For instance, when I was working on my own personal Web site (which never quite seems to get done), I wanted to put up some of my favorite photographs. Because they were my photos, I wanted to put my personal stamp on them. I created my text object and added it to the EasyPalette. Then, with a simple double-click, I was able to add a signature icon to each image. Fast and easy!
Creating Your Own Objects Creating objects in PhotoImpact is a fairly simple matter. Whenever you create text, a path, or paste in an image from the clipboard, you’ve created an object. You can tell something is an object because when you’ve selected the Pick Tool and you click on something, it will draw a selection around the object and turn your cursor into the four-way moving cursor. You can see this in Figure 3.1. These objects can be moved, copied, deleted, and manipulated in many ways, all without affecting other objects around them. That’s another beauty of the objects model: They’re totally isolated from other objects so you can do anything to one, while the rest of your image remains undisturbed. We’ll go into detail about creating text objects in Chapter 4 and paths in Chapter 5. But I’ll tell you now that one common way of introducing new objects into a composition is using the Paste command. The Paste command has three ways of being accessed: CTRL+V, right-click and choose Paste, or look under the Edit menu and choose one of the Paste options listed there. Let’s say you are browsing through a Web site and find a photograph of a car that you want to use in one of your images. After making sure you are allowed to use the image, follow these steps as depicted in Figure 3.2:
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Figure 3.2 Copying the image to the clipboard.
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In Microsoft Internet Explorer, right-click on the image and choose the Copy command. This copies the image to your system clipboard, and from here you can paste it into almost any application.
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Go to your PhotoImpact image (in this example we’re assuming you’ve already created a new image), right-click somewhere inside your image, and choose Paste as shown in Figure 3.3.
Figure 3.3 Pasting the new image into an existing image.
You’ll see your new image appear in the PhotoImpact image window. You’ve just created an object! If you right-click on the object, you’ll see a variety of options for your object.
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Figure 3.4 Our new object.
Later in this chapter you’ll learn how to apply special effects like drop shadows and fire effects to your object.
Inserting Objects From the EasyPalette You’ll learn more about using the EasyPalette in Chapter 6, but for now, let’s talk about how the EasyPalette works with images and how you can insert images from it. Think of the EasyPalette as a desktop organizer with lots of little compartments with something different in each. Some compartments have tools (pens and erasers), some have materials (paperclips and staples). In the same way, the EasyPalette has Galleries with different tools and effects; it also has Object Libraries with objects for you to use in your images. Inserting an object from the EasyPalette is fast and simple. Just follow these steps: 1.
Because objects reside in the Object Libraries, make sure the EasyPalette is displaying Object Libraries. Click the second icon in from the left as Figure 3.5 shows.
Figure 3.5 The EasyPalette displaying the Image Library, which contains a number of ready-touse objects to use in your compositions.
2.
Scroll through the images, masks, shapes, outlines, or paths and choose the item you want to insert. Click and hold on the item, then drag the cursor over to your object. When you are over your image, the cursor will change. I’ve dragged over the “opera” object.
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The object will appear in your image, as Figure 3.6 shows.
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Figure 3.6 The object has been inserted into our image.
TIP An even faster way of inserting objects from the EasyPalette is to double-click on the object. It will drop into the middle of your active image. Or you can right-click on the object in the EasyPalette and select the Copy Object to Image command or the Copy Object to New Document command if you want to create a new image from the object.
Adding Your Own Objects to the EasyPalette Now that you know how fast you can take objects from the EasyPalette and put them into your own images, imagine how useful it is to have your own objects in there. Input your company logo, a personal watermark to identify your images, or anything else you want. Any object can be placed in the EasyPalette—text, images, and so on. Using the above example, I’ve created a text object that has my name on it, and I want to insert this into every image I’m going to post on my Web site. First, I need to add it to the EasyPalette! I’ve created an object made from text and a hand-drawn shape (see Figure 3.7) and grouped these items into one object (see later in this chapter for how to do this). Figure 3.7 An object created for use on all my photos.
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Next I’ll drag and drop the object onto the EasyPalette and I’ll be presented with an Add to EasyPalette window with a few options (see Figure 3.8). Picking a good sample name can be important, especially if your object is hard to recognize at small sizes. You can also choose which Gallery or Library to add it to. In my case, I want to add this to the My Library group (this group is already created for you by default).
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Figure 3.8 The Add to EasyPalette window.
My image has been added to the EasyPalette and I can very easily add it to any image I’m working on. Figure 3.9 My object is now part of the EasyPalette.
Photo-Objects from Hemera Hemera Technologies (www.hemera.com), a rapidlygrowing company in eastern Canada, makes some software that is so incredibly useful to me that I wanted to mention it here. I’m sure you’re familiar with clipart— you can’t go into a software store without seeing collections of “10,000,000 clipart images.” Most clipart is, quite frankly, utterly lame for Web purposes. The Web is all about high-quality images and photographs, not cheesy looking clipart. The search tools in all the packages I tried were also horrible, and it took forever to find the image I wanted. There are online photo resources like PhotoDisc (www.photodisc.com) that offer thousands of highquality and very distinctive images. But I found the online photo sources like PhotoDisc to be very expensive, especially when they charge on a per-image basis. This is pricey when you need many images, especially when you’re working for a non-profit company’s site. What’s a Web designer to do? Hemera has the solution!
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Hemera’s large collection has very high quality photographs with the backgrounds removed (See Figure 3.10.), which makes them ideal for Web and print work—especially considering their very affordable price (currently under US$100 for either of their 50,000-object collections). You can just drop the objects into your image and they look fantastic. A quick right-click in PhotoImpact adds a drop shadow. And, a quick EasyPalette setting changes the way the image looks. The images can be exported in a variety of formats and variable dpi settings (72 dpi for screen work and 300 dpi for print work) for use in different programs. Figure 3.10 The Hemera search tool in action.
I can’t recommend this product enough. Both Volumes 1 and 2 of the company’s image collection offer an incredible value to any web designer looking to make their sites look more professional. With a total of 100,000 images at your disposal, you’ll be able to find an image for almost any occasion!
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The search tool is one of the most valuable parts of this package. Imagine typing in a few terms, and as you type them, the images display. The more terms you type, the more specific the images get. You don’t even need to click a search button! The above illustration shows the way the search tools work and the results that are displayed for the terms “black dog”—165 images in total!
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Manipulating Objects Objects are easy to create and manipulate. You can perform a variety of actions on objects, all with simple commands that are listed on the right-click menu of an object. Below is a list of the commands you have available to you with the object right-click menu and what they do (Figure 3.11 shows the menu that these commands come from). Figure 3.11 Right-click options for objects.
Cut, Copy, Paste—These commands are self-explanatory. Cut removes the object from your image and puts it on the clipboard for pasting into another image, while Copy does the same thing without deleting the image. Paste is an option only if there’s already an object on the clipboard. If there isn’t, it will be grayed (or “ghosted”) out. Remember that using the Paste command doesn’t clear the clipboard, so if you want to make multiple copies of something, you can keep pressing CTRL+V to make copies. Duplicate—The Duplicate command will simply make a clone of your object, offset by a few pixels so you can see that it was duplicated.
Merge, Merge All—These two commands are related. If you select Merge, it will merge the object with the background, effectively making it a permanent part of the background (also called the Base Image in PhotoImpact). Once an object is merged, it cannot be selected or moved in any way. And, unless you use the Undo function (or CTRL+Z on your keyboard), the merged object can never be easily separated from the background. Similarly, Merge All will take every object in the image and merge it with the background (Base Image), making your image “flat.” This usually is the final step in creating Web graphics before you export them as GIF or JPEG images. Never merge an image and save it as your only copy. You may need to make adjustments later, so be sure to keep an unmerged UFO file (PhotoImpact’s file format) around for later use. Delete—This command is also self-evident. You can use Undo or CTRL+Z on your keyboard to undo the delete action.
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Select All Objects—This command selects all objects, but not the background. Once selected, objects can be manipulated en masse. This is useful when you need to move everything at once, delete everything at once, or even copy all your objects to the clipboard as one group. You may alternatively use CTRL+SHIFT+A on your keyboard to select all objects in the composition. Align—There are a variety of ways you can align your images, but all have the same starting point. You need to select the multiple images you want to align. A fast way to do this is by holding down the CTRL key or the SHIFT key as you click on the images. Once you’ve selected your images, you can align them from the top, bottom, left, or right. You can also center them horizontally or vertically (or both at once), and you can even space the objects evenly by any pixel amount. My personal method of aligning objects is to first align them on the vertical or horizontal axis (depending on my image) and then right-click the group of objects and use the Align>Space Evenly command. (This is a good command to experiment with.) Arrange—This command controls the depth placement of the object in relation to other objects. If you want your object to be up front and on top of other objects, this is one place where you can set it. Image Optimizer—This is the tool you use for exporting your images to the Web. We’ll cover this in detail in Chapter 9. Shadow—This command creates quick and easy shadows. This is covered in the next section, Object Effects. Properties—This command provides fine control over your object properties and is covered later in this chapter. TIP If you want to copy an object quickly using the keyboard, remember that all the regular keyboard commands still apply: CTRL+C for Copy, CTRL+X for Cut, and CTRL+V for Paste.
TIP
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If you click on an object and drag it while holding down the CTRL key on your keyboard, it will be copied. And if you hold down the SHIFT key while dragging an object, it will snap to invisible guidelines that run vertically and horizontally inside the image. This helps you move your object precisely.
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Object Effects As I explained in the introduction to this chapter, one of the beauties of objects is that they are isolated from the rest of the image, but can be accessed quickly without having to switch to different tools or layers. There are some common object effects you may wish to use and some guidelines to keep in mind when using third-party plug-ins on your objects. See Figure 3.12. Figure 3.12 A hue-shifted apple, laced with fire, jazzedup with lightning, and a drop shadow added—all in less than two minutes!
Adding a Drop Shadow Drop shadows are a simple yet effective way to enhance many images. Although many designers avoid them now because they feel the effect has been overused, I personally think they add a touch of dimension to any image and I encourage you to use them (with reasonable restraint). To create a drop shadow effect on any object, follow these easy steps: 1.
Right-click on your object and choose Shadow from the menu
2.
The Shadow settings window will come up (see Figure 3.13). This is the control center for all shadow functions. From this window, you can control the color of the shadow, the direction of it, X and Y axis offsets (the higher the value, the more it looks like the image is lifting off the page or screen), transparency, the overall size of the shadow, and how soft the edges look. The default values are usually fine for most circumstances, but there is a lot of room for experimentation here. Play around with the settings and see what you can do!
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Figure 3.13 The Shadow settings window.
3.
As you make changes to this screen, the effects can be seen immediately on your image. Once your shadow looks the way you want it to look, click OK. You’re done! TIP The smaller the text size, the less of a shadow effect it should have. Ten-point text with a default shadow (offset of 10 pixels) looks unrealistic—an offset of 2 pixels looks much better.
Adding a Fire Effect Applying a fire effect to an object is very simple; you’ll be surprised how quickly you can do it. Fire effects look great on logos or Web graphics, and they’re perfect for getting your print pages noticed. Remember, like all special effects, don’t overexpose your user to the effect or it will no longer be visually exciting. In this example, we’ll start with a simple 3D gray button created with the path tools (see Figure 3.14). You can substitute text and use the same steps to get flaming text. Figure 3.14 We start with a simple 3D gray button.
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Select the circle, then right-click on it and select Duplicate. The button will duplicate itself, creating a copy directly on top of the original. It’s difficult to tell that a copy has been made, so you’ll need to drag the new object off the bottom one to confirm the change. The reason we’re creating a duplicate is because the flame effect will create an outline of our original image and we want to have both the flames and our original shape for our final composition. PhotoImpact doesn’t allow you to apply the flame and keep the original image at the same time.
Figure 3.15 Duplicating the circle.
2.
Look at the EasyPalette and, under the Type Gallery, look at the Fire settings (see Figure 3.16). I’ve chosen the blue preset for a “cold fire” effect. Any of the fire effects listed would work here.
Figure 3.16 The EasyPalette Fire presets.
3.
By double-clicking on the preset it is applied to the target object as shown in Figure 3.17 (remember that you need to have an object selected before an effect can be applied to it).
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Figure 3.17 Applying the cold fire effect.
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You’ll have to make sure you’re on the Pick tool (press the letter K) before trying to move the new flaming object. Using the arrow keys, adjust the fire effect until it’s positioned closely around the source image as in Figure 3.18. The key is to make it look like it’s one object. Once you like the way it looks, you’re done!
Figure 3.18 The final image—a “cold-fire solar eclipse.”
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TIP If you’re having trouble seeing borders to active objects when aligning due to the animating marquee, you can toggle the animating marquee on and off using SHIFT+Q on your keyboard.
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NOTE Almost every preset in the EasyPalette has variable settings that can be controlled. Right-click on a preset, and if you see Modify Properties and Apply it means the preset has a setting you can modify (the exceptions to this rule are some of the frames). In the case of our fire effect above, I could have modified any of the three flame colors or controlled the intensity of the flame. Experiment and have fun with it!
CAUTION Remember that in order to apply a plug-in or preset to an object, you need to have that object selected. If you don’t, you’ll see an error like that in Figure 3.19.
Figure 3.19 The error message when there’s no object to which a preset can be applied.
Applying Plug-ins and Filters to Objects PhotoImpact 7.0 has dozens of special effects filters. There are many third party plug-ins that can help create striking images, and nearly all of them can be applied to objects without difficulty. Just as in the fire effect described earlier, first select the object, then select the effect, and it will be applied to the object. You can also apply the effect to multiple objects at the same time. In Figure 3.20, I’ve selected all the objects at once by holding down the Control key as I left-click each object. I then chose the Fire 6 EasyPalette setting and got the results shown in Figure 3.21. Figure 3.20 A series of selected objects.
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Figure 3.21 The same objects after the fire particle effect.
Adding a Snow/Ice Effect Another great effect that can be created with PhotoImpact is a snow/ice effect. This is an eyecatching effect best used with large, blocky fonts. Here’s how you do it! 1.
Create a new image (File > New). I’m going to create an image based on the 720348 preset.
2.
Next we’ll fill the background with black—CTRLF activates the fill feature, then select the color black.
3.
Now we’ll add some text. I’ll create some white text using the Eras Bold ITC font. It’s a nice blocky font that will carry this effect nicely. Figure 3.22 shows my text added.
Figure 3.22 Adding some text.
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Select Effect > Creative > Type Effect. Scroll down until you see the Snow effect, and a window like Figure 3.23 will load. You can see the defaults for the colors and the overall Strength of the effect. Let’s make the effect a bit more exciting by changing the values!
Figure 3.23 Creative Type effects.
5.
First click on the colored box for Middle Color and a window like Figure 3.24 will appear. I want a nice rich blue color, so an RGB value of 26, 67, 216 will do nicely. Repeat for Outside Color and select an RGB value of 10, 205, 240.
Figure 3.24 Selecting a new color for the snow effect.
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Increase the Strength to 63 (see Figure 3.25). Click OK, and select Apply Current Frame to Image. The effect will be applied, and Figure 3.26 is our final effect!
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Figure 3.25 Adjusting the colors and effect Strength.
Figure 3.26 Our final snow effect!
Golden Concrete Text
1.
Create a new image (File > New). I’m going to create an image based on the 720348 preset.
2.
Now we’ll add some text. I’ll create some black text using the Goudy Stout font. It’s a font with a very characteristic “rough” look, so I think this will work out nicely. Figure 3.27 shows my text added.
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There are some wonderful presets for text in PhotoImpact, but what’s really great about them is that you can enhance, tweak, and manipulate the effect to get some wonderful looking text. Here’s an example of some unique-looking text created by combining multiple effects. And remember that this is only one small example—PhotoImpact has 1,700 EasyPalette presets that can be combined in a nearly infinite variety of effects. Get creative!
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Figure 3.27 Goudy Stout text added.
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Press the space bar to de-select the text. Nothing should be selected at this point.
4.
Instead of going to the Effect menu again, let’s look on the EasyPalette Gallery Manager and look under Type Gallery for the Concrete choices. Select Concrete 2 as Figure 3.28 shows and double-click on it.
Figure 3.28 Selecting the Concrete 2 effect.
5.
The Concrete 2 effect has been applied to the background—nice looking, but we’re not done yet! Click on the text to select it (see figure 3.29).
Figure 3.29 Concrete 2 effect applied to our background, text selected.
6.
Using the same EasyPalette section, double click on the Concrete 5 preset. This gives us the text shown in Figure 3.30—it has a nice golden hue, but I want to enhance that even further.
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Figure 3.30 The Concrete 5 effect.
7.
Make sure the text is still selected. Look for the Lighting Gallery on the EasyPalette. Select the Light Bulb Section and double-click on the Light Bulb 1 setting (see Figure 3.31)
Figure 3.31 Select Light Bulb 1 effect.
Our text is starting to look great! Figure 3.32 shows the light bulb effect applied to it. The text is a beautiful golden color—we’re almost done, but there’s one more effect I want to add to it. Figure 3.32 Looking golden with Light Bulb 1 applied!
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8.
Next I want to add a shadow. Under the EasyPalette > Materials > Shadow presets, you’ll see several choices. None of them will work, however, until our object is transformed into a path. Right click on the text and select Convert Object Type > From Text/Image to Path.
9.
In the Shadow presets, double click on shadow S12. This gives us a depthenhancing effect shown in our final image (Figure 3.33). Great-looking text in a few easy steps!
Figure 3.33 Golden Concrete text
Object Properties Each object has its own set of properties that can be specified, such as name, transparency value, and so on. Some of these settings can be set elsewhere, but if you’re working on a complex, multi-object image, it pays to keep track of all the little details. The properties for an object are accessed by right-clicking on the object and choosing Properties (see Figure 3.11 earlier in this chapter). Object Properties, as shown in Figure 3.34, is what comes up. Figure 3.34 The General tab of the Object Properties window.
There are several properties for each object, but the most important ones are: Name—The name of the object; this is important when you have many objects! Show—If this box is unchecked, your object will be hidden. This is the equivalent function of “hide layer” in some other graphic-design programs. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Transparency—The higher the value, the more transparent the object. You can use this to achieve interesting special effects. Transparent color—You can indeed knock out colors with this setting, but if you’re planning on making transparent GIFs for the Web, it’s better to use the Image Optimizer tool (more on this in Chapter 9). Soft edge—Cyber artists can crank this up to around 30 to give the object a softfocus effect. Set it to 50 and higher, and it functions as a fade-out effect. Experiment with it! Position & Size tab—You can specify, down to the pixel level, the exact size and position of your object. Hyperlink tab—There are a lot of options here for Web design, and we’ll deal with all of them in Chapter 10. TIP If you’re looking for a fast way to get to an object’s properties, try doubleclicking on it. Fast!
TIP If the Soft Edge function is grayed out, it’s because the object is still a Text or Path object—it needs to be an Image object. To fix this, right-click on the object and select Convert Object Type > From Text/Path to Image.
Saving Objects The one critical thing to understand about saving objects is that only one file format supports objects: Ulead File For Objects (UFO). Any other format (JPEG, TIFF, and so on.) will merge your objects into one, making them impossible to manipulate again. So it’s important to choose the UFO format when using the Save feature (found under the File menu) to maintain your original objects’ properties without merging them.
Lastly, if you want to save an object in a format like TIFF or BMP, but don’t want to affect your original image, drag the object out of the image window while holding down the Control key. This will create a copy of your object in its own file, and you can right-click to Merge All and then save it in whichever format you wish.
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If you want to save your objects in another format, say the GIF or JPEG formats for the Web, you can right-click and select Image Optimizer. I’ll go into detail on how this works in Chapter 10. For now, however, you should understand that it’s very simple to save individual objects in whichever format you need.
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TIP You can make an exact duplicate of your current active and open composition within PhotoImpact by using CTRL+D on your keyboard. This will make a duplicate of everything—any floating, unmerged objects and the Base Image itself will be included. This is great if you want to experiment on an exact copy but don’t want to affect the original image.
Selections Selections are closely related to objects, because at some point in time many objects were once created using selections. The easiest way to understand what selections are is to understand that when something has a selection around it, whatever you do will be done only inside the boundaries of that selection. For example, in Figure 3.35, I’ve created a selection that covers most of the background. You can tell it’s a selection because it has the staggered blue line (called the Marquee) around the edge. Let’s say I wanted to fill that selection with yellow. By pressing CTRL+F and selecting yellow, I get the hideous mess in Figure 3.36. No one said PhotoImpact would give you good taste!
Figure 3.35 A selection in action.
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Figure 3.36 Post-fill results.
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So how do you make selections? There are four tools in PhotoImpact for making selections, and I’ll give you some information about each tool. Making accurate selections is something that takes experience, so although I can give you information about how the tools work, it’s important to practice using them.
Standard Selection Tool The easiest to use of all the selection tools, this one allows you to create selections based on either a click-and-drag motion or a fixed size. When you click on the tool, its corresponding Attribute Toolbar will load (see Figure 3.37), giving you a few options. Figure 3.37 The Standard Selection’s Attribute Toolbar.
Mode—There are three modes for all selection tools. From left to right, they allow you to make a new selection (removing whatever selection was already there), add to a current selection, or remove from a current selection. Shape—You first pick the shape, and then you draw your selection either as a rectangle, a square, an ellipse, or a circle. This can be useful when trying to accurately isolate part of an image. Fixed size—By checking this box and specifying a value, clicking on your image will yield an exact pixel-by-pixel selection based on the dimensions you chose. This can be useful in a variety of situations. Although the Crop Tool is usually a better choice for things like this, this is the way to do it if you need to prep still images for insertion into a digital video project and need to make sure they are exactly 640 480. Soft edge—This is exactly as described under the Object Properties section above. When used with selections, it’s great for the soft-edge vignette effect.
Add—If you have a selection you make on a regular basis, you can add the selection to the EasyPalette for future use.
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Options—This includes Draw from Center (for more precise selections), Preserve Base Image (which leaves your Base Image alone rather than have the selection destroy the Base Image wherever the selection was made), and Anti-aliasing (which smoothes the edges of a selection).
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Lasso Selection Tool The Lasso Tool is ideal for hand-drawing a detailed selection around an object. You use this tool by clicking selection points around the edges of the object you want to “lasso.” When you’ve gone around the entire perimeter of the object and end up at the starting point, a quick double-click will turn it from a lasso into a selection. Figure 3.38 shows the lasso tool in action. The toolbar that loads when this tool is selected has two unique options: Figure 3.38 The Lasso tool in action.
Snap to edges—When this option is selected, PhotoImpact will attempt to find the edge of the object you’re selecting and try to “snap” to the edges. Depending on the complexity of the object edge it’s trying to snap, this can have varying degrees of success. Sensitivity—The value of this setting determines how PhotoImpact detects the edges of your object. See Figure 3.39. Figure 3.39 The Lasso Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
TIP Sometimes it’s easier to create a selection around what you don’t want and invert it in order to get a selection of what you do want. For instance, if the subject in your photo is standing in front of a white wall, rather than drawing a selection around the subject, use the Magic Wand tool to select the background, right-click on the selection and choose Invert. Your selection will be inverted!
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NOTE If much of your design work consists of removing backgrounds from images, you may want to consider using Corel Knockout 1.5 (www.corel.com). This powerful program’s masking abilities go beyond what PhotoImpact offers. The software is a little tricky to use, but it’s very flexible—Corel has a demo you can download and check out for yourself.
Magic Wand Tool The Magic Wand Tool (see Figure 3.40) is another selection tool that happens to be one of my favorites. It allows you to select large areas of an image based on the coloring of an image. If you have an image with a dark background, the Magic Wand Tool can be used to select large pieces of it with one click. And with a few adjustments to the Similarity setting, you can fine-tune the selection even further. This tool has two options that are worth mentioning: Figure 3.40 The Magic Wand Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
Select by Line or Area—This option allows you to control how the selection is being made. I’ve found that it’s a good idea to try both options and see which one gives you a better selection. Similarity—The higher this number, the more of a color range it has. In Figure 3.41, if I wanted to select more of the tree bark with one selection, I should have cranked up the Similarity to around 50. Figure 3.41 The Magic Wand in action.
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Bezier Curve Tool The Bezier Curve Tool is interesting because it allows you to create selections using a curved tool that is essentially a path. This fairly advanced tool is less useful (in most cases) than the other selection tools, but it can be used to create some beautiful sloping selections that make interesting visuals. (You can see this in Figures 3.42 and 3.43.) The two most important options for this tool are: Shape—You can create your own curved shapes with the Free Path option (the default), or you can select one of the other shapes (they are the same as the Standard Selection Tool). Draw new path or Edit existing path—As the name suggests, you can either draw a new path or edit one that already exists. Figure 3.42 The Bezier Curve Selection’s Attribute Toolbar. Figure 3.43 The Bezier Curve Tool in action.
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Working with Masks The EasyPalette includes a Mask library with dozens of preset selections. Masks are essentially complex selections that, when applied to your image, can be used for a variety of edge effects. The Circle Masks are among my favorites, because they allow for easy vignette effects.
Applying Preset Masks Figure 3.44 Our starting image.
We’ll start with an image of the outdoors—something that a mask effect would enhance. 1.
First we need to find the Mask we want to apply. On the EasyPalette, click on the second icon in the top row, Object Libraries. Expand the Mask Library and take a look at the options we have.
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Figure 3.45 The Mask choices.
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Scroll through the Masks and click on one that suits your image. I’m going to pick one of the Flower masks because this is an outdoor scene. Double-clicking on a mask applies it to the image. You’ll see the blue marquee lines indicating the boundaries of the mask (Figure 3.46).
Figure 3.46 A mask has been applied.
3.
Once the mask has been applied, we need to apply the effect. We do this by cropping the image, effectively removing everything that is part of the selection. The easiest way to do this is pressing CTRL+R on the keyboard.
Figure 3.47 After a mask has been applied.
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We’re done! We have an image with a complex masking feature applied, giving it a unique look
There are many masks in PhotoImpact 7.0, and each adds a unique effect to the image. Here are just a few of your options:
Figure 3.48 The Leaf mask.
Figure 3.49 The Star S02 mask.
Figure 3.50 The Circle C01 mask.
Figure 3.51 The Pattern P11 mask.
Creating Your Own Masks As you can see by the examples above, masks are very powerful tools—they allow you to radically alter the appearance of your image in a few simple clicks. It’s surprisingly easy to create your own masks once you get the technique down—let’s look at how you can do this. 1.
Start with a blank image. I’ll start with an 800 600 image, large enough for me to work with easily.
2.
Switch to the paint tool. In this step, we create the edge effect we’re looking for. I want something that is smooth and “fat” looking. So I’ll leave the paintbrush shape at default, change to a size 75 brush, soft edge of 50 (Figure 3.52), and start painting! The brush style, soft edge value, and presets you use will all serve to create unique effects. You want to first paint the inner edge as shown in Figure 3.53.
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Figure 3.52 The brush settings for our mask.
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Figure 3.53 Our inner edge is painted.
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Next, fill in all the white spaces on the outer edge as Figure 3.54 shows.
Figure 3.54 Outer edge filled in
Figure 3.55 Magic Wand settings.
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Select the Magic Wand selection tool and set the Similarity to 80. Make a selection of the white area in the middle.
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Once you have your selection, under the Selection menu select Soften. Set this value to the amount of softening you want for the mask. Since I want a nice smooth look, I’ll set the Soften Edge value to 21. Click OK when the value has been set.
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Figure 3.56 Soften Edge settings.
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Under the Selection menu, select Copy Selection to Object Library (or press CTRL+ALT+E).
Figure 3.57 Adding a selection to the EasyPalette.
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You’ll be presented with a dialog box as shown in Figure 3.57. Give your selection a name and add it to the appropriate section under the Mask Library of the EasyPalette. Alternatively, you can add it to your custom My Library section.
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Once the image is added to the library, you can open up a photo and apply the mask (as instructed above). Remember to press CTRL+R to finish the process!
Figure 3.58 Our completed mask applied to a photo.
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TIP There’s an incredible amount of variety to masks—every one you create will be a little different. Experiment with different brush types, different selection methods, and different soften values. Remember to save your creations by exporting them to the EasyPalette!
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NOTE If you’re looking for a good source of new masks, the PhotoImpact Resource kit contains 65 new masks for a variety of special effects. The kit can be purchased online: http://www.muskalipman.com/photoimpactkit/
The Z-Merge Tool The Z-Merge tool is a new addition to PhotoImpact 7.0, and it takes a little experimenting to get used to. To understand the Z-Merge tool, you need to know that two-dimensional images (2D) have both a vertical and horizontal position on the screen. Left or right (Y-axis), up and down (X-axis). The Z-axis is the 3D axis—it controls how the image element moves towards you or away from you based on the 3D axis. In order to achieve the Z-Merge effect, you’ll need more than one object on the Z-axis. A little confused? It’s a difficult concept to grasp at first—after all, PhotoImpact is a 2D program, not a 3D rendering program, so the concept of the Z-axis will be foreign to most Web designers. The concept of the Z-Merge is best illustrated with an example or two. Figure 3.59 A series of paths set to 3D round.
1.
First I’ll create a series of objects using the Path drawing tools, and I’ll put them in 3D round mode (Figure 3.59).
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I’ll select one of the spheres, then switch to the Z-Merge Tool and check the box to activate the tool
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In order to use the Z-Merge function, I’ll need to move the object a little toward another object, usually so they’re overlapping.
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I’ll repeat Steps 2 and 3 with another object—select it, then switch to the ZMerge tool and check the box.
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On one of the Z-Merge objects, I’ll change the slider value of the Z-Merge to –15.
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On the other Z-Merge object, I’ll change the slider value of the Z-Merge to –12.
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This gives me a blending of the two objects as Figure 3.60 illustrates. See how the edge of the sphere looks like it’s partially merged with the larger object? This is the Z-Merge effect.
Figure 3.60 Two objects Z-Merged.
It’s important to understand that the Z-axis in PhotoImpact goes from –1024 to 1024, for a total range of 2048 different Z-axis points, and each object has to have a different Z-axis point in order for you to see a Z-Merge effect. It gets even more complex when you consider that paths and shapes with a 3D effect on them (3D round) have a height setting for the 3D effect. For instance, you may have a 3D circle whose border is 60 and depth of 30, and it’s on the Z-Merge axis at 500. That means the border of the circle has a height of 60, so any Z-Merged object would have to take this into account and be Z-Merged at between 501 and 559 for there to be any effect. Confused? So was I at first—it took experimentation and head-scratching to figure this out. When I did, however, I was able to combine some simple shapes into this little character shown in Figure 3.61. Figure 3.61 Multiple Z-Merged Objects.
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The question you might be asking is, “What will I use this for?” Like other tools in PhotoImpact, if you’re creative enough you can find a way to create new effects with it. I experimented with combining objects and text together, and came up with some interesting effects. Explore and have fun!
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4 CHAPTER 4
Creating and Editing Text The primary goal of design is the communication of ideas, and often the power of an image alone isn’t enough to clearly get an idea across, so text must be used. PhotoImpact includes tons of tools that let you include text in your design without sacrificing the visual appeal that you work so hard to achieve. Whether you’re creating logos, adding captions to images, or designing text-based buttons for a Web site, you can use PhotoImpact’s Text tool to add text to your images in a multitude of styles that you can change with the click of your mouse. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create text, how to apply various styles to it, and how to convert it to other object types. By converting a path, you can edit the shapes of individual letters, and by converting text to an image object, you can apply special effects from the Type Gallery in the EasyPalette.
Fonts Before you can have text, you need font packages—the computer software needed to display different typefaces. Your computer comes with dozens of fonts, which are complete assortments of type in one size and style. Many application programs automatically install more fonts. If you don’t have just the typeface you need, though, there are thousands more available, both free and commercial.
Font and Typeface Terminology Most Windows fonts are TrueType fonts, which will display and print at high quality in any size. Windows can also use PostScript fonts, which work the same way but are usually more expensive. In addition, Bitmap fonts can be used, but they are intended just for use on-screen, rather than in printed text or in high-resolution graphics. Each font contains just one face, whether that’s a plain (or roman) version, an italic one, a bold one, or a bold italic one—so an entire typeface family is composed of several individual fonts. You can use only the fonts that are installed on your computer, so if you want to create type in a different typeface, you’ll need to locate a typeface that looks the way you want.
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Here are a few special terms that describe type (see Figure 4.1 for examples): Figure 4.1 Typography has its own special language that helps designers describe type and its various parts.
Roman—The plain version of a typeface is called roman; it’s also sometimes called regular or book. For example, this text is set in Melior Roman. Italic—Book titles and some other terms are set in italic type. It’s a slanted, somewhat “script” version of a roman face. Bold—A heavier version of a roman face is called bold. Black—Extra-heavy type is often referred to as black. Baseline—The baseline is the imaginary line that runs along the bottom of a line of type; most letters, such as the letter “b,” sit right on the baseline. X-height—The height of most lower-case letters, including “x,” is the x-height. Ascender—An ascender is the part of a lower-case letter, such as in the letter “d,” that extends above the x-height. Descender—A descender is the part of a lower-case letter, such as in the letter “g,” that extends below the baseline. Counter—A counter is a hole within a letter shape, such as the middle of an “o.” Serif—Serif typefaces have small extensions called serifs at the end of each long stroke. This paragraph is set in a serif typeface. Sans Serif—Sans serif typefaces don’t have serifs. The heading above that says “Fonts” is set in a sans serif typeface. Different typefaces are useful for different purposes. For example, a large, bold sans serif typeface is easy to read—that’s why the “Stop” on a stop sign is set that way. For smaller text, serif typefaces tend to be easier to read, because the serifs provide our eyes with extra “clues” to determine what each letter is as our brains process the letters into words. You can use different typefaces to create contrast between different areas of text, such as headings and body text.
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Installing and Viewing Fonts Windows stores all of your fonts in one place, so it’s easy to see which fonts you have, view them, and install new fonts. Each font file contains a sample of how it will look when you use it in a document. Here’s how to view the fonts installed on your computer: Choose Start menu > Settings > Control Panel.
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In the Control Panel, double-click on the Fonts folder.
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Double-click on a font file to see a sample of it, along with some information about its manufacturer (see Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2 Windows’ built-in font sample display gives you a good idea of how a typeface will look at different sizes.
TIP It’s often useful to have a printed notebook of type samples that you can flip through quickly. To print a typeface sample, double-click on the font file and then click the Print button.
The number next to each different type size in the sample window shows the point size of that line of type. Type is measured in points, with 72-point type being a little less than 1 inch tall. Different typefaces may not look as though they are the same size, even when you set them at the same point size, because of their different designs (see Figure 4.3). Figure 4.3 These two type samples are both set in 72-point type; the left-hand face is Agency FB, and the right-hand face is Bradley Hand ITC.
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When you add to your font collection, you can install new fonts through the Fonts folder, as well. To install new fonts in Windows: 1.
Choose Start menu > Settings > Control Panel.
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In the Control Panel, double-click on the Fonts folder.
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In the Fonts folder window, choose File > Install New Font to bring up the Add Fonts dialog box (see Figure 4.4).
Figure 4.4 Installing new fonts is as simple as telling Windows where to find them.
4.
Navigate to the folder containing the fonts, then SHIFT+click to select the fonts you want to install.
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Click OK.
Getting New Fonts Free fonts abound on the World Wide Web, and mail order companies have piles of CD-ROMs containing inexpensive fonts. Here’s a short list of free font archives that will get you started adding to your collection: http://www.fontfreak.com/—This site features free fonts and offers a wide variety of font designs. One of the best sites out there! http://www.acidfonts.com/—Once you get past the irritating pop-up windows, this massive collection of fonts has sub-categories such as sci-fi and dingbat fonts—typefaces with pictures instead of letters. This site also offers a listing of font management tools. http://desktoppublishing.com/fonts.html—Located within a huge archive of desktop publishing information and links, this font source has free and shareware fonts as well as links to commercial type foundries, font utilities, and information about fonts and typefaces. http://www.astigmatic.com/aoeff/freefonts.html—Here you’ll find a small but interesting collection of fonts, many of them dingbat fonts. Our favorite is DoggiePrint, which contains twenty-six dog heads in different breeds instead of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. http://www.fontfile.com/—All the FontFile people want in exchange for free access to their extensive font archive is a link to their site from your own Web site. http://www.muskalipman.com
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One warning for font-hounds: With fonts, you may find that you get what you pay for. Commercial fonts usually contain special characters that may not exist in free fonts. Examples of these characters are “curly” quotation marks and ligatures, which are two- or three-letter combinations that look cleaner than the original letters do when placed side by side. Spacing is likely to be better in commercial fonts, too.
Now it’s time to get down to it and actually create some type. The technique is simple, but the options for formatting text in PhotoImpact are myriad, so feel free to experiment. First, make sure that the Tool Panel is visible by choosing View > Toolbars & Panels > Tool Panel. Then, to add type to an image: 1.
Switch to the Type tool.
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Click anywhere in the image window to bring up the Text Entry Box (see Figure 4.5).
Figure 4.5 You can set text attributes at the same time as you enter text in the Text Entry Box.
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Type in the text you want to create.
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To see a preview of the text in the image window as you type, click the Preview button.
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When you’re done, click OK.
As long as the type you’ve created stays a text object rather than an image object, you can edit it at any time by choosing the Type tool and double-clicking on the text to reopen the Text Entry Box. You can also access the Text Entry Box by clicking to select the text and then right-clicking to display a contextual menu—the first option in the list is Edit Text.
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Creating Type
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TIP When you want to select or edit existing text, watch the cursor to make sure that double-clicking will reopen the Text Entry Box—there should be a small “T” inside the arrow. If you double-click with the regular Text tool cursor, which shows a text insertion bar next to the arrow, the click will open a new, blank Text Entry Box.
Table 4.1 shows some keyboard shortcuts that you may find helpful when you’re working in the Text Entry Box. Table 4.1 Text Entry Box keyboard shortcuts Start a new line of text
CTRL+Enter
Update the image window preview
Alt+P
Copy the selected text
CTRL+C
Cut the selected text
CTRL+X
Paste text from the Clipboard
CTRL+V
Undo the change you just made
CTRL+Z
Each time you click with the Text tool, PhotoImpact uses the appearance settings from the last text object you worked with. You can change some of these settings in the Text Entry Box, or you can leave them as is and then change them later using the Attribute toolbar; the controls in the Text Entry Box and those in the Attribute toolbar overlap somewhat, but each place has controls not found elsewhere. The following sections describe the different settings you can apply to text, along with where you can find the controls for those settings. NOTE If you don’t see the Attribute toolbar, choose View > Toolbars & Panels > Attribute Toolbar to display it. And if you don’t see any type style controls in the Text Entry Box, click the button in the upper right-hand corner of the box to display the controls. You can save screen space by clicking again to hide them until you need them.
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Font
Figure 4.6 As you scroll down the Font menu, PhotoImpact shows you what your text looks like with that font applied.
If you want to add fonts to the Font menu, see “Installing and Viewing Fonts” above.
Size You can set the size of text in several ways. The simplest is to choose an option from the Size menu, which is the second menu in both the Attribute toolbar and the Text Entry Box. The Size menu lists point sizes from 1 to 128 in one-point intervals. Because it can get tiresome scrolling through all those sizes, you can also just click in the Size field at the top of the menu and enter a number between 1 and 2184. If you enlarge the type enough that it doesn’t fit in the image window, it will just extend off the edge; you can move it around to see the rest of it, and if you reduce the size again, all of the text will still be there (see Figure 4.7). Figure 4.7 Text that is too big for the window will extend off the edge.
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The Font menu is the first control both on the Attribute toolbar and in the Text Entry Box. If you scroll through the font choices with the scroll wheel on a mouse, PhotoImpact displays a sample of what your text would look like in that font to the right of the menu (see Figure 4.6). If you use the up and down arrow keys, however, your text in the document window will change as well, giving you a much better example of how that font changes the look of your text. I often use the up and down arrow keys to flip through the various fonts to get a feel for what my text will look like in that font setting—I sometimes find it a nice jump start to a new creative project!
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The third way to resize type is to transform it using the Transform tool (see Figure 4.8), which is useful for creating type to fit in a particular area of your design without trying to figure out what point size will work. To transform type, switch to the Transform tool and click on the text, then drag on any of the side or corner handles. Hold down the Shift key as you drag if you want to maintain the proportions of the letters. When you’re done resizing the type, click anywhere else in the image window to complete the transformation. To see what point size the transformed type is, switch back to the Text tool and click on the transformed type. The size is displayed in the Size field of the Attribute toolbar. Figure 4.8 Using the Transform tool allows you to size text visually without losing its status as a text object.
Even after you’ve transformed the text, you can still edit it as described above under “Creating Type.” TIP If you don’t hold down the shift key when using the resize tool, you’ll change the aspect ratio (the text will look tall and skinny or short and fat). In most cases this isn’t desirable, but if you want to achieve certain effects this is one method.
CAUTION If you resize text using the Transform tool, you won’t be able to deform the text afterward.
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Style
Figure 4.9a You can hide or display the Text Entry Box’s text formatting options by clicking the button at the upper right corner of the dialog box.
Figure 4.9b The Text Panel offers an alternate way to change text options.
Galleries Four of the attribute Galleries that are included with PhotoImpact are accessible via the type Style menu (see Figure 4.10). Figure 4.10 The Style button allows access to four Gallery options
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Text Style options appear in three places: the Attribute toolbar, Text Entry Box, and Text Panel. In the Attribute toolbar, you’ll find a Style menu that contains a variety of options in several categories. Here you can change the typographic style of text, as well as its alignment, but you can also make more fundamental changes to the way type appears. These changes include such things as the preset collections of appearance attributes found in the three type Galleries. The Text Entry Box has some of the same controls as the Style menu, along with some extras that are accessible only here (see Figure 4.9a). The Text Panel is new to PhotoImpact 7.0 and gives you an alternate way to access text formatting options (see Figure 4.9b).
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Material—This Gallery contains surface textures that can be applied to PhotoImpact objects, including type. The categories include Metallic, Plastic, and Realistic textures (such as Wood, Paper, and Fabric). Most of these surfaces won’t really show up on a 2D object, such as plain type. To make the most of them, use one of the 3D modes (see “Mode” below). To apply any Material setting, double-click on its thumbnail image. Deform—The Deform Gallery contains presets for deforming type in various shapes. There are two sets of Deform presets—those for horizontal type and those for vertical type. By default, all type is horizontal, but Vertical is one of the options in the Style menu; see “Typeface Styles” below for more information. To apply any Deform setting, double-click on its thumbnail image; double-click on the first thumbnail, labeled “Reset,” to return your type to its normal appearance. If you want to deform type manually, see “Deform” in the “Mode” section, below. Wrap—Here you’ll see options for wrapping text around other objects (or itself) in various ways. You can experiment with the different wraps and waves. To apply any Wrap setting, double-click on its thumbnail image, and you can always return your type to its normal appearance by double-clicking on the first thumbnail, labeled “Reset.” Type—The Type Gallery contains twenty unique categories for text effects, including fire, snow, neon, and sand effects. To apply a Type effect, make sure your text item is selected, then double-click on the Type thumbnail of the effect you want to use. TIP You can also wrap text—or any other object—by clicking to select the text, then right-clicking to display a contextual menu and choosing an option from the Wrap submenu. This is the same as the Wrap submenu in the Object menu, which you’ll see if you’ve selected a text object with the Pick tool instead of the Text tool.
Typeface Styles The second option in the Attribute toolbar’s Style menu contains the basic text formatting style choices that are available in most page layout or word processing programs. These styles also appear in the Text Entry Box in the form of buttons, as follows: Normal—This is the default text style; choosing this option in the Style menu removes any other style options you’ve applied. There’s no button for Normal in the Text Entry Box; you’ll just have to click the individual buttons for style options to turn them off. Bold—If the typeface designer has included a bold version of a typeface in the font installed on your computer, then this choice will change the text to the bold version. It has no effect if the font doesn’t include a bold version.
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Italic—This option works regardless of whether the typeface designer has included a true italic version of the typeface in the font. If an italic version isn’t included, PhotoImpact just slants the type a bit to create obliqued (“fake” italic) text. Underline—To place an underscore below the text, choose this option. Outline—Using the outline style creates a hollow version of the text, with the outside outlined in the selected color and the interior transparent. You can mix these styles by applying more than one. To remove any style, choose that option again from the Style menu or click on the button again in the Text Entry Box. To remove all styles, choose Style > Normal.
Orientation By default, all text in PhotoImpact is created horizontally, the way this book is set. You can change the orientation of text to vertical by choosing Style > Vertical in the Attribute toolbar or by clicking the Vertical checkbox in the Text Entry Box (see Figure 4.11). Figure 4.11 A checkbox in the Text Entry Box allows you to run type vertically rather than horizontally.
Alignment The default alignment setting in PhotoImpact is left-aligned, which means that the text you create will start where you click the Text tool in the image window and proceed to the right from that point. The other options are Right and Center. To change alignment in the Attribute toolbar’s Style menu, choose any option; to change alignment in the Text Entry box, click any of the three buttons.
Shadow Giving text a shadow is an attractive way to make it stand out from a background. If the Text tool is active, you can apply a shadow to a text object by clicking on it and then choosing Style > Shadow in the Attribute toolbar. When you’re using the Pick tool, you can click on a text object and choose Object > Shadow, just as you would for any item in PhotoImpact. This was also discussed in Chapter 3.
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Strikethrough—This style puts a line through the middle of each letter.
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The Shadow dialog box looks the same whether you’re applying a shadow to a text object or to any image object (see Figure 4.12). The first thing you need to do to create a shadow is to click in the Shadow checkbox at the top of the dialog box. The rest of the controls are as follows: Figure 4.12 The available controls in the Shadow dialog box vary depending on the type of shadow you’re creating.
Color—The first control in the Shadow dialog box is a color swatch; click on it to display the Color Picker and choose a new color for the shadow. Remember that the shadow usually shouldn’t draw the eye more than the main text, so pick subtle colors. Type—Next to the color swatch are seven buttons for various types of shadow. The first five give you drop shadows, each with the shadow offset at a different angle from the text—below and to the right, below and to the left, above and to the right, above and to the left, or directly behind the text. This kind of shadow makes the text appear as though it’s floating above the page. The sixth and seventh buttons produce cast shadows, which make the text look as though its base is planted on the page and the rest of it is extending upward from the page. See Figure 4.11 for examples of the different shadow types. Figure 4.11 A drop shadow (top) makes the shadowed object appear to be floating above the page, while a cast shadow (bottom) makes the object look as though its base is standing on the page.
X-offset—This setting determines the horizontal distance in pixels between the shadow and the text that’s casting the shadow. It can range from 0 to 1000, and it’s available only when you’re creating a drop shadow, because cast shadows always start at the base of the type. Y-offset—This setting determines the vertical distance in pixels between the shadow and the text that’s casting the shadow. It can range from 0 to 1000 and, like X-offset, is available only when you’re creating a drop shadow. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Tilt angle—You can only set the Tilt angle when you’re creating a cast shadow, because drop shadows lie flat against the image rather than tilting. The higher the setting, the farther off to the opposite side the invisible light source casting the shadow appears to be; you can set the angle anywhere between 0 and 75 degrees.
Transparency—This setting allows other objects to show through a shadow. At 99%, the shadow almost completely disappears, while at 0% it’s completely opaque. The default setting is 50%. You can’t set the Transparency to 100%. Shadow size—You can set the size of a shadow with respect to the size of the text casting the shadow. The default value is 100%, which gives you a shadow the same size as the text. You can make the shadow as small as half the size of the text (50%) or as large as twice the size of the text (200%). This setting comes in handy most often when you’re creating a drop shadow directly behind the text, because the shadow must be larger than the text if you want it to show up well. Soft edge—The Soft edge of a shadow is what makes it look like a shadow rather than any other object. This setting is expressed in pixels, with a range from 0 to 150, so the value you’ll want to use depends on the resolution of the image you’re working in. For lower resolutions, use lower Soft edge values to make the same size shadow. NOTE The fifth button for shadow type gives you a shadow that’s placed directly behind the text. You can get the same effect by setting both the X-offset and Yoffset to 0 when using any of the other four drop shadow types.
Click the Preview checkbox in the Shadow dialog box to see the results of your changes as you make them. When you’re done, click OK to apply the shadow to the text. Once you’ve applied a shadow to text, it will move with the text, and it will reform itself as you reshape the text in any way, such as by wrapping it or transforming it. (For more information about wrapping text, see “Wrapping Type” below.) If you want to separate a shadow from its text, click on the text with either the Text tool or the Pick tool. If you’re using the Text tool, choose Style > Split Shadow on the Attribute toolbar; if you’re using the Pick tool, choose Object > Split Shadow. Once you do this, you can’t change the shadow’s settings, so make sure you’ve got it just the way you want it before splitting it off from its object.
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Perspective—Like Tilt angle, the Perspective setting is available only when you’re creating a cast shadow. It determines the height of the light source casting the shadow. At the highest setting, the light source appears to be level with the base of the text. The Perspective value is a percentage and can range from 0 to 100%.
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Anti-aliasing The final option in the Style menu is Anti-aliasing, which is a default setting that you’ll probably never find a good reason to turn off. This technique blurs the edges of each letter slightly so that they appear smooth on-screen; without it, the edges of the letters would appear jagged (see Figure 4.12). You can also control whether text is anti-aliased by clicking the Antialiasing checkbox in the Text Entry Box. Figure 4.12 The left-hand letter appears smooth due to anti-aliasing, while the left-hand one appears jagged without it.
Color Although the text you enter in the Text Entry Box is always black (so it will be easy to read), you can make text within an image any color or texture you want using the Text Entry Box or the Attribute toolbar when the Text tool is active. In each case use the same color controls that you’d use to change the color or texture of any object within PhotoImpact. You change the color by clicking on the color swatch and choosing a color selection method from these options: Ulead Color Picker—This is the color picker created specifically for PhotoImpact. Windows Color Picker:—This color picker is the one that comes with Windows. Figure 4.13 shows the Ulead and Windows color pickers side by side.
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Figure 4.13 The Ulead Color Picker (left) and the Windows Color Picker (right) accomplish the same thing—use whichever one you’re more comfortable with.
Eyedropper—The Eyedropper dialog box shows the image in a window so that you can click on a color from the current image. Color on Screen—After choosing this option, your cursor will change to an eyedropper. Click anywhere on the screen, within the PhotoImpact window or anywhere else, to choose a color. Foreground Color—This sets your text color to the current foreground color. Background Color—This sets the text color to the current background color. Quick Pick Squares—Here you’ll see two sections of color swatches, one with the eight basic colors and one with the 32 most popular colors as determined by Ulead, the makers of PhotoImpact. Gradient Fill—The Gradient Fill option leads to the Gradient Fill dialog box, which allows you to determine the direction and colors used in a gradient fill. Magic Texture Fill—PhotoImpact comes with a set of textures that you can apply to any object, including text. This option opens the Texture Library to the Magic Texture set, consisting of abstract patterns; to apply any texture, doubleclick on its thumbnail image (see Figure 4.14). Figure 4.14 Magic Texture Fills and Natural Texture Fills are both part of the Texture Library and work the same way—double-click to apply any of these textures.
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Natural Texture Fill—These textures work the same way the Magic Textures do, except that they’re patterns from nature, such as a field of flowers or a pile of chili peppers. Apply a texture by double-clicking on its thumbnail image. Fadeout—This color option allows you to create a gradient in which one “color” is transparent. You can determine the angle and the transparency level (see Figure 4.15). Figure 4.15 The Fadeout option allows you to create a gradient that goes from color to transparency to color.
TIP When you’re working in the Fadeout dialog box to create a partially transparent gradient, remember that the effect uses the color, pattern, or gradient that’s already been applied to the text object. The black swatch in the Fadeout dialog box represents the current color of the text, whatever that may be, while the white swatch represents the transparent area.
Text Spacing The Text Entry Box contains several options that aren’t available anywhere else. Each of these controls determines some aspect of how part or all of the text is spaced, as follows (see Figure 4.16): Figure 4.16 The Text Entry Box is the only place you’ll find these text spacing controls.
Line spacing—This determines the spacing between successive lines of text, as measured from the baseline of one line down to the baseline of the next line. In the design world, this measurement is usually called leading, a reference to the strips of lead inserted between lines of metal type to increase the space between them. Like type size, line spacing is measured in points. This setting applies to all the text in the Text Entry Box; you can’t use different line spacing values for each line of text unless you create them as separate text objects. Automatic Line Spacing is the same as manually setting the line spacing at around 22, so in most cases the automatic line spacing is fine as-is. It will give you nicely spaced lines.
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Character spacing: To add additional space between letter pairs, either because the text is hard to read or for a special design effect, select the letters you want to space out and enter a number between –2184 and 2184. This setting applies only to the letters that are selected when you change this value. Character Spacing produces interesting text effects, but don’t set too high a value—your text needs to be readable! Kerning: This is an on/off toggle switch—check the box to enable kerning, or uncheck it to turn kerning off. Kerning refers to spacing between specific letter pairs, designed to fit them together more neatly and give the appearance of even spacing; if there actually were the same amount of space between each pair of letters, they would look unevenly spaced because of their different shapes. PhotoImpact 7.0 can produce some strange effects when kerning is turned on, so take a look at your text with it both off and on, and choose which one looks better. NOTE A confusing aspect of using type is that 72-point type isn’t really 72 points tall—and if you use 72-point line spacing, the letters in the lines won’t touch each other as there will be some space between them. This probably seems strange, but there’s actually a reason for it. It’s leftover from the days when text was set with metal type. Each letter was formed in relief on a block of metal. The point size of the letter was determined by the size of the metal block, which was a bit larger all around than the letter itself. As such, a 72point letter might measure 66 points tall. Line spacing, on the other hand, is measured exactly, so if you use 72-point line spacing, the distance between the lines will be exactly 72 points, which equals one inch.
Mode The Attribute toolbar’s Mode menu contains four basic modes for text: 2D, which gives you flat text and is the default; 3D, which allows you to make text look as though it’s fully threedimensional; Deform, which allows you to reshape text in a variety of ways; and Selection, which allows you to convert text to a selection.
2D The Text tool’s default is 2D text, but each time you use the Text tool it copies the settings from the last text object you worked with, including the mode. If you want to make 3D text twodimensional again, choose Mode > 2D Object.
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Baseline shift: If you want one or more letters to sit above or below the baseline, you can select those letters and enter a Baseline shift value in this field. The value is measured in points, like line spacing, and it can range from 2184 to –2184. To place a letter below the baseline, enter a positive number, and enter a negative number to move the letter above the baseline. This setting applies only to the letters that are selected when you change this value.
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3D 3D text comes in several varieties, each of which is intended to make text look as though it’s a three-dimensional object rather than part of a flat image (see Figure 4.17). The 3D options in the Mode menu are as follows: 3D Round: This option gives text a raised appearance with smoothly rounded edges. 3D Chisel: Chisel provides a sharply beveled raised surface. 3D Trim: A very subtle effect, Trim places a shadow at the bottom of the text object’s surface that makes it look just slightly three-dimensional. 3D Pipe: This option outlines the edges of each letter in the text with round “pipes.” 3D Custom: The Custom option uses one of five different custom bevel designs that raise and lower different areas of the text object’s surface. The options are available through the Bevel tab of the Material dialog box (see “Bevel” below in the “Material” section for more information). Figure 4.17 From left to right: 3D Round, 3D Chisel, 3D Trim, 3D Pipe, 3D Custom.
Once you’ve made a text object 3D, you can customize its appearance by changing the width of the border or bevel, the depth of the raised surface, the light source, and the surface material. All these settings are located in the Attribute toolbar or Text Panel. Each 3D effect consists of a raised surface with a border area around the edges of the letter that makes the transition between the level of the page and the level of the raised surface. You can control the width of this border by changing the setting in the Attribute toolbar’s Border field. The lowest possible setting is 1 pixel, and the highest setting varies according to the size of the type you’re working on, because the border can’t be wider than the type itself. A separate setting, Depth, controls how high above the surface of the page the surface of a letter appears to be. PhotoImpact represents this depth primarily by shadowing the sides of the letter, so a greater depth results in darker shadows. The Depth can range from 1 to 30 pixels. The light used to cast that shadow can also be controlled—you can create more light sources, position them, and change their type. By default, 3D text is created with a single light source. To move it around, click the Light button on the Attribute toolbar and then click and drag in the image. You won’t see the light source, but you can follow its position by observing its changed effect on the text you’re creating. If you want to add more light sources, or change their type, click on the triangle to the right of the Light button and scroll down to the Options choice. This opens the Material dialog box to the Light tab; see “Light” below in the “Material” section for more information.
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Deform The two Deform options in the Mode menu allow you to reshape text so that it’s no longer confined to that boring straight left-to-right (or top-to-bottom) orientation. Deformed text can curve, curl, wave, and in general take on any shape you like—the only restriction is that you can curve only the sides or only the top and bottom, not all at once. Here’s how it works: Switch to the Text tool.
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Select the type you want to deform.
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If you want to curve the top and bottom of the text, choose Mode > Horizontal Deform; to curve the sides, choose Mode > Vertical Deform.
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Click on any of the four corner handles and drag it to change the shape of the text (see Figure 4.18). If you chose Horizontal Deform, you’ll notice that the sides can slant only as you move the corners around, but the top and bottom can curve. If you chose Vertical Deform, the opposite is true: The sides curve as you move the corner handles, but the top and bottom of the text stay straight.
Figure 4.18 When deforming text, you can shift the positions of the corners and adjust the curvature of the sides (Vertical Deform) or the top and bottom (Horizontal Deform).
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Once you’ve positioned the corners where you want them, click on the end of the curve handles—the long levers extending from the corner handles—and drag them to change the shape of the curved top and bottom.
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When you’re done reshaping the text, switch to the Pick tool (or any tool other than the Text tool) to leave Deform mode and see the results of your changes (see Figure 4.19).
Figure 4.19 The “deformed” result.
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TIP You’ll probably find that the best results with Deform are obtained with text set in all capital letters. This allows the shape of the deformed text block to show better, rather than the ragged effect you get when you have a mix of upper- and lower-case letters.
Selection The final Mode menu option allows you to convert text into a selection that you can use in the same ways you would use any selection. For example, you might paste an image into the selection using Edit > Paste > Into Selection, or you might place the selection over an image and apply a special effect, such as Format > Invert (see Figure 4.20). Figure 4.20 Once you’ve turned the text title into a selection, you can fill it or apply special effects within it to define the letters.
For more information on creating and using selections, see Chapter 3. CAUTION Once you’ve converted text into a selection and then dropped the selection, the text is gone for good. If you want to preserve the text for future use either as text or to create another selection, be sure to copy it and then change the copy to a selection.
Material The Material dialog box, with its nine tabs, contains the most options for changing the appearance of text of any dialog box within PhotoImpact. Some of the controls duplicate those you’ll find elsewhere in the program, such as in the Attribute toolbar or Text Panel, and others aren’t available anywhere else. You can also jump to other dialog boxes from the Material dialog box, such as the Shadow dialog. The Material dialog box is the same when you’re working with text objects as it is for other objects. The following sections describe the controls you’ll find in each tab of the Material dialog box, some of which are available only if you’re working with a 3D object. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Color/Texture
Figure 4.21 The Color/Texture tab of the Material dialog box.
Two other options in the Color/Texture tab allow you to create a transparent gradient by clicking Fadeout and then clicking the swatch to open the Fadeout dialog box, or to force the texture, image, or gradient fill you’ve just chosen to follow the contours of the type as it’s deformed. To learn how to deform type, see “Deform” in the “Mode” section above.
Bevel In the Bevel tab, you can change the mode of a text object from 2D to any of the 3D modes and back again (see Figure 4.22). This is also where you can choose options for the 3D Custom mode. Five different buttons show the different edge treatments that you can use for the border of a 3D text object—think of these options as picture frame moldings. You can also choose from two different Bevel joint options, miter and round, which will affect how the “moldings” are joined at the corners of the letters in the text object. Figure 4.22 The Bevel tab of the Material dialog box.
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Crammed into one tab of the Material dialog box are all the controls you’ll ever need for changing the look of a text object (see Figure 4.21). Click on One color and then on the color swatch to use a single color fill; click on Gradient color and then on the color swatch to fill the text with a gradient between two or more colors. For a texture fill, click on Texture and then on the color swatch; choose between Magic Texture and Natural Texture and then choose a texture from the Texture Library. Finally, you can fill type with an image by clicking File and choosing an image file.
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Border/Depth The Border and Depth fields in this tab duplicate the ones in the Attribute toolbar (see Figure 4.23). Here you can also adjust the Maximum border width up to 99 pixels, and you can set the border to appear inside the shape of the letters (the default), outside them, or both (which can result in some pretty bizarre-looking text). Clicking Smooth spine can smooth out the surfaces of irregularly shaped letters. Figure 4.23 The Border/Depth tab of the Material dialog box.
Shadow Here you can apply a shadow by clicking in the Shadow checkbox. You can also jump to the Shadow dialog box to change the shadow’s attributes by clicking Options, and then determine how light is reflected from a transparent object to create the shadow by clicking Render backface (see Figure 4.24). If the text object is transparent, turning on Render backface reflects light from the back surface of it, clarifying and intensifying the appearance of both the text and its shadow. Figure 4.24 The Shadow tab of the Material dialog box.
Light Here you can control the type, number, and position of the imaginary light sources that are used to create 3D effects (see Figure 4.25). The Lights field allows you to choose the number of lights (between one and four), and the individual Light menus allow you to determine whether each light is a Direct light or a Spot light, which is more focused and intense. By dragging the Ambient slider, you can control how much light appears to come from all around the text object—the higher the Ambient light level, the less intense the other lighting effects appear. These options are all grayed out if you’re working with a 2D text object.
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Figure 4.25 The Light tab of the Material dialog box.
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Shading The name of this tab is a bit misleading, because it might seem that these settings would affect shadows on a text object (see Figure 4.26). They do, but indirectly: Shading refers to how the surface of a 3D object is colored in. The Phong option results in a shiny object, while the Metallic option gives you a matte finish. Within these categories, you can drag the Shininess slider to increase or decrease the shine on the surface, and you can do the same with the Strength slider to determine how bright the highlights are on the surface. Figure 4.26 The Shading tab of the Material dialog box.
Because 3D effects are created by duplicating the effects of light on a surface, you can get different results by changing the color of the light itself. Click on the Specular color swatch to change the color of the light sources (see “Light” above to change the number, position, or type of lights being used), and click on the Ambient swatch to change the color of the light that surrounds the object. All of these options are grayed out if you’re working with a 2D text object.
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Bump The Bump tab allows you to apply a texture to a text object’s surface that’s based on an image (see Figure 4.27). Click on Bump map, and then click the File button to choose the image file. Once you’ve selected a file, the other options become available: Density: Drag the Density slider to determine the intensity of the bump effect—at 100, it’s at its strongest, and at 0 you won’t see it at all. Use bump map as reflection: When checked, this option forces the bump image to follow the contours of the text object’s 3D surface. This gives you a more realistic effect. Invert bump map: This option uses an inverted version of the selected image to create the bump map. Figure 4.27 The Bump tab of the Material dialog box.
All the options on the Bump tab are grayed out if you’re working with a 2D text object.
Reflection You can add a realistic reflection to a 3D text object by clicking Reflection map and then clicking File to choose the image that will be reflected (see Figure 4.28). The Density slider allows you to determine how visible the reflection is; at 0, it doesn’t show up at all, and at 100% it’s as dark as possible. This setting can be particularly powerful if combined with intense photographic imagery. Experimentation is the best way to see how each image affects your final project. Figure 4.28 The Reflection tab of the Material dialog box.
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TIP Unless the text is set at a fairly large size, the reflection won’t be particularly recognizable. For smaller text with more letters, you may want to stick to images of repeated patterns, such as clouds or foliage.
Transparency The final Material tab allows you to make text objects transparent (see Figure 4.29). Click on Transparency to make the object transparent, then choose a percentage. At 100%, the object will be completely transparent. Like a clear glass object, though, you’ll still be able to see it because of the light reflecting from its surface—and at 0, it will be completely opaque. These options are all grayed out if you’re working with a 2D text object. Figure 4.29 The Transparency tab of the Material dialog box.
Creating Special Type Effects PhotoImpact has a selection of built-in special effects designed specifically for use with type. You’ll find these in two places: the Creative submenu of the Effect menu, and the EasyPalette’s Type Gallery. In addition to giving these presets a good workout, you should feel free to experiment with PhotoImpact’s other filters and effects (some of which will convert a type object to an image object).
Creative Type Effects One of the last options in PhotoImpact’s Effect menu is Creative > Type Effect, which brings up a dialog box containing nineteen different preset effects you can apply to type, along with controls for customizing those effects (see Figure 4.30). You can also add your own combinations of settings created here to the Type Gallery in the EasyPalette—see “Type Gallery” below—by clicking Add and choosing Add Image, then giving the effect a name and choosing which Gallery and which Tab group it should appear in.
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The Reflection tab’s options are all grayed out if you’re working with a 2D text object.
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Figure 4.30 The Type Effect dialog box allows you to customize your type to the extreme.
Here’s a rundown on the twenty effects that you’ll find in the Type Effects dialog box: Gradient—With this effect, you can create an instant two-color gradient in three shapes: linear, rectangular, and circular. You can determine the angle of the gradient and the second color; the first color is the original color of the text. Hole—This effect punches holes through the text in any of more than a hundred shapes. You can choose the size of the holes and determine whether they vary in size or are all the same. You can also choose a color to show through the holes, or click Invert to change the text to the specified color and have the original text color show through. Glass—The Glass effect turns the letters transparent, with colored light shining off the shapes to define the corners. You can specify how reflective the glass is, set the fuzziness of the highlights, and choose a color. Metal—Similar to the Glass effect, the Metal effect turns the text into a metallic framework with a hollow interior; you can choose the reflectiveness of the metal and the fuzziness of its highlights. Emboss—Embossing makes the letters look as though they’re part of the background image, stamped into the surface with an embossing die. You can set the thickness of the letters, the amount of height the letters have, and the direction of the light that shows the embossing. There are also three different shapes: Smooth, Plateau (with a flat top), and Steep (extra tall). This effect works best on backgrounds other than white.
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Emboss/Outline—This effect works just like the Emboss effect, except that it embosses the outline of the letters. The Thickness, Amount, and Direction controls are the same as for Emboss.
Concrete—Parameters for the Concrete effect include a Roughness slider with a range of 1 to 20 and a Direction slider for the lighting. You can also specify the color of the light. You end up with text that has the texture of concrete. Sand—A similar effect, Sand results in text that looks as though it’s been drawn on a wet, sandy beach. The parameters are the same as for Concrete, except that you can’t choose a color for the light. Lighting—Resulting in a shiny 3D effect, Lighting allows you to choose colors for both the text and the light, as well as specify a bump map image if you desire. You can also set the elevation of the letters’ surface and the direction of the light. Fire—For flaming text with just a few mouse-clicks, this is the effect you want. You can choose three colors for the flames—inside, middle, and outside—with the defaults being yellow, orange, and red. You can also set the height of the flames by adjusting the Strength slider between 10 and 100. Snow—This effect isn’t nearly as realistic as the Fire effect; it results in a fuzzy white coating on the letters. Actually, you can choose the three colors for the inside, middle, and outside of the letters, so your snow could be pink if you prefer, or any other color. As with the Fire effect, Snow can vary in intensity from 10 to 100. Neon—If you want to make your text glow like neon, here’s your chance. The parameters include the neon color as well as the width of the glow and whether it shows inside the letters, outside them, or in both directions. This is strictly a glow—there are no neon tubes. Seal—The Seal effect gives the impression that the text has been stamped into the image with colored ink or wax; you can choose the color of the wax as well as the pressure used to make the impression.
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Emboss/Texture—The Emboss/Texture effect uses a specified file to create the embossing effect in the shape of the selected text object. You can specify the size of the texture image, its transparency, and the amount of embossing applied.
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Chisel—One of the most powerful Type effects in PhotoImpact, this effect alters your text to give it a hand-carved look. It adds texture to the interior of the letters and places a bit of a glow around them, as well as extruding them from the image’s surface. Among the parameters are the fill color, the amount of variation in the interior texture, and the height of the letters from the surface. Imprint—This effect functions like an emboss feature, only it adds color to the effect and doesn’t remove so much of the original image. You can adjust the softness, thickness, the level, and the direction and color of the light in this effect. Gradient-Light—This variation on the Gradient effect applies a multicolor gradient that’s lighter at the bottom and top. You can set the thickness of the 3D effect, as well as the amount of contrast between the gradient colors. The Hue and Saturation sliders allow you to choose a color—increase the saturation for a more intense color. Reverse Emboss—The Reverse Emboss effect takes your text and gives it a raised border similar in color to the background it’s on, effectively making it appear as though the background was scraped to the side in the shape of your text. Interesting effect! Double—This effect takes the text, duplicates it, then shifts it off by up to 20 pixels along both the X and Y axes. A soften effect is applied, and you can pick the color of the text fill. It works best with full words rather than a single character. This is a very interesting effect and is worth exploring! Border— A powerful effect allowing you to create metallic-looking images with an edge.
Other PhotoImpact Effects The PhotoImpact Effects menu contains dozens of filters that can be used to jazz up type even more. You should know, however, that most of the effects are applicable to image objects, rather than to text objects, so the only way these will have an effect on text is by converting it to an image object (right click on the text and select Convert Object Type > From Text/Path to Image). After that, you won’t be able to edit the type or apply any of the special type effects described in this chapter. You’ll want to make sure these effects are the last thing you do to a text object, after you’re certain it says the right thing and is set in the right font. It’s often a good idea to press CTRL+D to create a duplicate version of your project to experiment on.
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CAUTION Once you’ve applied an effect from the Type Gallery to a text object, it becomes an image object. That means you won’t be able to edit the type or apply any of the Mode settings discussed previously in this chapter. So be sure that the effect is the one you like and that the text says what you want it to say before using the Type Gallery effects.
Extreme Type Effects If you enjoy creating cool-looking type effects, you’ll really enjoy combining them! Combining text effects in PhotoImpact is simple. Using the same method above to apply the text effects, simply double-click on the EasyPalette preset to apply another one. Not all text effects work well together—sometimes adding on a second effect will make the text completely illegible. It’s worth experimenting to see what sort of effects you can get. Figure 4.31 below shows the evolution of a text item with two effects added to it. Figure 4.31 From left to right: plain black text with no effects, then we apply a Sand effect, followed up by an Imprint effect. Experiment and have fun!
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The Type Gallery in the EasyPalette (choose View > Toolbars & Panels > EasyPalette) lists the same prefab special effects that you’ll find in the Type Effects dialog box (see “Creative Type Effects” above). There are a couple of differences, however. First, the Type Gallery contains several variations on each theme; for example, there are five different versions of the Concrete effect. The preview icons use a letter “A” to show the effects, and you can apply them to the selected text object by double-clicking on a thumbnail.
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The Text Panel One of the new additions to PhotoImpact 7.0 is the Text Panel (see Figure 4.32). It’s essentially an alternate method of manipulating some of the elements found in the Material panel outlined above. Since most of the functions are already covered above, I’ll cover each tab in a cursory manner. Figure 4.32 The Split Text function.
3D: This tab gives you an alternate way of setting the border and depth of your 3D text Split Text: This tab contains tools to split up text into individual objects. Each character of text can be split up from the group, individual words can be split up, as can lines of text or even styles (defined as text that is different than the other text due to font choices, etc.) Selecting Invert Stacking Order will have the effect of reversing the layer location of each text item (text that was below other objects will now be above them). Gallery: This tab allows you to quickly switch between the Material, Deform, Wrap, and Type galleries. You can also activate and modify settings for a shadow here. Options: The final tab on the Text Panel contains only two options that matter to text: Disable Object Pick Mode while Drawing, and Anti-Aliasing. The former prevents path objects from becoming active while drawing, while the latter activates and deactivates Anti-aliasing (discussed earlier in this chapter).
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5 Creating and Editing Paths What Are Paths?
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create paths, how to resize and reshape them, and how to apply fills and 3D attributes to them.
Creating New Paths There are several ways to create paths. The Path Drawing tool creates filled paths; the Outline Drawing tool creates unfilled paths with borders; and the Line and Arrow tool creates lines and curves, with or without arrowheads. You can also convert text into paths, which is a great technique for customizing logos. Paths created in other programs can be imported so that you can edit them in PhotoImpact; or you can trace PhotoImpact objects to create paths that follow their outlines. And you can create selections from paths, which is one of the best ways to select complicated areas of an image. For example, you can draw a path around the central object in an image so that you can delete the background—a technique called silhouetting. All paths are composed of anchor points and straight or curved lines connecting the points. For example, a square has four anchor points, one at each corner, with straight lines connecting them, while a circle also has four points with curved lines connecting them. To draw a path, regardless of its type, the first action you’ll take is to click to place the first point.
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A path is, quite simply, the outline of an object. There are two ways that you can create paths: You can use PhotoImpact’s library of shapes for a standardized object shape, or you can use special drawing tools to create a custom path. Text can also be converted into paths for easy reshaping; you can also trace objects to create paths. Once a path has been created, it can be resized, edited for shape modification, combined with others to create more complex shapes, and converted into an image object or selection.
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The Path tools are located in a fly-out menu in the fourth position on the Tool panel. The main tool (the one that’s showing if you’ve just started up PhotoImpact) is the Path Drawing tool (see Figure 5.1). Figure 5.1 Three of the path tools are used for creating paths, while the fourth is used for editing them.
Drawing With the Path Drawing Tool The basic path tool is the Path Drawing Tool, which allows you to create several different varieties of standardized shapes, choose shapes from PhotoImpact’s Shape Library, or draw freeform shapes. All of these options are available in the Shape menu in the Attributes toolbar. Any of these categories of paths can be edited once they are drawn; the idea is to choose the shape that’s closest to what you want to end up with, and then edit it if you need to. All shapes drawn with the Path Drawing Tool are filled using the currently selected color in the Attribute toolbar. If the Attribute toolbar isn’t visible, choose View > Toolbars & Panels > Attribute Toolbar. To draw using the standard shapes: 1.
Switch to the Path Drawing tool.
2.
In the Attribute toolbar, click on Shape and choose one of the first six options: —Rectangle —Square —Ellipse —Circle —Rounded rectangle —Diamond
3.
Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
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Click and drag in the image window to draw the shape (see Figure 5.2).
Figure 5.2 PhotoImpact uses the currently selected color and Material options to fill in the newly created path shape.
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PhotoImpact offers many more choices than the six shapes shown in the menu, however. You can access a collection of custom shapes by clicking Custom Shape at the bottom of the Shape menu. This opens the Custom Shape Library (see Figure 5.3) to display dozens of shapes ranging from a heart to a leaf to the universal “No” symbol—a circle with a diagonal line across it. Double-click any of the shape thumbnails to set the Path Drawing Tool to use that shape. Choose a color, then click and drag in the image to draw a custom shape of any size. Figure 5.3 These are just a few of the Custom Shape options available.
To create freeform Spline shapes: 1.
Switch to the Path Drawing tool.
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In the Attribute toolbar, click on Shape and choose the seventh option, Spline.
3.
Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
4.
Click in the image window to place the first point.
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Click to place the next point. As you move the mouse away from this second point, PhotoImpact changes the straight line between the two points into a smooth curve (see Figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4 The first two points are connected by a path segment, and the next segment “follows” the cursor as you position it for the next anchor point.
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If these shapes aren’t what you’re looking for, you can draw freeform shapes in either of two styles: Spline and Bezier/Polygon. Although you can create the same shapes using either method, the Spline option is easier to use; PhotoImpact helps you along by creating smooth curves for you as you place points. Drawing Bezier curves is a bit more complicated, but they offer you more control over the shapes as you create them. And the Polygon aspect of the Bezier/Polygon option allows you to build shapes with straight sides.
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Click to place each successive point. PhotoImpact displays the curve that will be created as you move the mouse around the image window.
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Double-click to place the final point. PhotoImpact automatically connects the curve to the first point (see Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.5 The completed path consists of anchor points and smooth path segments between them.
When you use the Spline shape, PhotoImpact creates the curves between pairs of points, so they may not be shaped exactly the way you want them. Concentrate on placing the points where you want them, and when you’re done you can go back and reshape the curves (see “Editing Paths” below). For more control over the shape as you’re creating it, you can use the Bezier/Polygon option in the Shape menu. To draw Bezier shapes: 1.
Switch to the Path Drawing tool.
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In the Attribute toolbar, click on Shape and choose the eighth option, Bezier/Polygon.
3.
Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
4.
Click in the image window to place the first point; without releasing the mouse button, drag away from the point to extend a curve handle in the direction of your next planned point (see Figure 5.6).
Figure 5.6 Bezier curves are shaped by the positions of their curve handles.
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Click and drag to place the next point; dragging extends a curve handle from this point that you can manipulate to reshape the curve before placing the next point.
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Click and drag to place each successive point; PhotoImpact displays the curve that will be created as you move the mouse around the image window.
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Move the cursor so that it’s over the first point you created—it turns into cross hairs (see Figure 5.7).
Figure 5.7 The cross hairs indicate that the cursor is positioned to close the shape.
8.
Either the Spline option or the Bezier option is great for creating curved paths, but why would you want to create a shape that has all straight sides? That’s where the Polygon aspect of the Bezier/Polygon Shape option comes in. To draw straight paths: 1.
Switch to the Path Drawing Tool.
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In the Attribute toolbar, click Shape and choose the eighth option, Bezier/Polygon.
3.
Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
4.
Click in the image window to place the first point.
5.
Click to place each successive point; PhotoImpact displays the line that will be created as you move the mouse around the image window (see Figure 5.8).
Figure 5.8 Creating straight-sided shapes is just a question of clicking to place the anchor points.
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Double-click to place the final point; PhotoImpact automatically connects the curve to the first point.
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TIP To restrict the angle of the page segments to 45-degree increments, hold down Shift as you click to place anchor points.
You can combine the Polygon and Bezier methods of drawing to create shapes in which some segments are curved and others are straight. Click and drag to draw a curved segment, or just click to draw a straight segment. PhotoImpact also allows you to change the character of segments after a path is created, from a curve to a line and vice versa. For more information on changing the shape of existing paths, see “Editing Paths” below. NOTE For PhotoImpact to automatically close a path when you double-click, the path must have at least two points before you double-click, so that the doubleclick creates a third point. A closed path has to have at least three points to exist, or it would just be a line and there would be no need to close it.
New to PhotoImpact 7.0 is the Freehand drawing tool. This allows you to create hand-drawn shapes and paths that are automatically smoothed out—using it reminded me of Macromedia Flash. When you create shapes, the software will make them look far neater than the user could. Experiment with it and see what it can do for you.
Drawing With the Outline Drawing Tool Like the Path Drawing Tool, the Outline Drawing Tool allows you to draw standard path shapes, shapes from the Outline Library, or freeform shapes. It works the same way as the Path Drawing Tool, with a few added options in the Attribute toolbar: Border—The width of the outline border can range from 1 to 99, and you can set that value by entering a number in the Border field or by dragging the slider. Style—PhotoImpact offers eight line style options, including solid, and seven variations on dotted and dashed lines. Choose any of these options from the Style menu. Width—This menu duplicates the functions of the other controls on the Attributes bar: It offers a choice of nine border widths for the outline (from 1 to 9 pixels), along with a More option that leads to the Color & Line dialog box. Here you can change the outline’s color, its width, and its style. This dialog box also includes controls for arrowheads. For more information on creating lines with arrowheads, see “Drawing with the Line and Arrow Tool” below.
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NOTE PhotoImpact handles dotted and dashed lines neatly by adjusting their spacing so that the line never contains a partial dash or piece of a dot. This means that blank spaces in a dashed or dotted line may coincide with a path’s corners; if you see this phenomenon and don’t like it, the only solution is to adjust the size of the path a bit so that the corner falls at a dot or dash.
Drawing With the Line and Arrow Tool The Line and Arrow tool is used—as you might suspect—for drawing straight lines that may or may not have arrowheads at one or both ends. There are two ways of using it, so you can choose whichever you’re more comfortable with. To draw straight lines: Switch to the Line and Arrow tool.
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Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
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Choose a line style and width from the Path Panel. These are the same options available for the Outline Drawing tool.
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Choose an arrowhead style from the Arrow menu in the Attribute toolbar (see Figure 5.9).
Figure 5.9 Some of the arrowhead styles aren’t actually arrowheads.
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Click in the image window to place the first point.
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Either drag to draw the rest of the line, releasing the mouse button when you’re done, or click to place the second point. The line is drawn as soon as you release the mouse button (see Figure 5.10).
Figure 5.10 The line is selected as soon as it’s created.
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If you want more arrowhead options than you see in the Arrow menu, click More on the Path Panel to open the Color & Line dialog box. This is the same one that’s accessible via the Width menu when you’re working with the Outline Drawing tool; if you open it when the Line and Arrow tool is active, the arrow options become available (see Figure 5.11). Here you can set the size and style independently for the arrowheads on either end of the line. The ends are designated as “Begin,” the first point you created, and “End,” the second point. To change the style of either end, choose an option from the appropriate Style menu. To change the size, choose from the three options in the Size menu for that end; it shows small, medium, and large versions of whichever arrow style is selected. Figure 5.11 The arrow options are available only when you’re using the Line and Arrow tool.
Tracing Objects and Images If you want to create a path whose shape is based on part of an image, or on an image object, the answer is to trace the image or object. PhotoImpact offers two tracing methods, one that requires you to make a selection first and one that looks at the image and draws a path based on the image’s contrasting colors. The former method is best for image or text objects and for areas within images that don’t stand out from their backgrounds strongly. To create a path from a selection: 1.
Create the selection using any method (see Chapter 3 for more information). For objects, just click on them to select them.
2.
Choose Edit > Trace > Selection Marquee to display the Trace dialog box.
3.
Adjust the settings using the right-hand preview window as a guide—this preview shows the path you’re creating (see Figure 5.12). —Tolerance—The lower this value is, the more accurately the path follows the selection. Lower settings, however, mean more points, so keep the Tolerance setting as high as possible without losing accuracy. The range is from 0 to 1000. —Jump point—A lower value for Jump point results in smoother curves, while a higher value makes the path simpler by using more straight line segments. The range is from 1 to 100. —Threshold—Adjust this slider to fine-tune which pixels are included within the path based on their brightness values. The range is from 0 to 255.
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Figure 5.12 The preview shows you the shape of the path you’re creating.
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Click OK to create the path on top of the object you’re tracing. PhotoImpact automatically switches to the Path tool so you can begin working with the path (see Figure 5.13).
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Figure 5.13 Once it’s created, you can edit the traced path for accuracy.
If you want to trace an image that contrasts sharply with its background, you can skip the selection step and use the second tracing method, as follows:
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1.
Choose Edit > Trace > Image to open the Trace dialog box.
2.
Adjust the settings in the same way you would if you were tracing based on a selection; in this situation, however, the Threshold setting is much more important (see Figure 5.14). —Tolerance—Lower this value to make the path follow the object’s outlines more accurately. —Jump point—Lower this value for smooth curves; raise it for straight segments. —Threshold—Lower this value to exclude darker pixels from the selection; raise it to include darker pixels.
Figure 5.14 The Trace controls are the same whether you’re working from a selection or from the image brightness.
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Click OK to create the path on top of the object you’re tracing. PhotoImpact automatically switches to the Path tool so you can begin working with the path (see Figure 5.15).
Figure 5.15 The Trace command works well on images that stand out sharply from their backgrounds.
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Creating Paths from Text There are a lot of things you can do with text, but there are even more that you can do with text that’s been converted to paths. For one thing, you can separate the individual letters and rearrange them, overlapping them and stacking them in any pattern you wish. You can apply different fills and effects to the different letters. And, best of all, you can reshape the letters at will. To convert text into paths, the first thing to do is create the text. Complete instructions for creating and editing text are in Chapter 4, but here’s a capsule description of the process to get you started: 1.
Switch to the Type tool.
2.
Click anywhere in the image window to bring up the Text Entry Box (see Figure 5.16).
Figure 5.16 You can do almost all your text formatting and appearance customization in the Text Entry Box.
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Type in the text you want to create.
4.
To see a preview of the text in the image window as you type, click the Preview button.
5.
When you’re done, click OK.
Before you convert the text to paths, make sure it says what you want it to say and that you apply any text formatting and special text effects first. Once the text object has been changed into paths, it can’t be turned back into text, so if you want to edit it, you’ll have to recreate it.
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Once you have the text the way you want it, click to select it with the Text tool—the cursor will have a small T inside the arrow when it’s over the text. Then choose Object > Convert Object Type > From Text to Path. The text object is converted to paths, with all the letters selected. Of course, it doesn’t look any different, because the Text tool is still active. To see the paths, switch to the Path Edit tool and click the Toggle button at the left end of the Attribute toolbar (see Figure 5.17). Figure 5.17 Because text is created from outline information stored in Windows font files, the paths PhotoImpact creates from text are very accurate.
Each letter is now composed of at least one path. You can move them around and edit them at will (see “Editing Paths” below), but be aware that some letters are made up of multiple paths; for example, an upper-case “B” has three paths—one for the outside of the letter and one for each of the two counters, or holes, in the letter. If you want to keep these parts together, be careful to select all of them by clicking above the letter and dragging down to select the entire letter.
Importing Paths If you have artwork created in another program, such as CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator, and it’s been saved in Adobe Illustrator format (with a filename extension of .AI), then you can import it into PhotoImpact and work with it there. The process is a bit convoluted, but it’s not difficult. Here’s how: 1.
Switch to the Path Drawing tool.
2.
In the Attribute toolbar, click on Shape and choose Custom Shape.
3.
In the Custom Shape dialog box, click Import.
4.
Locate the Illustrator-format file in the Input AI File dialog box, then click Open.
5.
Back in the Custom Shape dialog box, click on the new shape—it’s named with the original filename—and click OK (see Figure 5.18).
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Figure 5.18 The Custom Shape dialog shows a preview of the imported path.
6.
Click the color swatch in the Attribute toolbar to choose a fill for the shape.
7.
Click and drag in the image window to create the shape. Regardless of the original size of the shape, you can draw it at any size you want (see Figure 5.19).
Figure 5.19 Once it’s imported, you can use the shape like any other custom shape.
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Once you’ve drawn the shape, it can be treated just like any custom shape—apply colors to it, reshape it, move it around, and even convert it to an object if you like.
Creating Selections from Paths If you’re handy with the path tools and you need to select irregular areas of an image, you’ll love the Bezier Curve Selection tool. This selection tool—it’s not technically a path tool—is designed for creating paths that you convert to selections when you’re done editing them. To create a path that you can convert to a selection: 1.
Switch to the Bezier Curve Selection tool; it’s the fourth option in the Selection tools.
2.
In the Attribute toolbar, choose an option from the Shape menu: Rectangle, Square, Ellipse, Circle, or Free Path.
3.
For any of the first four Shape options, click and drag in the image window to create the path.
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For Free Path, draw the shape the same way you would if you were using the Path Drawing tool with the Bezier/Polygon option: Click and drag to form a curved segment, or just click to form a straight segment.
5.
To finish a free path, place the cursor over the first point you created and double-click.
6.
If you want to edit the path, click Edit existing path in the Attribute toolbar, then edit the path the same way you would edit any other path (see “Editing Paths” below).
7.
When you’re done editing the path, click the Toggle button at the left-hand end of the Attribute toolbar to change the path into a selection.
If you decide that you want to edit the path before you use it as a selection, you can click the Toggle button again to return to Path mode. Watch out, though: Once the path is in Selection mode, if you click elsewhere in the image to drop the selection, the path will be deleted. TIP An alternative method of creating paths that are destined to be selections is to use any of the path tools, then select the path and choose Mode > Selection in the Attribute toolbar. This allows you to use any of PhotoImpact’s custom shapes or those you’ve imported from other programs (see “Importing Paths” above).
Editing Paths There are a couple of reasons you might want to edit a path: You want to use a custom shape for the path, but you want to further customize it yourself. You created a freeform path, but it’s not quite right and it needs tweaking. The following sections look at each aspect of editing paths: selecting and moving them, working with their anchor points, working with curve handles to reshape path segments, and combining paths.
Selecting and Moving Paths Before you can edit a path, you need to select it. Although you can select a path with the tool that you used to create it, the best way to select a path for editing is to switch to the Path Edit tool. This allows you to select multiple paths that have been created using different path tools, and it allows you to edit the paths without having to click the Editing button at the right end of the Attribute toolbar. If you want to select more than one path, make sure the Path Edit tool is active. Select the first path, and then hold down either Ctrl or Shift as you click on the other paths. The handles become visible as each path is selected. You can then move the paths by clicking on any line segment and dragging the paths around the image window. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Grouping paths allows you to select multiple paths by clicking on any path within the group. You can move grouped paths as a block, and you can transform or warp them as a single unit. The grouping stays in place as long as you stay in Path mode; if you click the Toggle button at the left-hand end of the Attribute toolbar to view the paths in Object mode, the paths will no longer be grouped when you toggle back to Path mode. To group paths, select them and rightclick, then choose Group Paths from the contextual menu. You can’t edit grouped paths; if you want to edit the paths, or if you need to ungroup them for any other reason, select the group by clicking on any of the paths it contains, then right-click and choose Ungroup Path from the contextual menu.
Reshaping Paths The idea behind paths is that you can manipulate them to create any shape you can imagine. This entails moving their anchor points around, as well as adjusting the curved and straight line segments between anchor points. It’s helpful to know a little bit about how paths work before you start editing them.
To reshape a path: 1.
Switch to the Path Edit tool.
2.
Click on the path to select it.
3.
If you can’t see the path’s anchor points, click the Toggle button at the left-hand end of the Attribute toolbar to switch to Path mode.
4.
Click and drag any anchor point to move it (see Figure 5.20).
Figure 5.20 Any anchor point can be moved independently of the others.
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The shape of each line segment that makes up a path is determined by the position of the anchor point and by whether that anchor point has curve handles. A straight segment doesn’t require curve handles on the anchor points at either end of it, while a curved segment does require curve handles. The position of the end of each of an anchor point’s two curve handles determines the shape of the curve—so you can adjust the curve by moving the curve handles. It may seem odd not to just click on the curve and drag it directly, but the fact is that this method, which is based on a mathematical concept called Bezier curves, actually allows you to shape curves more precisely and efficiently.
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To reshape a curved segment, click on the anchor point at one end to reveal the curve handles.
6.
Click on the curve handle that extends toward the segment you’re editing, and drag it to a new position. Concentrate on getting that end of the segment the way you want it, and don’t worry too much about the other end (see Figure 5.21).
Figure 5.21 Moving a curve handle affects the entire length of the curved segment, not just the end to which the curve handle is attached.
7.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the anchor point at the other end of the segment, and continue editing each segment around the path. TIP The longer a curve handle is, the more a change to its position will affect the entire curved segment. To make changes to one end of a segment without affecting the other end as much, drag the curve handle toward its anchor point to shorten it.
To change a path segment from a curve to a straight line, or vice versa, you can click one of the Convert line buttons on the Attribute toolbar. Click on the path segment first to select it—it turns red to signal that it’s the active selection. The change won’t affect the adjacent segments, and you can change the segment back if you like by clicking the other button. If you change a curved segment to a straight segment and then back to a curve, it won’t have the same shape; instead, it will be a symmetrical convex curve (one that extends outward from the center of the path). As you reshape a curve by moving a curve handle, you’ll notice that the opposite curve handle moves with it, staying at 180 degrees from the curve handle you’re moving. This is intended to make sure that curves stay smooth, with no sharp corners at anchor points. If, however, you want sharp corners, you can change the Edit mode in the Attributes bar: Non-free edit mode—If this button is clicked, curve handles stay stuck at 180 degrees from each other. This is the default mode. Free edit mode—If this button is clicked, curve handles can move independently from each other. This keeps changes to one segment from affecting the adjacent segment, and it allows you to create corners at anchor points (see Figure 5.22).
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Figure 5.22 Free edit mode allows you to create corner points.
Adding and Deleting Path Points The fewer anchor points a path has—in other words, the simpler it is—the better. Simpler paths take up less space in your images (resulting in smaller file sizes), and are more likely to print without clogging the printer’s memory and causing an error. So the ideal is to have anchor points only where they’re needed, eliminating extraneous anchor points. The Path Edit tool has three modes that allow you to select, add, and delete anchor points. To switch modes, click one of the Edit point buttons on the Attribute toolbar, as follows (see Figure 5.23):
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Figure 5.23 You can access the different Edit point modes on the Attribute toolbar.
Pick point—This is the default setting for the Path Edit tool; it allows you to select anchor points, move them, and move their curve handles. Add point—If you click this button, the cursor changes to an arrowhead with a plus sign any time you place it over a path. Clicking creates a new anchor point—with curve handles if you click on a curved segment and without curve handles if you click on a straight segment. Delete point—Clicking this button allows you to delete anchor points by clicking on them, joining the adjacent segments into one. If both adjacent segments are straight, the new segment will be straight; if one of the adjacent segments is curved, the new segment will be curved. Align—This function arranges the position of your paths. Group—The Group function allows you to group your paths together, or break a selected group apart.
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Creating Complex Shapes from Paths Sometimes it’s quicker and easier to build a complex shape out of several individual shapes, rather than try to create it from one complex path. PhotoImpact allows you to combine multiple paths as you draw; the overlapping paths can all have the same fill, or the overlapping areas can be transparent. To create a composite path: 1.
Draw a path using the Path Drawing tool, or select an existing path that was created with the Path Drawing tool.
2.
Choose Mode > Continue Draw from the Attribute toolbar.
3.
Draw another path (see Figure 5.24).
Figure 5.24 You can create as many paths as necessary to build the object you have in mind.
4.
When you’re done drawing paths, switch to any tool except the Zoom tool to see the results.
5.
To determine whether overlapping areas are transparent or filled, select the composite path with the Path Drawing tool and choose Options > Even-Odd Fill in the Options tab of the Path Panel (see Figure 5.25).
Figure 5.25 The Even-Odd fill can show us overlap information.
If Even-Odd fill is turned on, making overlapping areas transparent, these areas are treated as hollow when you apply any 3D effect. Gradients, images, and patterns applied to the surface of a composite path extend across the entire surface as though it were a single object.
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Customizing Paths Like text, paths can be either 2D objects or 3D objects, and you can fill them with any color, pattern, or texture, and even apply shadows to them. In fact, paths all by themselves aren’t particularly exciting—but if you think of them as the key to creating any object you can imagine within PhotoImpact, they get a lot more interesting. Here’s a look at some of the ways you can customize the appearance of paths within PhotoImpact, using the Material dialog box. The Material dialog box has nine different tabs, each allowing you to control a different aspect of a path’s appearance. Here’s a quick run-down on what’s available (for more information, see “Material” in Chapter 4): Color/Texture—In this tab, you can apply a single color fill, a gradient fill, or a texture fill, or you can fill the selected path with an image by clicking File and choosing an image file (see Figure 5.26). The Fadeout option allows you to create a transparent gradient using the selected fill option, while the Deform image checkbox forces an image fill to follow the contours of a 3D path. Figure 5.26 The Color/Texture tab of the Material dialog box.
CHAPTER 5 Bevel—These controls determine whether a path is 2D or 3D, in Round, Chisel, Trim, or Pipe flavors, along with Custom (see Figure 5.27). The five buttons under the Custom option show the different edge treatments that you can use for the path’s border of a 3D text object. Figure 5.27 The Bevel tab of the Material dialog box.
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Border/Depth—If you’ve applied a 3D effect to a path, either in the Bevel tab or by choosing one of the 3D options from the Mode menu in the Attribute tab, you can use these Border and Depth fields to control the height of the object and the width of the “sides” (see Figure 5.28). The Type of border menu determines whether the border appears inside the path, outside it, or both. Figure 5.28 The Border/Depth tab of the Material dialog box.
Shadow—Click on Shadow to add a shadow to the selected path, and click Options to set the shadow’s attributes (see Figure 5.29). For more information on shadows, see “Object Effects” in Chapter 3. Figure 5.29 The Shadow tab of the Material dialog box.
Light—3D effects are created using highlights and shadows generated by imaginary light sources; in this tab, you can set the number and type of light sources, as well as the amount of ambient light surrounding the path (see Figure 5.30).
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Figure 5.30 The Light tab of the Material dialog box.
Shading—These settings control the reflectivity of the path’s surface. You can choose Phong for shiny objects or Metallic for matte objects, as well as setting the Shininess of the surface and the Strength of its highlights (see Figure 5.31). The Specular and Ambient color swatches allow you to control the color of the ambient light and that of the light that’s creating the highlights. Figure 5.31 The Shading tab of the Material dialog box.
CHAPTER 5 Bump—In this tab, you can choose an image to be mapped to the surface of a 3D path as a texture based on its various brightness levels (see Figure 5.32). The Density setting determines the intensity of the bump effect. Figure 5.32 The Bump tab of the Material dialog box.
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Reflection—The surface of a 3D path can show a reflection of any image file, with the Density slider determining the visibility of the reflection (see Figure 5.33). Figure 5.33 The Reflection tab of the Material dialog box.
Transparency—3D paths can be transparent, with a percentage slider determining how transparent the object is (see Figure 5.34). Figure 5.34 The Transparency tab of the Material dialog box.
Placing Text and Graphics along a Path PhotoImpact’s Wrap command allows you to place text or path objects along a path that you can then reshape. The EasyPalette’s Wrap Gallery contains four different tabs of preset wrap options for you to apply and then customize. Wraps are based on a path along which the text or multiple copies of the object are placed, so you can customize the shape of the wrapped text or paths by editing that wrap path. To set text along a path: 1.
Switch to the Text tool.
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Click anywhere in the image window to open the Text Entry Box.
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Enter your text, choose formatting options and a fill, and click OK.
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4.
Choose Style > Galleries > Wrap from the Attribute toolbar to open the EasyPalette Wrap Gallery.
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If necessary, click on the plus sign to the left of the Wrap Gallery title to show the four different tabs available, then click on Text Wrap if your text has a single line; click on Multi-Text Wrap if your text has more than one line (see Figure 5.35).
Figure 5.35 The Text Wrap options are designed for text set on one line.
Apply a wrap option by double-clicking any of the thumbnails on the right-hand side of the dialog box.
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To modify the wrap path, switch to the Path Edit tool and click the Toggle button to switch from Object mode to Path mode (see Figure 5.36). The wrap path is selected, and you can edit it as you would any other path (see “Editing Paths” above).
Figure 5.36 Wrap paths can be edited to take any shape.
TIP Text on a path usually looks better the longer your text is; with only a few letters, it’s hard to see the shape that the path is supposed to be taking because of the space between the letters.
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To place path objects along a path: 1.
Create a path using the Path Drawing tool.
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Choose Options > Galleries > Wrap from the Attribute toolbar to open the EasyPalette Wrap Gallery.
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If necessary, click on the plus sign to the left of the Wrap Gallery title to show the four different tabs available, then click on Path Repeat (Deform) to allow the copies of the object to be reshaped as they follow the wrap path; click on Path Repeat (Non-Deform) if you want the copies of the object to retain their current shape (see Figure 5.37).
Figure 5.37 The Path Repeat (NonDeform) options make certain that the objects along the path won’t be reshaped to follow the curves of the path.
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Apply a wrap option by double-clicking any of the thumbnails on the right-hand side of the dialog box.
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To modify the wrap path, switch to the Path Edit tool and click the Toggle button to switch from Object mode to Path mode (see Figure 5.38). The wrap path is selected, and you can edit it as you would any other path (see “Editing Paths” above).
Figure 5.38 Once you’ve used a standard wrap, you can make its shape whatever you want it to be.
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6 Rich Options with EasyPalette Creating artwork in PhotoImpact can be a somewhat complicated task. The integration of photos and other images with text, path objects, and effects to create something entirely new can involve quite a few steps, and keeping track of the entire process so that you can reproduce it for other images is an absolute necessity. Fortunately, PhotoImpact has one palette that offers a simple way to perform and keep track of all the steps that a project entails: EasyPalette.
What Is the EasyPalette? The EasyPalette is one of the keys to using PhotoImpact. With it, you can: Apply hundreds of varied visual effects to objects or images, Store and retrieve objects and images from libraries, and Manage and manipulate the various objects in a document. The EasyPalette’s effects are categorized in Galleries, while objects, images, and shapes are stored in Object Libraries. You can create your own Galleries and Libraries, add elements to them, and export them as separate files that you can exchange with other users or save as backup files.
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To view the EasyPalette, click the EasyPalette button on the Attribute toolbar. In the palette, you see a list of the available Galleries or Libraries on the left, in an outline tree form. On the right, you see thumbnail examples of the selected Gallery’s effects or the selected Library’s contents. Or, if you’re using the Layer Manager function of the EasyPalette, you see a thumbnail and the name of each object or image.
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A built-in toolbar at the top of the palette allows you to control how the EasyPalette looks and works (see Figure 6.1). Figure 6.1 The EasyPalette contains its own integrated toolbar controls.
The first three buttons in the toolbar allow you to switch back and forth among the EasyPalette’s functions: Galleries, Object Libraries, and Layer Manager. The Galleries and Object Libraries buttons have menus next to them so that you can switch Galleries or Libraries if the outline tree isn’t visible. The other buttons across the top of the EasyPalette control the appearance of the palette. For more information on using these options, see “Tweaking EasyPalette Options” below.
The Galleries The special effects in the EasyPalette are created using a variety of tools and processes, most of which you can access elsewhere in the program. EasyPalette saves you time and effort, though, by gathering their results together in one place, so that you can apply them in (almost!) less time than it takes to think about it. The settings used to produce these prefab effects are “generic” settings—they may not work well for the particular image you’re working on. If that’s the case, you can use the original dialog box, or you can stick with the EasyPalette and modify the settings. See “Modifying an Effect Before Applying” in the “Applying Gallery Effects” section below. These effects are categorized into a selection of Galleries based on their nature, and each Gallery has several tabs; here’s a rundown on the Galleries available in the EasyPalette.
Fill Gallery The effects in the Fill Gallery include gradients and textures. Some of them are also available via the Color menu (such as the Magic Texture Fills and the Natural Texture Fills), while others are found in the Background Designer (see Figure 6.2). The Texture Mixtures and Artist Textures have built-in Painting Effects applied to them.
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Figure 6.2 The Fill Gallery
Applying some of the options in the Fill Gallery will turn a path or text object into an image object, so you’ll no longer be able to edit it as you would a path or text. (See Chapter 5 and Chapter 4, respectively.) The fills that have this effect are Gradient, Background Texture, Shells, and Artist Texture. Gradient—These complex gradients are created using settings in the Magic Gradient dialog box (choose Effect > Magic > Magic Gradient). Each one has built-in variations that you can access by right-clicking on the thumbnail and choosing Variations from the contextual menu. The variations are slight changes in scale or the angle of rotation. Natural Texture—If you choose Natural Texture Fill from the Color menu, you’ll see the same textures you see here. They originate in image files that come with PhotoImpact. You can create your own by choosing Texture in the Material dialog box’s Color/Texture tab and locating one of your own image files to use as a fill. Magic Texture—These textures are similar to the ones in the Natural Texture tab, but they are more abstract and less realistic. They’re the same textures you’ll see if you choose Magic Texture Fill in the Color menu.
Texture Mixtures—The Texture Mixtures tab contains a selection of “combo” textures; textures that have been modified using the Painting dialog box (choose Effect > Creative > Painting).
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Background Texture—Created using the Background Designer (choose Web > Background Designer), these textures are suited for backgrounds. To make them the background of your image, click in the image away from any text or objects and then choose a Background Texture option from the EasyPalette.
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Artist Texture—These textures are combinations, too, but they’re made by mixing textures with gradients, yielding some very cool results. You can access the settings used to create these presets by choosing Effect > Creative > Artist Texture.
Filter Gallery These effects are based on the filters you’ll find in the Effects menu, along with some of the Format menu’s options (see Figure 6.3). Like the Fill Gallery, the Filter Gallery contains effects that can’t be applied to path or text objects. If you do apply these effects to those objects, they’ll be turned into image objects. This is the case for all the options in the Filter Gallery. Figure 6.3 The Filter Gallery
Some of the effects in this Gallery can be combined—for example, you can apply the Tile filter and then the Emboss filter, and you’ll get embossed tiles. Other effects cancel out any filter that’s been applied previously. Blur & Sharpen—These effects are the same as the matching commands in the Blur & Sharpen submenu of the effect menu. The thumbnails give you a good idea of the results of applying each effect. Noise—The two options here add the same amount of noise, but Add Noise 1 uses Uniform Distribution and Add Noise 2 uses Varied Distribution—the latter option giving you a more natural effect.
Camera Lens—The Camera Lens filters apply similar effects to those produced by specialty lenses used with 35mm cameras: four different color filters, one for motion blurs, and four that apply “funhouse mirror” effects such as making objects in the image look fat.
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2D & 3D—Similar to what are called “distortion” filters in Photoshop, these eight effects do things like rippling and “pinching” of the image.
Natural Painting—Created with the four Natural Painting effects filters, the Natural Painting tab effects include multiple versions (with different settings) of Watercolor, Charcoal, Colored Pen, and Oil Paint. Special—The effects located in the Special tab are created using Effects filters in the Special submenu; this is the jumble sale tab of the Filter Gallery, with such unrelated effects as Emboss, Puzzle, Tile, and Wind. Custom—Here you’ll find inspiration to experiment with the Custom Filter and Custom Effect commands in the Effect menu; the filters shown are created with those commands and display the wide range of effects you can achieve with them. Kaleidoscope—These filters cut an image into small pieces and reassemble them in one of a variety of patterns, just as a real kaleidoscope does. The effects are achieved using the Kaleidoscope filter in the Magic submenu of the Effect menu. Light—Originated using the Light filter in the Magic submenu of the Effect menu, these effects apply different lighting colors and angles to an image.
Creative Warp—Similar to the Kaleidoscope filters, but more complex, the Creative Warp effects were created using the Creative Warp filter in the Creative submenu of the Effect menu. Their intricate patterns are reminiscent of those in Oriental rugs.
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Turnpage—If you want to flip a corner of your image down to show what’s behind it, here you’ll find a variety of shapes and degrees of corner flips. This tab contains seventy-two different applications of the Magic filter Turnpage, eighteen each for the four corners of the image.
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Brightness & Contrast—If you don’t like fiddling with the Brightness & Contrast dialog box in the Format menu, you can simply apply one of these effects. They have settings for Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, and Thumbnail variation. Hue & Saturation—Five thumbnails offer five different combinations of the settings in the Format menu’s Hue & Saturation dialog box: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.
Color Balance—Again, this tab offers five different variations on the settings in the Color Balance dialog box from the Format menu. This command allows you to change one color within the image without affecting the rest of the image, while the presets in this tab may be useful for removing specific color casts, in which the entire image tends too much toward one color or another. Two Color—The final tab in the Filter gallery allows you to create what’s called in the printing industry “duotones,” images made from only two colors.
Style Gallery The effects presets in the Style Gallery are designed to operate on specific tones within an image that are characteristic of objects commonly photographed (see Figure 6.4). For instance, the Sky effects make changes to sky-blue areas within an image, while the Face effects look for “flesh” tones and work only on those. You can use these effects on images that don’t match the tab category, such as using Face filters on an image of a peach-colored vase, but for the most part you’ll get the best results by using them as intended. Figure 6.4 The Style Gallery
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Fading—These effects will make an image look as though it’s an aging color photograph by fading and yellowing it. Face—The thumbnails in this tab give you a pretty good idea of what its effects are for: compensating for off-color faces in photos. You can darken or lighten the “flesh” tones in an image (they seem designed to work with light-skinned faces), apply a tan or a sunburn, or make someone pale or blonde. Building—Operating on light stone and masonry colors, the Building effects can modify the tones in a building, making it more golden, more red, more vibrant, or whiter. Flower—Using split thumbnails like those in the Face tab, these effects look for vibrant colors in a field of green and make specified changes to them, such as changing red flowers to white or pink ones to yellow. Leaf—Working specifically on green tones in an image, these effects are designed to change the colors of foliage and groundcover. The names give a good idea of each effect’s results: The Withered Leaves effect, for example, browns the leaves on trees and bushes. Light—These effects give the impression of various colors and intensities of light being applied to an image. The default thumbnails give you a good idea of what kind of image each effect is intended to be used with—if the thumbnail is a beach scene, then use that effect on landscapes; on the other hand, if the thumbnail is a statue, then use that effect on object photos. Dawn—You can create the impression of a sunrise or sunset using these three presets: Late Sunrise, Early Sunrise, and Sunset. They don’t add a rising or setting sun to the image, but rather change the color of its light. Sculpture—These presets apply a color cast to an image based on various metals; they’re intended to be applied to grayscale or low-saturation images of objects against neutral background, such as sculptures. Nature—Designed to be applied to the landscape types indicated by their names, these presets amplify the colors of water, earth, or snowy rocks.
Sky—Obviously, these presets are designed to be applied to images containing a lot of sky, and their names indicate their effects, such as Sunrise to Daylight. Filter—If you’d like to apply a specific color cast to an image, rather than rely on a preset, choose one of these options. They’re named according to the color they use, as well as its percentage, such as Cyan 20%. Other—This is the catch-all category of Style effects, with four thumbnails: Colorful, Sunglasses, Early Twilight, and Sulphur. Each changes the lighting in the image in the way implied by the title.
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Season—You can change the apparent season of a landscape image by applying one of these presets: Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. They change the light color in an image to give the impression of a different time of the year.
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Painting Gallery Using the Creative Painting command (choose Effect > Creative > Painting to create similar effects from scratch), these effects include dozens of “fine-art” techniques such as stippling (see Figure 6.5). They combine 3D, color, and texture effects to reproduce real-world artists’ techniques such as decoupage and finger painting. There’s only one tab in the Painting Gallery: The Painting Effects tab. If you like the looks of one of the effects but want to modify it slightly for use on your own image, see “Modifying an Effect Before Applying” in the “Applying Gallery Effects” section below. Figure 6.5 The Painting Gallery
Brush Gallery The effects in the Brush Gallery are a bit different from those in the first four Galleries (see Figure 6.6). First of all, they work with the Paintbrush tool, not on an existing image. Second, they’re intended to be invoked before the tool is used rather than after, as with the other Galleries. Figure 6.6 The Brush Gallery
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Paint Tools—The effects in this tab allow the Paintbrush tool to assume the identity of other artists’ tools, such as pencils, ink pens, and chalk. Each preset lends painted strokes a different texture and shape. Paint Effect—These effects, on the other hand, are like nothing in real life; they’re special effects that you apply with the Paintbrush, such as “fireflies” that you can paint into an image with a single stroke of the brush. Retouch Tools—Intended for use by both serious retouchers and those who want to do things like give portrait subjects chipmunk cheeks, these presets allow you to adjust images a little or a lot. They include the ability to remove red-eye effects and scratches as well as highlight or darken an image. Clone Tools—You can combine these presets with the Clone tool to create artistic versions of existing images; just choose a preset, click in the image you’re copying, open a new, blank image window, and start painting. The original image will be cloned using the style of the preset you choose.
Particle Gallery Unlike the Painting Galleries, these effects don’t require you to paint them into the image; rather, they insert objects (particles) into the image at a preset position and size (see Figure 6.7). They’re remarkably realistic—one of the quickest ways to completely change the character of an image without changing its original contents at all. To create your own Particle effects, choose Effect > Creative > Particle. Figure 6.7 The Particle Gallery
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Bubbles—This tab includes six different presets for inserting transparent bubbles into an image. Naturally, the bubbles all have appropriate reflections of the image.
Cloud—The eight presets here insert a variety of clouds into an image, ranging from small white cirrus clouds up to heavy thunderclouds and even fog.
Smoke—To add a smoky effect to an image, choose one of these presets. If you want to restrict the smoke to one part of the image, select that area before applying the effect.
Rain—You can apply three different varieties of rain to an image, from a quick shower to a steady downpour.
Firefly—If fireflies came in assorted magical pastel colors, this effect would be more realistic. As it is, it looks like something you’d see on the opening credits of the Wonderful World of Disney—a pretty effect, if not a realistic one. Snow—Another way you can change the weather is to add snow, in three levels from “flurries” to “blizzard.”
Stars—Again, these are not realistic stars; they could be considered surrealistic. To make sure they don’t get applied in front of buildings and other earthbound elements in an image, use the Magic Wand tool to select only the sky before using these presets. Fire—Set the world on fire with these three presets, ranging from “campfire” to “inferno.”
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Lighting Gallery The effects in this Gallery allow you to apply just about any kind of light you can think of to an image. Most of the variations you’ll see in each tab are in color, position, and intensity (see Figure 6.8). You can layer these effects on top of each other for some really intense lighting effects, and they can be applied to objects and text as well as images (just remember that doing so will convert a path or text object to an image object whose shape can’t be edited). Figure 6.8 The Lighting Gallery
Lightning—This tab contains presets for lightning in different shapes and colors and levels of “forkiness.”
Fireworks—From a few sparks to the grand finale, you can insert fireworks into any image. Note that they’ll usually look best in an image with a dark sky—while they show up fine in a daytime image, they don’t look particularly realistic. Light Bulb—Rather than looking like actual light bulbs, these lighting presets look like stylized suns, rising or setting, high in the sky, or hovering just above the horizon. You could combine these with some of the Style presets to create a faux sunrise or sunset.
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Lens Flare—These presets add lens flares—such as the bright highlights one sees on chrome or glass objects in the sunlight— in various colors and configurations.
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Halo—Want to add a magical, colored halo around an object—maybe an aura? This tab contains five different variations on that look.
Spotlight—These effects make an image look as though it’s lit up like the stage of a rock concert, with various colored spotlights at different angles.
Flashlight—Similar to the spotlight effects, these presets use a smaller light source and the same color throughout, because most flashlights don’t have colored lens covers.
Meteor—If you’re looking to create the effect of a meteor (or maybe a UFO) crashing to earth within your image, this is the tab you’ll want. The six presets offer numbers and colors of meteors.
Comet—Here’s another set of effects that look best with a black or dark background; these night effects look less like comets across the sky than colored spotlights.
Laser—These effects add colored swirls of intense light to an image, giving the effect of a laser light show.
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Animation Gallery You can use the effects in the Animation Gallery in one of two ways—as animations or as still images (see Figure 6.9). If you want to add an animation to an image or an object, be sure you’re done editing it in other ways, because the only way to include an animation in the file is to save the image out in the GIF format. On the other hand, you can use the animation keyframes to add a still effect to an image or object that’s a variation on the original effect. Figure 6.9 The Animation Gallery
Double-clicking on any of these effects opens a dialog box in which you can preview the effect and change its settings (see Figure 6.10). Once you’ve got it the way you want it, you have two choices: Figure 6.10 When you apply an effect from the Lighting tab in the Animation Gallery, the Lighting dialog box appears.
To apply the effect to a still image, click the arrow button at the right end of the Key Frame control slider to view each frame in the animation. When you see one you like, click OK to apply the effect shown in that frame to the image or object.
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To create an animation, click Save and save the image or object as a GIF file. The animation will play when the image is opened in a Web browser.
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Here’s a rundown on what you’ll find in the three Animation Gallery tabs: Animation Studio—These animations are based on filters and effects found in the Effects menu, applied to a greater or lesser degree in each frame to create the change that gives the impression of motion. For example, you can create an image that blurs and then becomes sharp again, or one that ripples and then becomes smooth again. Animation Lighting—If you’ve just come from the Lighting Gallery, these effects will look strikingly familiar. They’re based on Lighting presets such as lightning and fireworks, only with an animation added, which can make for some pretty cool Web images and buttons. Animation Type—Intended for use on text or path objects, these presets won’t have any effect on image objects—a dialog box warns you that there’s no selected object suitable for applying the animation. Each effect shows a standard effect from the Type Gallery, with the animation created by applying the effect in greater or lesser degrees to change the image in each frame.
Material Gallery Designed for use on objects rather than images, these effects are based on the controls in the Material dialog box. They allow you to change the apparent material from which an object is made, from its color to its texture and beyond (see Figure 6.11). Applying these presets to text doesn’t change its status as a text object. The first five tabs relate to specific Material controls, so you can combine these to reproduce effects similar to those in the latter five tabs, which are combinations of the settings in the first five tabs that are designed to look like specific materials. Figure 6.11 The Material Gallery
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Color—This tab contains more than a hundred different colors and gradients that you can apply to text and objects. Texture—It might be more accurate to call these presets patterns rather than textures, because they aren’t 3D textures. They are applied on top of any color or gradient that you’ve already applied. Bevel—The Bevel presets are a collection of forty-one settings for object beveling. Some of the effects are subtle, others are more obvious. Bump—These presets are more what one might expect from the Texture dialog box—they change the surface texture of an object by giving it ridges, golf ball dimples, or a fabric weave. Reflection—You can increase the realism of an object by adding a reflection of another object or image to its surface. This tab includes a couple of dozen options for reflections. Shadow—When combined with other effects, the shadow presets give your image a dynamic look. Shadow S13 gives a great dynamic look for perspective, while S32 is an interesting neon-like effect. Shading—Varying the amount of shine and reflectivity they possess, most of these presets are named by the metal they mimic. Plastic—Using one of the presets in this tab removes any other Material effects you’ve applied; these presets offer a variety of shiny plastic surfaces to apply to objects. Metallic—Like the Plastic presets, these options cancel out any other Material effects; these are a selection of metallic surfaces with different color, reflection, and shading settings. Glass—The third in the set of specific material tabs produces objects that are highly reflective and somewhat transparent, just as if they were made of glass.
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Realistic—These Material settings can make an object look as though it’s made of wood, fabric, leather, stone, or paper.
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Deform Gallery The Deform presets are designed for use on text, to shape it into funky forms for use in logos and other text treatments (see Figure 6.12). You can apply these to objects, but some of them won’t have any effect and others won’t have the effect you’re expecting. Figure 6.12 The Deform Gallery
Horizontal Text—These are intended for use with horizontal text. They are the same basic shapes as those you’ll find in the Vertical Text tab, but they’re created with a horizontal orientation in mind. Vertical Text—These are intended for use with vertical text. To learn how to set vertical text, see Chapter 4.
Wrap Gallery The first two of the Wrap Gallery’s four tabs are designed for use with type, while the latter two are designed for use with path objects (see Figure 6.13). Applying a Wrap preset removes any Deform effects you’ve applied to either text or a path object. However, once you’ve applied a wrap effect, you can modify its shape by editing the path that controls the positioning of the text or objects. See Chapter 5 to learn how to do this. Figure 6.13 The Wrap Gallery
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Bend Text—These presets allow you to bend text in a variety of arcs, including full circles and semi-circles. Text Wrap—Use these presets to control the shape of single-line text objects; they come in two categories: wraps, which have a circular orientation, and waves, which curve but don’t form a circle. Path Wrap—These options are designed for use with an object; they place copies of the object along a path. The “Deform” label indicates that the repeated objects will be deformed as necessary to conform to the wrap path.
Type Gallery These effects are designed specifically for use with text (see Figure 6.14). Because they’re described in detail in Chapter 4, we won’t elaborate on them in this section. Figure 6.14 The Type Gallery
Button Gallery If you’re creating buttons for your Web site, you’ve come to the right place. These effects are designed specifically to be applied to path objects to create buttons. The first tab contains effects designed for rectangular buttons, while the effects in the second tab work well with buttons of any shape at all (see Figure 6.15). The effects don’t affect the shape, color, or pattern of a selected object, just its 3D bevel. Some of the button effects are concave and others are convex. You can make use of both types if you want to create an animated button that pushes in when clicked.
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Figure 6.15 The Button Gallery
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Rectangle Buttons—There are twenty-one of these effects; some with borders of a different color. If you want to see why these effects are recommended for use on rectangular objects, try applying one of those to a circular object. AnyShape Buttons—With thirty different options, there’s room for both concave and convex button shapes.
Frame Gallery There are two basic types of frames contained in this Gallery: ones that look like physical picture frames, and ones that apply what’s often called edge effects (see Figure 6.16). The former group of presets can actually enlarge the image’s canvas size so that the frame doesn’t cover part of the image. If you want to create your own frames from scratch, choose Format > Frame & Shadow. Figure 6.16 The Frame Gallery
2D&3D—There are eighty different 3D frames in this tab, with a variety of shapes—some rectangular, others circular, or even starshaped. PhotoImpact enlarges the canvas size of an image to make room for these frames. Edge—The presets shown in this tab produce edge effects, applying a texture to the edge of the image itself so that it looks as though its edges are ripped paper, or a paint stroke, or cut with those special scissors people use for scrapbooks. These settings don’t enlarge the image. Magic—These frames look like a cross between the 2D&3D frames and those in the Edge tab; they’re not realistic, and in fact they don’t look much like real-life frames at all. These effects look like something you’d create with felt-tip markers in wild colors.
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Classic—The Classic frames are the ones that look most like actual picture frames. There’s a variety of styles and colors, but they all look like something you might buy at a department store.
My Gallery Here’s where you can store your very own effects, or modified versions of the effects in the other galleries. For more information on storing custom effects, see “Adding Effects to the EasyPalette” below.
Applying Gallery Effects Using Gallery Effects is designed to be simple. The process is at its simplest if you want to use the unmodified version shown in the EasyPalette. If you want to make changes to a preset before applying it, you need to invest a bit more effort—but still not very much.
Applying an Effect Any effect can be applied in two ways: by double-clicking or by dragging and dropping it into the image window. Regardless of where you drop the effect, it will be applied to the selected object or area of the image, so there’s really no advantage to using drag-and-drop. Effects that have centers, such as pattern fills, will always be centered on the object to which you apply them, and effects are applied separately to individual objects even if they’re grouped.
Modifying an Effect Before Applying One of the best parts about using the EasyPalette is that it can function as a starting point for your own experimentation with effects. Most of the effects included in the EasyPalette can be edited before you apply them to your image or object, and once you’ve created a version you like, you can save it back to the EasyPalette with its own name (see “Adding Effects to the EasyPalette” below).
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To edit an effect before applying it, right-click on its thumbnail and choose Modify Properties and Apply from the contextual menu. Or, if you prefer, click on the Thumbnail Menu button at the top of the EasyPalette—the one that looks like a tiny dialog box—and choose Modify Properties and Apply from that menu. This opens up one of several dialog boxes. What you see depends on the filter or command used to create the effect in the first place (most of these are mentioned in the Gallery descriptions above in “The Galleries”). For example, if you modify the properties of the Blur thumbnail in the Blur & Sharpen tab of the Filter Gallery, you’ll see the Blur dialog box (see Figure 6.17).
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Figure 6.17 You can modify the properties of an EasyPalette effect within the original dialog box used to create the effect.
As you make changes in the dialog box, click Preview to see their effects on the image. Along with temporarily applying your settings to the image, this shrinks the dialog box so it doesn’t block your view (see Figure 6.18). When you’re in this mini dialog box, click OK to apply the effect or Cancel to change your mind. If you want to remove the effect from the preview so you can see the contrast, click Undo and then Redo. To go back to the larger effect dialog box, click Continue. Figure 6.18 This mini Preview dialog box is small enough to let you see the image you’re previewing.
When you reach them through the EasyPalette, all the dialog boxes have a few buttons in common in addition to Preview. Click OK to apply the effect or Cancel to change your mind. To change the size or shape of the thumbnail image displayed in the dialog box, click Thumbnail. In the Thumbnail dialog box, choose one of three modes: Click the first radio button to use the entire image, click the second button to drag a box around the image and select part of it, or click the third button to drag a marquee in the image to select part of it. When you’re done, click OK. Finally, there’s an Add button that you can click to add modified effects to the EasyPalette; see the next section, “Adding Effects to the EasyPalette,” for more information.
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Adding Effects to the EasyPalette The EasyPalette contains a lot of effects, but by no means does it contain all the effects you can achieve using the tools and commands in PhotoImpact. Fortunately, the means to achieve this is simple: Add your own effects to the EasyPalette. There are two ways of accomplishing this. First, you can modify the settings for effects that are already in the EasyPalette, then add your modified version to the palette. Your second choice is to build an effect from scratch, using the controls in the Material dialog box and elsewhere, and then add it to the palette. In either case, you can choose where the effect is placed—which Gallery and tab—and give it a name that will help you remember what it is. To modify the settings for an existing effect: 1.
Click the effect’s thumbnail in the EasyPalette.
2.
Right-click to display a contextual menu, or click on the Thumbnail Menu button at the top of the palette, and choose Modify Properties and Apply from either menu.
3.
In the resulting dialog box, make the desired changes. The dialog box will vary depending on which effect you’re modifying: It may be the Material dialog, or belong to one of the filters from the Effects menu, or be something else entirely.
4.
When you’re done making changes, click Add to open the Add to EasyPalette dialog box (see Figure 6.19).
Figure 6.19 You can choose a name and location for any effect you add to the EasyPalette.
5.
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Enter a name for the effect and choose a Gallery and a tab group, then click OK. You can also modify the settings for an existing effect without creating a new thumbnail; this procedure is similar to that above, but it makes the changes directly to the original thumbnail. To do this, choose Properties instead of Modify Properties and Apply. Then, when you’re done making changes in the resulting dialog box, click OK. In the Update EasyPalette dialog box, change the thumbnail’s name if you wish, and then click OK. The thumbnail changes to reflect the modifications you’ve made.
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The second method of adding effects to the EasyPalette allows you to save the properties of objects that you’ve modified in the EasyPalette. To use this method: 1.
Create an object and modify its appearance using the Material dialog box and any effects or filters.
2.
When you’ve made the final change, but before you click OK, click Add to open the Add to EasyPalette dialog box (in an effect or filter dialog box, you may have to click Options before you see the Add button).
3.
Enter a name for the effect and choose a Gallery and a tab group, then click OK.
Once you start creating your own EasyPalette thumbnails, you’ll realize that you need to get organized by creating your own Galleries and tabs. To create a Gallery, click on the triangle to the right of the EasyPalette’s Gallery button to display the Gallery menu, then choose Create from the Gallery Manager submenu. In the Create Gallery dialog box, give the Gallery a name, choose a folder on your computer in which to save it, and click the Add/Remove button to create tabs within the Gallery.
EasyPalette Pop-Up The EasyPalette Pop-up is a new feature to PhotoImpact 7. It allows you to have quick access to your most frequently-used EasyPalette settings quickly and easily. It’s a great tool for those of us that work with large images and need to have the toolbars out of the way. Since it’s always on the screen in the bottom right corner, it’s always available (see Figure 6.20). Figure 6.20 The EasyPalette Pop-Up
Accessing the EasyPalette Pop-Up is simple: You can either click on the small black arrow on the left side to bring up the palettes, or click the name of the palette to bring up the presets. Figure 6.21 shows both of these options. Once you’ve brought up the presets you want to use, you apply them as you would normally using the EasyPalette: double-click on the preset. Figure 6.21 Switching palettes and presets
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By default, there aren’t any EasyPalette galleries adding to the Pop-Up window. The icon immediately to the right of the palette switch arrow (see Figure 6.20) is the setup function. Clicking it brings up a window that allows you to select which presets you want to have available (Figure 6.22). You can select from any of the Filter Galleries or Path Libraries, making this a powerful customization tool. If you’re doing a project that requires certain presets, path objects, and even photo objects, you can create your own interface for accessing those settings. Figure 6.22 Adding palettes into the Pop-Up window
TIP You can re-size the EasyPalette Pop-Up by dragging the corners of it to make it larger. You can also adjust the size of the previews by clicking on the icon in the upper-left corner of the window.
Using the Object Libraries The Object Libraries differ from the Effects Galleries in a couple of ways. For one thing, you use them to add objects to an image rather than to modify ones that already exist. For another thing, drag-and-drop is worthwhile, because objects dragged out of the Object Libraries and into an image do go where you drop them in the image window. Several different categories of objects are contained in the Object Libraries, and you can add your own objects to the EasyPalette.
The following sections offer a look at what the six Object Libraries contain.
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While some of the Effects Galleries are read-only, meaning that you can’t add your own effects to them, all of the Object Libraries are available for you to store your own objects. To add an object to the palette, just drag the object into the palette. In the Add to EasyPalette dialog box, give the object a name, choose a Library and a Tab group, and click OK.
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Image Library These tabs contain image snippets that you can drop into an image and then resize using the Transform tool to suit your needs (see Figure 6.23). They’re divided into the following fairly selfexplanatory categories: Figure 6.23 The Image Library
Buildings—These are six famous buildings from around the world, including the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. Celebration—Here you’ll find gifts and holiday symbols such as an Easter egg. Nature—Flowers, leaves, fruit, butterflies, and birds make up this category. Special—This tab contains miscellaneous images including sporting equipment, an airplane, and a windmill. Stationery—Media—both traditional and electronic—and office tools are found in this tab. Symbols—These images include three universal hand gestures (but no rude ones), two hats, and a few other assorted images.
Mask Library The objects in this Library are not intended to be visible in the image; instead, they’re used to hide parts of an image (see Figure 6.24). They can be reshaped and resized at will using the Transform tool, and you can switch in and out of the Mask mode to see their effects and edit them—Switch to Mask mode to see the masking, then switch back to transform the mask. An image can contain only one mask, so if you apply a second one, it deletes the first without applying it to the image. In the Mask preview thumbnails, the white area represents the part of the mask through which the image will show, while the black area represents the mask itself— only the image’s background color will show in this area.
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The fastest way to use these masks is to double-click on the mask, which applies the mask, then to press CTRL+R to crop the image to the mask. Instant masterpiece! For more on creating your own masks, see Chapter 3. Figure 6.24 The Mask Library
There are seven tabs containing a variety of masks: Pattern—The pattern masks are full-image masks meant to radically alter the overall look of your image. Used with restraint, these masks can help you make stunning images. Rectangle—These masks are rectangular in shape, and some of them (particularly R7 through R11) will give your image a framed look, without the aggressiveness of the normal EasyPalette frames. Irregular—Fantastic masks with unique shapes. Circle—More traditional vignette shapes, with a few unique ones, such as the spirals of C14. Flower—You guessed it, flower shapes! Star—The star shapes give you fifteen different ways of making your images Hollywood-bound! Symbol—Several unique masks not found anywhere else. Everything from a leaf to a strip of film.
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Shape Library These are the same shapes found in the Custom Shape dialog box that’s used with the Path Drawing tool (see Chapter 5). Applying them to an image has the same effect as actually drawing one of these custom shapes with the Path Drawing tool, except that the shape is created in the image at a standard, fairly small size (see Figure 6.25). However, to make it easy to resize the image as soon as you apply a shape to the image, the newly created shape is selected and the Transform tool is activated. You now can just drag the shape’s corner handles to reshape it. Figure 6.25 The Shape Library
TIP Hold down the Shift key as you drag with the Transform tool to preserve an object’s proportions.
The Shape Library has only two tabs: Basic Shapes—Simple shapes like rectangles, octagons, 1/4 circles, etc. Frame Shapes—Decorative frame shapes that can serve as a good starting point for your own custom frames. Arrow Shapes—A variety of different arrow shapes, perfect for maps and signs. Pattern Shapes—These are smaller shapes that are perfect for placing along a path as repeating shapes (see Chapter 5). Flower Shapes—A collection of shapes that look like flowers. Symbol Shapes—A collection of meaningful shapes. Everything from a telephone to an airplane.
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Outline Library Similar to the Shape Library, the Outline Library contains shapes that have been created with the Outline Drawing tool (see Figure 6.26). Like the shapes in the Shape Library, these enter your image already selected and ready to be transformed to the size and shape of your choice. There are six tabs full of outline shapes: Figure 6.26 The Outline Library
Basic—These are basic geometric shapes, including squares, circles, roundedcorner shapes, triangles, and a wide variety of stars. Symbol—These are meaningful shapes such as arrows and a simplified cross, such as is used to signify a hospital. Border—Intended for use as borders with text or objects within them, these shapes are all relatively rectangular with large clear areas within them. Pattern—These are small shapes suitable for repeating along a path (see Chapter 5). Call Out—You never realized there could be so many ways to draw comic-strip speech balloons until you see this tab full of them. Realistic—Another name for this tab might be “Objects”; all the shapes here are those of objects you encounter in daily life, such as leaves, a house, and a gear.
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Path Library This Library contains 3D paths, rather than the 2D ones found in the other Object Libraries (see Figure 6.27). It’s a shame there aren’t more objects in this collection—they’re incredibly well designed. Each object is made up of multiple path objects, and you can learn quite a lot about how to create realistic 3D objects in PhotoImpact by just ungrouping one of these objects (choose Object > Ungroup) and separating it into its component shapes. There are two tabs in the Path Library: Figure 6.27 The Path Library
3D Objects—These are photorealistic representations of everyday objects, created entirely with PhotoImpact’s path objects. Once you’ve learned how to create such objects by dissecting these, you can add your own to this tab (see “Using the Object Libraries” above for directions). Call Out—Like the Call Out tab in the Outline Library, these thumbnails show comic-strip speech balloons; these, however, come in a variety of colors and 3D effects for a much snazzier feel. Once you add these to your image, you can double-click on the text with the Text tool to change what it says.
Template Library PhotoImpact 7.0 features an enhanced Template Library (see Figure 6.28). Double-clicking a preview icon for one of the templates always opens a new, untitled document. Each of these templates contains all the elements required for that kind of document, including background images, path objects, and text objects. To use a template, just double-click it to open it in a new document, add your own elements or text where necessary, and save the document with an appropriate name.
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Figure 6.28 The Template Library
The six tabs in the Template Library are as follows: Web Pages—Ranging from the funky to the professional, these five templates can provide the basis for an entire Web site. Business Cares—These ten designs all include a photo; you can substitute a logo or another graphic if you prefer. Cards—Twenty different card templates include invitations and a variety of generic greeting cards, as well as cards specifically for holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Certificates—Each with a professional, business-like appearance, these five templates can be used to create frameable certificates that you can customize for any person or event. Flyers—Including a couple of “for sale” flyers, a couple of event flyers, and a menu, these templates show off the eye-catching designs you can create in PhotoImpact. Labels—With two CD-ROM labels and a variety of templates in other sizes, these designs can be used for labeling any kind of object or package.
My Library Although you can add objects to any library, this one is specifically intended to hold your own custom objects. It’s a good holding area for objects you can’t quite classify, and until you fill it up, it’s easier to find your own objects (such as logos or frequently used graphic elements) here than at the bottom of another tab. http://www.muskalipman.com
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You can add your own templates to the EasyPalette. Because the Template Library is read-only, you can’t save them there, but you’ll be able to put them in My Library or any new library you create. To add a template, create a new document containing the elements you want to include, then open the EasyPalette. Right-click in the EasyPalette and choose Add Current Document as Thumbnail from the contextual menu. Because you can’t save your templates to the Template Library, you’ll need to let PhotoImpact know how you want to use them: To place a template’s objects in the current document, double-click and, to open the template as a new document, right-click on it and choose Copy Object to New Document.
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Managing Objects with the Layer Manager The third function of the EasyPalette is one that’s easy to overlook: the Layer Manager. It displays a list, with names and thumbnails, of all the objects in an image. You can use it to control the visibility of each object, change the stacking order, select objects, duplicate them, and delete them. To access the Layer Manager, click its button at the top left of the Easy Palette (see Figure 6.25). Figure 6.25 The Layer Manager lists each object in an image file.
Each object has a thumbnail, accompanied by the object’s name, position, and size, along with three buttons: The first button controls the object’s visibility. Click it to change the open eye to a closed eye and hide the object, then click it again to re-open the eye and show the object again. The second button allows you to lock the object so it can’t be moved or modified. Click once to lock, and click again to unlock. The third button is actually just an icon; clicking it doesn’t have any effect. The icon lets you know whether an object is an image object, a path object, a text object, or a group. You can change the sorting order of the objects listed in the Layer Manager by right-clicking anywhere in the palette and choosing Sort by Depth or Sort by Name from the contextual menu. If you click on a blank part of the palette, only two other menu options are available: Merge All, which combines the entire image into one background image and clears the Layer Manager, and Select All Objects. Table 6.1 shows the actions you can take on individual objects within the Layer Manager.
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Table 6.1 Working in the Layer Manager To accomplish this…
…do this in the Layer Manager:
Select an object
Click on its listing
Group two or more objects
Shift-click to select them, then rightclick and choose Group
Ungroup a group
Click on its listing, then right-click and choose Ungroup
Merge two or more objects into one
Shift-click to select them, then rightclick and choose Merge
Duplicate an object
Click to select it, then right-click and choose Duplicate
Delete an object
Click to select it, then right-click and choose Delete
Align objects
Shift-click to select them, then rightclick and choose an option from the Align submenu
Change the stacking order of an object
Drag it up or down
Tweaking EasyPalette Options One of the things that make the EasyPalette so useful is its multitude of thumbnail images. They make it easy to gauge the results of an effect and to compare one effect to another. There are several changes you can make to the EasyPalette as you work to get a better look at those thumbnails:
To change the size of the thumbnails—either to make them larger or to make them smaller so you can see more of them—choose a different size from the menu at the top right of the EasyPalette. To change the visible thumbnails so that they display the current image, click the Use an image button at the top of the EasyPalette. If an object is selected, that object will be used; if nothing is selected, the entire image will be used.
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The list tree view of Galleries at the left side of the EasyPalette takes up quite a bit of space. To hide it and display only thumbnails, click the Show/hide tree view button at the top of the EasyPalette.
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If you’re using an older computer, you may find that you can speed up thumbnail display in the Animation Gallery by turning off the animations. To do this, choose EasyPalette Options from the Menu Commands menu at the top of the EasyPalette, then click Play animations in the EasyPalette Options dialog box.
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7 CHAPTER 7
Basic Photo Enhancements and Editing Retouching and enhancing photos is a mixture of art and technology. Graphic design programs have evolved so much in the past few years that you can do almost anything with a digitized image. Restoring old photos was once an expensive and painstaking process performed by hand. Similar results can now be achieved with programs like PhotoImpact in a fraction of the time and printed out via high-resolution printers locally or from Web-based services. Even in the age of digital cameras and high-resolution scanners, an image can still be sub-par. With a few quick tweaks, you can improve any image. PhotoImpact has some superb tools for doing photo retouching, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you can fix an image with them. In this chapter I’m going to walk you through some of the many options you have for adjusting and fixing problem photos and for tweaking photos for maximum quality. But before we get into that, let’s talk about how to get your images into PhotoImpact for editing.
Getting Your Images into PhotoImpact Before you can start retouching your images, you’ll need to get them into PhotoImpact. Beyond the obvious method of File > Open, there are other methods—namely using scanners and digital cameras to acquire image files. You can also use screen captures. I won’t go into too much detail about scanners and digital cameras here, but PhotoImpact has built-in tools to directly access your scanner or digital camera images using TWAIN support (www.twain.org) so you can scan from within the application.
Scanners You can think of TWAIN as a bridge between your scanner or digital camera and your computer. PhotoImpact has support for TWAIN-compliant scanners. When you click on the scanner icon, it will trigger the scanning software you have loaded on your computer. When the scan is complete, the image will automatically load in PhotoImpact, giving you instant access to it for editing.
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Digital Cameras Similar to the scanner function, this icon triggers the TWAIN bridge to your camera. The way this will function varies greatly from camera to camera, but in most cases it will trigger your digital camera software and show you the images currently on your camera. From there, you can load the images into PhotoImpact.
Screen Captures Screen captures are useful in a variety of circumstances. As you can see by flipping through this book, screen captures are a critical teaching tool because they show others how to perform actions on the computer. If you’re looking at a multimedia presentation and want to grab what you see on the screen, a screen capture is the way to do it. Many games even support screen captures so players can share images with their friends. There are a variety of ways to perform screen captures, but they essentially fall into two categories: Built-in capture—By using the Print Screen key within Windows, you can capture a full-screen image to the clipboard. From there you can paste the image into most programs and documents (including PhotoImpact). Some games will dump a screen shot into their respective folders when you press the Print Screen key. Screen capture applications—There are dozens of screen capture utilities on the market, and you may be surprised to know that PhotoImpact 7.0 also includes one. Figure 7.1 shows the setup screen for the screen capture utility—it offers several user options. Because I needed even more options for capturing images of PhotoImpact in action, I chose a third-party program called SnagIt from TechSmith (www.techsmith.com). SnagIt is a very versatile program that allows for a variety of screen capture features, including taking stills from video clips. I mapped it to my Print Screen key, and when I press the key it allows me to select which window or part of the screen should be captured. Figure 7.1 The PhotoImpact capture setting.
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NOTE
Digital Camera Images With digital cameras outselling their film-based counterparts, odds are that if you don’t already own a digital camera, you will soon. The simplicity, image clarity, cost savings, and flexibility of digital cameras have made them extremely popular with consumers. PhotoImpact is an excellent tool for working with images from a digital camera, but it’s worth knowing a few things before you get started in order to maximize the results you’ll get using PhotoImpact.
Digital Camera Quality Settings Every digital camera will have a variety of quality settings, both for resolution (640 480, 1600 1200, etc.) and for image quality (JPEG compression settings). Some cameras will also have the option to store uncompressed images in RAW format. No matter what sort of digital camera you have, you’ll have the choice between taking many photos at low quality, or less photos at higher quality. Let me illustrate: I own a Canon PowerShot S110 digital camera (www.powershot.com). It has three resolution settings, and three quality settings. With a 256-megabyte CompactFlash memory card that I purchased separately, I have the following options for image quality: 1600 1200 resolution, Superfine compression: 267 photos 1600 1200 resolution, Fine compression: 402 photos 1600 1200 resolution, Normal compression: 800 photos 1024 768 resolution, Superfine compression: 542 photos 1024 768 resolution, Fine compression: 821 photos 1024 768 resolution, Normal compression: 1522 photos 640 480 resolution, Superfine compression: 1155 photos 640 480 resolution, Fine compression: 1642 photos 640 480 resolution, Normal compression: 2837 photos http://www.muskalipman.com
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In the continuing move by publishers to protect their content from piracy, they’re making it very difficult to take screen captures from certain types of media. DVDs, streaming Internet video, and other video sources employ various methods of copyright protection. One such method is called “MacroVision” (www.macrovision.com) and when you try and take a screen shot of a DVD scene playing on your computer, you’ll get a pink or black image where the DVD image should be. There is no simple way to circumvent this protection, no matter how benign your motives (school project, etc.). In order to get a screen capture from a DVD video, you have to crack the MacroVision protection, which is a legal gray area at best. If you need images from a movie, consider looking for the official Web site, which usually has still photos from the movie.
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As you can see, quality settings make a huge difference when it comes to how many photos can fit in a memory card: At maximum quality, I can take 267 photos on a single 256-megabyte memory card. At minimum quality, I can take over 10 times that! The names and numbers will be different depending on which camera you have. The common element will always be that the higher the resolution figures, the higher the quality (some cameras take images at 24961662 and higher), and the higher the compression quality, the better the image will look. As you turn down the resolution and select more aggressive image compression, you’ll get less quality per image, but you’ll be able to take more photographs.
Keep the End Goal in Mind When choosing the right quality settings, you need to keep your goal in mind. If the images you’re taking are for a Web site, and you know that you’ll never want to print them, bump the resolution down to 640480 and leave the compression at high quality (Superfine in this case) to maintain the clarity of the images. If you’re taking photos for insurance purposes and quality doesn’t matter at all, push the compression down as low as it can go. On the other hand, if you’re taking vacation photos that you may want to print out later, crank the resolution up as high as it will go and pick the best quality compression possible. To put the issue of resolution into a real world example, the higher the resolution, the better quality print you’ll get. We’ll discuss this in detail in Chapter 15, but for now keep in mind that a 640480 resolution image will give you a nice looking wallet-size print, barely passable quality at 46 size, but poor quality at 57 or larger. The relation of size vs. resolution is somewhat relative, but my own experience has led me to conclude that an 810 print requires at least 16001200 (2.1 megapixels), and even then the quality isn’t quite what it should be. 3plus megapixel images make beautiful 810 prints. I purposely stay in the best quality mode I can when using my Canon S110—maximum resolution (16001200) and the best compression (Superfine). The reason is simple: I never know when the photo I take might need to get printed out—sometimes spectacular photos just happen. Some of my best photos have been taken in a casual atmosphere when I didn’t expect it. As a digital photographer, the worst feeling is when you wish you had taken the photo with a regular camera because your digital camera was set to capture a minimum number of pixels and you can’t print the images out with any reasonable quality. My advice to you is to set the quality to maximum, leave it there, and shoot your photos with no regrets. You can always delete unwanted exposures and free space to take more, or switch to a lower quality mode if you’re short on space.
Buy a Big Memory Card Most digital cameras ship with very small memory cards—my Canon S110 came with an 8megabyte CompactFlash card, which is only enough memory to take seven images in maximum quality mode. Just like most laser printers that ship with a small initial toner supply, the manufacturer wants you to buy a bigger memory card.
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Figure 7.2 Various CompactFlash memory cards and the gigabyte IBM Microdrive
CHAPTER 7 The good news is that, at the time of this writing, memory cards are getting cheaper. The most common type of memory card, CompactFlash, is inexpensive compared to when it first hit the market. Most online stores will have 256-megabyte cards for less than $150. Even a 64-megabyte card (often found for under $50) will give you at least four times the storage space than the card your camera probably came with. If you want to get a really big card, you can purchase a 512megabyte CompactFlash card or even a gigabyte IBM Microdrive! The Microdrive is a small hard drive that spins at 4500 RPM—it’s not compatible with all cameras, so before investing in one, make sure your camera supports this technology. The news is a little less rosy for other memory types—if your camera takes SmartMedia (as most Olympus cameras do), you’re limited to 128 megabytes of storage. The scenario is the same for the Sony cameras—128 megabytes is the current limit for Memory Stick technology. Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) are two very small new formats that only work with a few cameras on the market, but they, too, are currently limited to 128 megabytes. Of the four alternative memory card formats, SD cards have the brightest future—Toshiba plans to release 512 megabyte SD cards by early 2002 and a gigabyte card by the end of the year. The bottom line is that just like getting a sizeable hard drive for your computer projects, a sizeable memory card will enhance your entire digital camera experience. The more space you have, the more photos you can shoot without worrying about running out of space, and that frees you up to experiment more with your photos. And that’s what digital photography is all about, right?
Camera Pre-dispositions Every digital camera has certain traits when it comes to color, light, and image quality. Some cameras have a tendency to enhance the blues in an image, making photos look “cool.” Other cameras might make every image look slightly dull. No digital camera can quite capture, with 100 percent accuracy, the subtle range of color and light that the human eye can perceive. It’s important to get to know the tendencies that your digital camera has so you can compensate for them. For example, the Canon S110 I mentioned earlier has fantastic color capturing abilities. Skin tones are reproduced with stunning accuracy. I’ve noticed, however, that when shooting some images under indoor lights, the images can look slightly dull, almost “hazy.” By doing a slight contrast increase (CTRL+B), I can eliminate this error and make my images look even better. http://www.muskalipman.com
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There are no hard-and-fast rules to learning your camera tendencies—you simply need to look closely at your images, make the minor adjustments to make them look even better, and take note of how often you’re doing the same adjustment over and over. Depending on the adjustment, it’s possible to create an automated PhotoImpact process called a Quick Command to apply the setting to each image you take. For more information on this, read Chapter 11.
Post-Processing Wizard for Scanned Images PhotoImpact has a nice built-in tool for enhancing scanned images—the Post-processing Wizard (found under the Format menu or by pressing F9). It’s often difficult for beginners to know where to start because PhotoImpact has so many tools. The Post-processing Wizard rolls seven correction and enhancement tools into a single entity that walks users through the process of fixing up their images (see Figure 7.3.) Although it says it’s for scanned images, this wizard will work on any image, scanned or otherwise. Figure 7.3 The Post-processing Wizard for scanned images.
This tool is great for beginners who aren’t yet familiar with where to find all the best tools for correcting an image. The wizard walks the user through these tasks: Straightening the image Cropping the image Focusing the image Adjusting image Brightness Adjusting image Color Balance Removing red-eye Adding a Magic Frame These correction tools are enough for most basic corrections. Because I’m more of a “hands on” PhotoImpact user, we’re going to walk through some of PhotoImpact’s most sophisticated tools. These will help you take even the most troublesome photo and turn it into a masterpiece.
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Painting
The Painting Tools Although I do consider myself a graphic artist, I have no formal art training. Drawing by hand isn’t one of my strengths. However, if you can draw by hand, PhotoImpact gives you some great tools for it. The painting tools, all found on the toolbar, include Paintbrush, Airbrush, Crayon, Charcoal, Chalk, Pencil, Marker, Oil Paint, Particle, Drop Water, Bristle, and the Color Replacement Pen. When you select the painting tool, the toolbar will load (see Figure 7.4). Each painting tool will have a slightly different toolbar, but most share the same features. From left to right, these are: Figure 7.4 The Painting toolbar.
Shape—This changes the shape of the brush tip with which you are painting (see Figure 7.5): square, circular, and four rectangular shapes at angles. Depending on which you choose, this can have a dramatic effect on the style of your painting. When performing corrections, it’s best to use the square brush tip. Figure 7.5 The Brush.
Size—This is the size of the paintbrush, measured in pixels. The setting can be from 1 to 100 pixels. The 1-pixel setting is great for making corrections to images (which will be discussed later). Color—Use this tool to pick the color of your paint. Trans—Short for “Transparency,” this adjusts the transparency of your brush strokes. The higher the value, the more “ghostly” they’ll be. There are some very interesting effects that can be done with semi-transparent paint! Soft Edge—The higher this value is, the more “fuzzy” your paint strokes will appear. When performing corrections, this value should be set to zero. Preset—PhotoImpact includes fourteen painting presets for the regular painting tool alone. Presets like Fat Marker and Ribbon say it all. Each painting tool has its own set of presets, so be sure to explore this menu for each tool.
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Knowing how to apply a good coat of paint is a skill that is useful in many artistic endeavors. Working with pictures in PhotoImpact is no exception. The painting tools in PhotoImpact are very flexible and allow you to create a variety of artistic creations and corrections. The basic concept of digital painting is just like that of the physical world—pick a brush, pick a color, and start painting. Thankfully, the painting options that PhotoImpact gives you are plentiful and less messy!
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Lines—To assist those of us who are drawing-challenged, Ulead has graciously included the option for lines to be automatically straight or even connected together! This makes drawing custom images much easier. Tablet—This is an option for people with art tablets. Wacom (www.wacom.com) is perhaps the most well-known brand—I’ve owned such an art tablet for a few years now and it’s a great tool to have. Art tablets are essentially electronic pieces of paper. A special pen allows you to draw and erase your images, and the mouse cursor moves on the screen in response to the way you move the pen. PhotoImpact supports pressure levels, so the harder you press on the art tablet, the darker the line in your image. Texture—Your brush takes on the texture selected (see Figure 7.6), and as you paint with whichever color you’ve selected, the texture you’ve selected comes out in your painting. Look at the sample image in Figure 7.7. You can also add your own textures. Figure 7.6 Some of the textures available to you.
Figure 7.7 Painting with textures.
Eraser—This tool does exactly what you’d expect. It functions by removing the effect that was painted on. Mode—There are two mode functions. The first, Paint As Object, is a powerful tool—when it’s toggled, the images that you paint become objects. The second Mode is the Edit Active Objects only. This is useful if you want to apply a paint effect only to the affected object. Add—If you have a brush preset that you find useful and would like to keep, use this to add it to the EasyPalette. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Creative Painting
Figure 7.8 Having fun with the paint tools.
Figure 7.9 shows a combination of three elements—the Particle painting tool with the Explode preset chosen; some text using the Chiller font, a drop-shadow, and 3D round text; and a preset from the wrap gallery (Bend 4). Simple elements combine to form an image with impact. Be creative! Figure 7.9 The presets in PhotoImpact allow for some wonderful creations.
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Whether you’re a skilled freehand artist or just someone who doodles, PhotoImpact has some superb creative tools. Although some of this was covered in Chapter 6, the most important thing I can tell you is to experiment. There are more than twenty brush settings, and when combined with the nearly infinite colors and textures you have at your disposal, the possibilities are endless. I find that when I’m in a creative mood, the nature of the brushes actually guide my creative process. For instance, Figure 7.8 is just a doodle with the paint tool called “Particle Pen.” As I began to play with it, I realized that by drawing two wave shapes that cross over each other, this image closely resembled a multi-colored DNA helix—at least to my non-scientific education!
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Corrective Painting Although less amusing than playing with the particle brush, using the paint tools to correct or alter an image requires an equal amount of creativity. Remember that digital photographs are made up of pixels, so with enough time and patience, even the most minute alterations can be made to look perfect. In the relatively simple example below, I’ve taken the Adobe Acrobat logo and removed the shadowed edge from it. Figure 7.10 shows the original image, Figure 7.11 shows manipulation with a white brush set at 1 pixel, and Figure 7.12 shows the final result.
Figure 7.10 The PDF file to be edited.
Figure 7.11 Removing the shadow edge.
Figure 7.12 Our final product.
You can also use the Eraser tool to perform similar functions.
Fills The concept of a fill is simple: Take a selection and place the fill contents into that selection. The reality is that creative use of fills can allow you to do some pretty incredible things! Before going into the fill tools, it’s important to understand that the realism of a fill strongly depends on how good the selection is that it’s going into. Make sure you’ve mastered the skill of making a selection from Chapter 3.
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The Fill Tools Like all the other tools, the Fill function has its own toolbar (see Figure 7.13). The major parts of it are:
Fill Method—You can choose between two-color or multiple-color fills. Fill Colors—If you want to change the fill color of your single-color image, click once on the color you want to change and you’ll be able to select one from the Ulead color picker. If you choose multiple-color, by clicking on the fill color you’ll open the Palette Ramp Editor (shown in Figure 7.14). This editor is incredibly flexible in that it offers you more than a hundred preset color ramps, so there’s bound to be one nearly perfect for your needs. If not, you can use it to create intricate gradients to meet your exact needs by altering individual color nodes. Figure 7.14 The Palette Ramp Editor.
Color Ramp—This setting determines how the colors change in a gradient fill. The default RGB setting will be okay virtually all of the time. Transparency—The higher the transparency value, the more the original image background will show through. (Compare Figures 7.17 and 7.18 to see how transparency affects the image.) Merge—The Merge setting determines how PhotoImpact merges the fill with the underlying paint colors. In most cases, leave this setting at Always. Add—If you have a particular fill that you’d like to use again, click the Add button to have it added to your EasyPalette gallery. Figure 7.15 is the sample photo and selection I’m using for the fill examples. The background is a dark color, making it easy to select and fill.
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Figure 7.13 The Fill toolbar.
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Figure 7.15 The dark background of this image makes it ideal for our experiment.
The fill tool has four different modes: Bucket Fill tool—This tool gives you straight fills, from one color to another. This is useful when you want to replace a background with one of your own devising. The fill color I’ve chosen for Figure 7.16 makes the match heads stand out very strongly. Figure 7.16 A very strong contrast.
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Figure 7.17 A two-color fill.
Figure 7.18 A two-color fill with the transparency adjusted to 60 percent.
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Linear Gradient Fill tool—This gives you fills that gently transition from one color to another along a straight line that you define. The fills can be two-color or multiple-color, allowing a variety of options. Figure 7.17 shows a two-color fill—notice how it’s more natural looking than the single-color fill of Figure 7.16. Whenever possible, use a two-color fill, and for a more natural look choose two colors that are similar. Using the transparency setting can also give it an interesting look. Figure 7.18 has the same color combination, but with a transparency setting of 60 percent.
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Rectangular Gradient Fill tool—This is similar to the Linear Gradient Fill tool; the only difference is that the fills flow in a rectangular pattern. By drawing a rectangle from the center, a gradient is created. Figure 7.19 shows a fill that I created by drawing the fill rectangle near the center. Figure 7.19 A two-color effect using the rectangular gradient tool.
Elliptical Gradient Fill tool—This tool is similar to the Linear Gradient Fill tool, only the fills flow in an elliptical pattern. The size and positioning of the ellipse you draw will greatly impact the way your fill looks. Figure 7.20 is the result of a two-color fill drawn with an ellipse in the upper-middle portion of the image, while Figure 7.21 is a multi-color fill with a preset palette ramp chosen. Figure 7.20 A two-color fill using the Elliptical Gradient Fill tool.
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Figure 7.21 A two-color fill using the Elliptical Gradient Fill tool.
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Image & Texture Fills If the above fill options don’t offer you enough variety already, PhotoImpact includes two other incredible fill options: image fills and texture fills. To access these elements of the fill tool, look under the Edit menu and choose Fill, or use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL+F. Figure 7.22 shows the Texture Fill tab of the Fill window. To use a texture fill, simply select one from the list and click OK. Figure 7.22 Many textures to choose from.
Texture fills, as Figure 7.23 shows, are repeating background patterns that can be used to fill space, usually behind a prominent image. Although this sample image is too small to show the true nature of a texture, were it larger, the brick pattern would tile seamlessly throughout the background. Options for a texture fill include transparency and merge settings. Figure 7.24 shows the image with an image fill—I selected a sample image of water for an interesting visual contrast with the flame.
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Figure 7.23 Our image with a texture fill.
Figure 7.24 An image fill adds an interesting element to our picture.
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Fixing Problem Photos
Out-of-focus images Even with auto-focus cameras, it’s a very common photography error to have your subject out of focus; fixing the viewfinder even a little off-center will focus the lens on something other than your subject. PhotoImpact has several tools to correct this, two of which are found under the Effect > Blur & Sharpen menu: Sharpen and Unsharp Mask. The third tool, Focus, is found under the Format menu. Each tool does the same basic thing: It takes a blurry image and brings it into focus. Choosing the right tool depends on your needs. If the image is strictly blurry, choose the Sharpen tool; if the image is both blurry and a little dull from poor lighting, choose the Unsharp Mask tool and adjust the aperture setting to alter the lighting. And if you’re looking for a quick, brute-force way to put an image in or out of focus, use the Focus tool. Figure 7.25 is an image I took with a Kodak DC-265 digital camera, scaled down to 25 percent of its original size. The image is a little blurry because of the scaling, and the coloring is a little dull because the photo was taken on an overcast day. We’re going to use the Unsharp Mask to solve both problems at once! TIP Remember that most effects can be applied only to a 24-bit color image. You will have to “up-sample’’ 8-bit and grayscale images to 24-bit before these filters can be used. Chapter 2 has more information on how to change color depth.
Figure 7.25 Our overcast image needs adjustment.
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No matter how good the photographer, environmental elements will often sabotage what would have otherwise been a beautiful photograph. Bad lighting, bad development in the lab, red-eye on the subject—these are just a few of the things that can go wrong with a photo. In years past, most people would have had to simply accept the fact that a photo was poor. Not any more. PhotoImpact allows you to reclaim all but the most damaged and lifeless of photos. The best way to explain these tools is to show you how they work, so this next section will be a series of step-by-step tutorials. Let’s get started!
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1.
Under the Effect menu, find the Blur & Sharpen group. Inside that you’ll find the Unsharp Mask tool. Select it.
2.
A series of thumbnails will open. If you’re in a rush, you can select the one that looks like the final result you want. But because we’re taking our time here, click on Options. This will load the detail settings as Figure 7.26 shows. From this screen we have total control over the Unsharp Mask. The Sharpen factor controls the overall level of sharpening your image will receive. The original image is on the left; the adjusted image is on the right. This makes it easy to see what effect the setting will have on your image. Just like on a 35mm camera, Aperture radius controls the amount of light that is adjusted in an image. A lower value will leave the brightness of your image untouched, and a higher value will brighten your image.
Figure 7.26 The Sharpen factor and the Aperture radius affect the appearance of the image.
3.
This image didn’t need very much adjusting. A Sharpen factor of 50 and an Aperture radius of 3 gives me the results shown in Figure 7.27: a brighter, sharper image! I’ve purposely made the adjustment a little more dramatic than I normally would have to ensure that you will be able to see the differences. It’s a good idea to try several settings to find the best one for your image.
Figure 7.27 Our photo after adjusting—much better!
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Removing Redeye
Figure 7.28 Red eye detracts from the beauty of this image.
1.
Under the Effect menu, choose Camera Lens and then choose Remove Red Eye.
2.
The Remove Red Eye settings window will open (Figure 7.29). This is where you control how the red eye will be removed. First, select the area for filtering (I usually do it one eye at a time for better control). Zoom in on the eye, then adjust the percentage of eye size so that the selection fits the eye closely.
Figure 7.29 The Remove Red Eye settings window.
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One common problem that persists, even in the era of digital photography, is the “red-eye” effect. Red-eye occurs when bright light is reflected back to the camera from the blood-rich retina of the eye. Solving red-eye involves having enough direct lighting and choosing the best camera angle. For the sake of this exercise, however, let’s assume that you’ve got a great photo that you want to make even better by removing red eye. Figure 7.28 shows an image of a child with the red-eye effect—I’ve zoomed in a little so you can see it more easily. This problem detracts from an otherwise great picture. There are two methods of fixing red eye problems. The first is the most accurate, but it takes more time—I’ll show you how this works first, then cover the quick and easy way to fix red eye.
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3.
Next, adjust the Red tolerance and Effect level. You can see what effect the changes will have by looking in the preview window to the right. Click OK, and you’re done! However, if you’d like to get really deep into the tool, click on Eye color to remove, found in the lower right corner of the settings window, and proceed to Step 4.
4.
Clicking on the Eye color to remove box will launch the Eyedropper window. Zoom in on the eye and sample the color from the center, then click OK. This will take you back to the Remove Red Eye settings window (Figure 7.29), where you can use the more accurate color to make the correction more effective.
Figure 7.30 Picking the exact shade of red to remove.
5.
We’re done! Figure 7.31 shows the correction—now we can see those “baby baby blues” without the distracting red eye effect.
Figure 7.31 A perfect photo!
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TIP
Brightness and Contrast Poor brightness and poor contrast ruin more photos than any other problem. Lighting is one of the most critical elements in photography, and when there isn’t enough light, the image suffers. Digital cameras are among the worst offenders because they are less able to cope with low-light situations than regular 35mm cameras. Thankfully, PhotoImpact includes some excellent tools for adjusting the brightness and contrast of images. Figure 7.32 is a typical example of this problem: Although the subject is within range of the flash, there was still insufficient lighting. Let’s fix it! Figure 7.32 PhotoImpact can improve the brightness and contrast of the subject in this image.
1.
Under the Format menu, select Brightness & Contrast.
2.
The Brightness & Contrast settings window will load, as Figure 7.33 shows, and give you a series of previews and presets to choose from. You can click on one to see what effect it will have on your image. I find it useful to position the window next to my image so I can see the changes right away. It’s automatic, so you don’t need to hit the Preview button for this to happen. For my image, I clicked twice on the preset immediately above and to the right of the center (original) thumbnail, giving me a brightness of 60, and then manually entered a value of 50 for the contrast.
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The fastest way to correct red eye is to select Remove Red Eye from the series of Retouch tools and simply paint over the red-eye. This isn’t as flexible as the method mentioned above, but it’s much quicker and will work for most of the red-eye problems you’ll see. This is my preferred method of red-eye reduction.
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Figure 7.33 The Brightness & Contrast settings window.
3.
Once you have your image adjusted to your liking, click OK and you’re done! Figure 7.34 shows my much-improved image. Remember you can press CTRL+Z at any time to undo the effect and try it again. Sometimes it takes a few tries before you arrive at the magical setting. Keep in mind that the more drastic your adjustments, the less realistic the image will look in the end. There’s no substitution for a great photo from the start.
Figure 7.34 My image after adjustment is much better!
TIP Want a fast way to adjust brightness and contrast? Press CTRL+B to open up the settings window, and click once or twice in the preview square directly above the center preview square. I’ve found that the vast majority of all images can be quickly fixed by these adjustments.
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NOTE
Fixing Damaged Photos Sometimes more than just a brightness adjustment is needed to save a photo. Older photos are especially susceptible to the ravages of time: scratches, tears, and creases. I recently found such a photo (although it’s not very old), so we’re going to take a look at four of the many tools that can be used for repair: Cropping, Remove Scratch, Cloning, and Retouch Sharpen. Figure 7.35 shows a scan of a photo in need of restoration. The photo has a large scratch in the upper right corner, a piece missing from the lower right, and has focus imperfections. Let’s get to work! Figure 7.35 Our damaged photo in need of electronic repair.
Cropping The first step to fixing Figure 7.35 is to crop it: Why deal with more damaged photo than you have to? By cropping, we’re eliminating part of the scratch and the missing piece, so we have less repair work to do. And, like all images, it can use some adjusting of both brightness and contrast. Figure 7.36 looks a lot better already!
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You’ll quickly find that your equipment, especially scanners, will have certain predispositions that you’ll recognize. My scanner, at its default settings, scans in everything a little too dark. I’ve learned to recognize this and immediately know the brightness and contrast adjustment I need to fix the image. Get to know your equipment!
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Figure 7.36 Our image after cropping & brightness adjustments.
Remove Scratch The Remove Scratch tool works well for some images. It functions as a sort of smudge tool that samples the coloring of the image and fills in the scratch with the dominant color. To remove a scratch from a photo, follow these steps: 1.
Find the Remove Scratch tool under the Retouch Tools area. (Look for the Dodge effect on the tool panel, then click and hold on it to expand the menu.)
2.
The Remove Scratch tool will load, giving you the toolbar (see Figure 7.37) with various settings. By now you should be familiar with what these mean. Adjust the shape to fit the size of the scratch or use a preset. I’ve chosen the Remove Scratch1 preset.
Figure 7.37 The Remove Scratch tool bar.
3.
Remove the scratch by painting over it with the tool. Figure 7.38 shows the tool in action (look in the top right).
Figure 7.38 The image with the scratch being removed.
In this case, the Remove Scratch Tool didn’t do a very good job on our image—the scratch is still noticeable, only now it’s a different color. It’s time to bring out the big guns and use the powerful set of Cloning tools that PhotoImpact has. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Cloning Cloning is an advanced topic that could take a whole chapter to explore. In essence, digital cloning is defined as taking part of the image and using it to paint over another part. In cloning, you have a source and a target. We’re going to use the Cloning tool to eliminate the tears in the image and fix the scratch the right way. Select the Cloning Paintbrush tool. The Cloning tool panel offers a few different options (see Figure 7.39), but they’re identical to those for painting covered earlier in this chapter. The exception is the presets; there are some great presets for “ghost” effects. For our purposes, however, we’ll leave everything at default. If your project requires more finesse, adjust the size to be smaller and zoom in to at least 300 percent.
Figure 7.39 The Cloning tool panel.
2.
Zoom in on the image and then, holding down the Shift key, click on the area you want to clone. In my case, I want to clone the background, including the red lights in the proper position (See Figure 7.40.) Once the source is selected, you paint over the area you want to clone. This may take some practice, because the clone source doesn’t stay still. If you paint downward, your clone source will also move downward. Experiment and you’ll see what I mean!
Figure 7.40 Cloning in action.
3.
You can re-clone areas over and over until you get something that looks realistic. With the sample image I’m using, I’ve repaired both corners by cloning them back in. In addition, by positioning the cloning tool precisely, I’ve filled in the black gap on the right side by cloning two rows of lights all the way to the top. The original photo didn’t have lights, but I thought it added to the effect of the image (see Figure 7.41).
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1.
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Figure 7.41 Our image, post-cloning.
TIP Cloning is something that takes skill and practice to do right. One important tip for high-quality cloning is to focus on small areas one at a time. Don’t try to set the brush size too big and clone entire sections at once. Clone part of an image, reset the cloning zone, and then start again. By using smaller cloned areas you’ll end up with a higher quality final effect.
Retouch Sharpen The Retouch Sharpen tool is found alongside these other tools, and it differs from the Sharpen filter I talked about earlier in this chapter because the Sharpen effect is painted on. This provides great control over the effect and lets you adjust parts of the image. The downside to Retouch Sharpen in PhotoImpact 7 is that the tool can adversely affect skin tones—it’s imperative that you don’t go over the same area twice while using this tool or you’ll end up with pixelated skin in your image. This tool is best used on objects rather than people, but we’ll try to make it work here. The tool is very simple to use and doesn’t require any special steps. Select the Sharpen tool from the Retouch Tool panel. The tool panel (Figure 7.42) has the familiar settings. For this example, I chose a size of 100 so I could make large, sweeping passes at the image. Figure 7.42 The Retouch Sharpen tool panel.
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Figure 7.43a and 7.43b The final images—on the left we have the post-Retouch Sharpen image, on the right we have the post-Sharpen filter image.
Compare Figure 7.43b with Figure 7.35 and you’ll see what a difference a few relatively minor adjustments can make.
Retouching Human Faces Digital photography has the potential to compensate for a variety of things: poor skin complexion, signs of old age, or problematic teeth. Did you know that nearly every model photo in print magazines is digitally retouched? An out-of-place hair or slight glare off the forehead can ruin an otherwise perfect shot. Some photographers will often manipulate their work to achieve the best results possible. Opinions vary widely on this practice—some people feel that it’s no longer a real photograph if you alter the appearance of the subject, while others have no objection to the practice. I’ve personally found that some of my photos look best 100 percent unedited, while others improve with minor touch-ups. And some look great when combined with otherworldly effects! Regardless, it’s important to know how to do these edits, because they can come in handy. Because of the somewhat sensitive nature of this topic, I’m going to use stock photos from Hemera (www.hemera.com) in the examples rather than the images of friends and family that I normally use in this book. You can see why I find the Hemera Photo Objects so useful!
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Figure 7.43 shows the final image after all of the adjustments. I chose to paint the Sharpen effect only on the people; the background remains a little blurry. The net effect is that your eye is drawn towards the people right away, which I’m sure is what the photographer intended! For comparison purposes I’ve taken the image, pre-Retouch Sharpen, and done a level four Sharpen filter on it. I prefer this method of sharpening blurry photos with people in them over using the Retouch Sharpen method, but each tool has its purposes. Knowing which one to use is the key to great digital image manipulation!
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Removing Skin Flaws Human skin is a remarkable thing, resilient and strong, but it’s not very smart—sometimes it looks its worst when we need to look our best! In light of this, traditional photographers have developed a series of techniques to make their subjects look their best by correcting skin flaws. PhotoImpact gives you similar abilities. There are two main ways to correct skin flaws in our sample image (Figure 7.44): cloning and the Soft Focus effect. Figure 7.44 Our subject with some minor skin flaws
Cloning The main method of removing skin flaws is to clone over them using skin that lacks the flaws. Sounds simple in theory, but it does take some practice to get it right. As I described earlier, the cloning zone should remain small (a brush size of under 10), and you should always zoom in to 300 or 400 percent in order to get a realistic effect. Human skin is very difficult to clone because, while it might appear to be uniform in color on the surface, when you zoom in on it you realize how many subtle shades it has. Pay very close attention to how the skin blends after you’ve cloned it. In Figure 7.45 I zoomed in on the subject’s face, picked a clear area of skin right next to the area I wanted to clone over, and got to work. As you can see, Figure 7.46 looks much better than 7.44. Perfect skin! Figure 7.45 Cloning over the flawed skin using unflawed samples. Figure 7.46 Perfect skin!
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TIP
Soft Focus Effect My favorite traditional photographic effect is the soft focus blur effect that makes the tone of the photo warm and friendly. It’s perfect for portraits of people and animals—it hides minor flaws by blurring them into the surrounding skin area, making them harder to see. The reason why this is one of the most overlooked effects is because it’s not on the effects list with the other blur functions—the Soft Focus effect is actually a series of functions that include a Gossip blur, two tone map adjustments, a fadeout, and a brightness and contrast adjustment. It’s one of the preset tasks on the Quick Command Panel as Figure 7.47 shows. To use the preset, simply click the play button (the triangle facing to the right). There’s detailed information on Tasks and the Quick Command Panel in Chapter 11. Our image after the effect has been applied is shown in Figure 7.48. If you compare it to the original in Figure 7.44, you’ll see this is greatly improved and has a completely different feeling to it. Figure 7.47 The Soft Focus task. Figure 7.48 Soft focus effect smoothes out all the flaws!
Removing/Softening Wrinkles Not everyone celebrates the signs of aging. If you’d like to roll back the clock of few years on an image by lessening fine wrinkle lines, here’s the way to do it.
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Since it’s hard to get a perfect cloning effect on human skin, consider “fudging” the results a little by using the Retouch Smudge tool. Used sparingly, it can smooth out the “patchiness” that can occur when cloning human skin. Try a size of 10, effect level of 30, and a soft edge of 40.
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Beautify Skin Effect New to PhotoImpact 7, this effect is located under the Effects > Camera Lens effect list. It’s an interesting tool, although challenging to use. The effect appears to be a combination of a Blur and Remove Scratch effect. At high levels, it makes the image look like it has the Watercolor effect applied to it. Using the tool is straightforward enough, but achieving the effect you want is a little tricky. There are several controls in the interface for this tool, but the most important is the Skin Tone and Level. You select the Skin Tone by using the eyedropper on the color of skin you want to “beautify”. The level of the effect is from 1 to 10. I find that selections between 1 and 4 produce the best results—the effect isn’t overpowering, but it is noticeable. Other parts of this tool include a complexion shifter—if you can change the complexion of your subject by making them appear lighter, darker, tanned, or even sunburned! I’m not sure why you’d want to give someone a sunburn, but it’s always better to have more options than not enough. TIP When the Beautify Skin effect window starts up, the selected default tool is the eyedropper. More than likely, you’d want to re-position the image before you start selecting anything to edit. Unlike many other PhotoImpact editing screens, the Beautify Skin tool doesn’t have the small hand icon you’d normally look for in order to move the image. Instead, you need to click on the eyedropper icon to deselect the tool, which in turn lets you move the image around for easier editing.
TIP Use shortcuts to make the various windows visible: Press and hold the Alt key while also pressing the number keys 1-6 along the top of your keyboard.
The Soft Focus task mentioned above also does wonders for wrinkles. It doesn’t have the bruteforce approach of the Beatify Skin effect, but it produces a wonderful looking image that has noticeably reduced wrinkles.
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Whitening Teeth Cigarettes, caffeine from coffee or pop, and a variety of other dietary elements can cause our pearly whites to hue-shift into the yellow zone. Not exactly an attractive trait, it can be very noticeable in photos. There’s a very simple way to eliminate the problem, and it involves using the Retouch Dodge tool to make the yellow into white. Follow along!
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Figure 7.49 Some teeth need fixin’!
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Our model in Figure 7.49 has a yellowing effect we want to eliminate. If you’re reading the print edition of this book and can’t see they’re yellow, you can see they look a little too dark. To fix this, first we’ll zoom in 300 percent to get a tight zone for editing.
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Next, switch to the Retouch Dodge tool. Select a brush size of 5, an Effect level of 100, and a Soft Edge of 50.
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Click and drag the cursor over the teeth, paying particular attention to the spots that are darker than the others. We don’t want to over-enhance what’s already white, so it will take several clicks to get it right. Be sure to not lighten the black areas between teeth or the effect will look fake.
Our final results are shown in Figure 7.50—notice how much lighter the teeth are when compared to Figure 7.49. Figure 7.50 A perfect smile!
NOTE There are other ways to take the yellow to white, including the color replacement tool, but I’ve found that the Retouch Dodge tool is the easiest, most effective way to perform this procedure. I’ve used it with great success on a number of images.
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Hue & Saturation Adjustments Yet another image problem plaguing photos is hue issues: skin tones that are too red, too yellow, washed out, and so on. In Figure 7.51, the skin tone on the subjects is too red for my liking. A simple three-step procedure using the Hue & Saturation tool will fix this problem. Figure 7.51 The flesh tones in this photograph need adjustment.
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Under the Format menu, choose Hue & Saturation. This will load the settings window (Figure 7.52). A quick method of activating this tool is to press CTRL+E on your keyboard.
Figure 7.52 The Hue & Saturation settings window.
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Make sure the Preview option in the bottom right is clicked off so you can see the effect of your changes on your large image. This is one of those tools that’s great fun to experiment with! We’ll use it more creatively in Chapter 8, but for now, a minor adjustment will have a great effect on our image. A Hue setting of 8 magically turns the red skin tones into a more “normal” flesh tone. I bumped the Saturation value up to 22 to make the tones stand out a little more, and the Lightness setting up to 9 to give the image a little more impact.
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Click OK, and we’re done! Figure 7.53 shows the final image, and comparing the images shows us the final result is a much-improved photo (and, for those that are wondering, there were blue lights in the room, so the bluish tint in the background is normal).
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Figure 7.53 Our final image—hueshifted to perfection!
Another way of altering color hues In addition to the Hue & Saturation tool, PhotoImpact 7 includes a new tool for making quick color shifts. On the bottom of the main Tool Panel there are a series of quick adjustment tools that work really well for obvious color problems. Figure 7.54 shows the tool—its use is very simple. There are three color controls, one for each color channel in RGB images: red, blue, and green. Clicking on the plus or minus signs will shift the color hue by a certain amount. This amount can’t be controlled, nor is it displayed in any way on the screen (an unfortunate limitation). The effect is seen right away on your image and can only be undone using EDIT > UNDO or pressing CTRL+Z on your keyboard. You can also adjust Brightness and Contrast from here, making it a great quick tool for edits that don’t require much finesse. Figure 7.54 An alternate way of color shifting.
The Finishing Touch Almost any image can be restored given enough time and care. I’ve covered only some of the retouch tools; there are many others that you should explore if you’re serious about restoring your photos. Good luck, and remember that, like anything else in life, practice makes perfect! http://www.muskalipman.com
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8 Advanced Special Effects for Photos Taking a photograph and making a beautiful creation from it is one of my favorite things to do with PhotoImpact. I have no skill at drawing, painting, sketching, or any other form of traditional artwork. PhotoImpact is my canvas. There are many interesting ways to create incredible, exciting, even strange-looking creations from your photos. Better yet, because PhotoImpact is compatible with most Photoshop plug-ins, you have even more options open to you!
The key to great digital artwork is to make it look realistic. If you’re creating a composite image of your dog walking on the moon, make it look like he’s really there! Pay attention to every detail, especially the lighting and coloring. It’s the small details that make the difference between a digital masterpiece and something that looks faked. Your creations should inspire people to say, “Is that...real?” This chapter was the most enjoyable for me to write. We’ll explore these digital tools, discuss samples, and walk through the process together. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to have some fun! NOTE In this chapter I won’t be showing you many settings screens. Applying effects like these is a highly subjective process and depends greatly on your source image. When you apply an effect, most will give you settings screens similar to the ones you’ve seen in previous chapters—either a series of thumbnails where you choose the effect you want or a series of slider bars where you can see an instant preview of your image. The best thing you can do is to experiment and have some fun. I’d rather show you where to find the effect, talk about how to use it, and leave the settings up to you!
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The Art of Digital Special Effects
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Protecting Your Images Artwork, whether physical or digital, has a creator. And as that creator you have the right to receive credit for your work. In an ideal world, if you put up a digital image on your Web site and someone wanted to use it, they’d contact you and ask for permission or licensing rates. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world—the Internet and Web browsers make it very simple to take images and not give credit for them. So as digital artists, whether you work with photos or creations from scratch, you need to take steps to protect your work from theft. There are several methods available to protect your work, and while none are 100 percent foolproof, I’ll give you some suggestions on steps you can take.
Watermarking Watermarking is the process of adding a digital stamp of ownership to an image. There are three watermarking methods I’ll talk about, each having it’s own purpose.
Digimarc The Digimarc system is a clever way of embedding owner information without drastically altering the visual image. It allows you to embed ownership information and actually track that image across the Web. If someone else is using your image on their Web site, Digimarc will notify you when their Web crawling tool comes across the image. The down side is that most of these features cost money—the most basic package that Digimarc has will let you register on their system so people can look up your ownership information if they scan your image for a Digimarc watermark, but the free package doesn’t offer the image crawling and notification. If protecting your images is important to you, however, the $178 price tag is reasonable. So how do you embed an image with a Digimarc watermark? Follow along. 1.
When you’re done editing your image, and you’re ready to export it to its final Web-ready format (usually JPEG), go into the Effect menu, then look in the Digimarc menu and select Embed Watermark.
Figure 8.1 Embedding the Digimarc watermark.
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A window like Figure 8.1 will pop up, where you can specify the year of the image, the image attributes, and whether or not the image should be tagged as adult content. You can also specify the target output and the watermark durability. For the sake of this exercise, I’ll pick Web as the target output, which automatically gives me a watermark value of three. Since I’m feeling paranoid today, I’ll bump that value up to four. More durable, but also more visible. How visible? Look at the comparison of my image at 400 percent, from left to right, with no Digimarc, Digimarc level one, and Digimarc level four, respectively.
Figure 8.2 From left to right: no Digimarc, Digimarc level one, Digimarc level four.
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Click OK, and the Digimarc will be applied to the image.
Figure 8.3 Our image with level four Digimarc. Figure 8.4 Reading a Digimarc.
Reading a Digimarc in PhotoImpact is easy—under the Effect menu, select Digimarc and then Read Watermark. You’ll get the window shown in Figure 8.4. Without registering online with Digimarc and signing up for at least their basic service (which is free for a limited number of images), when someone clicks on the Web Lookup function, they won’t get any useful information. And, unfortunately, none of this Digimarc information shows up on a right-click of an image in a Web browser. The user would need to take your image, load it into a photo editing program with the Digimarc plug-in, or use the Digimarc stand-alone tool in order to get any useful information. For this reason, I don’t find Digimarc a very useful means of protecting your images unless you pay for their Web spidering service and get automated notifications of someone using your images.
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Although the level four Digimarc in Figure 8.2 looks like it degrades the image significantly, it’s not quite as bad at 100 percent zoom (see Figure 8.3). If you want to embed your watermark and keep the image quality near-perfect, a level one Digimarc is a good compromise.
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Graphical Watermarking Digimarc uses invisible copyright protection for your images, so what happens when you use a more direct approach? You get a stronger deterrent (like having a big steel door on your house that people can see). Adding a graphical watermark to your images is very simple. 1.
When you’re all done editing the image, click on the text tool.
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Add your information to the image—this might be your name, your e-mail address, or your Web site. Avoid using information that’s too personal (phone number), but something personal enough that people can contact you if they see your image being used online elsewhere. Ideally you want to keep it short, one line maximum, and only a few words. The key here is to find the right balance between putting your stamp of credit on the image and completely ruining it.
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Pick a color for your text that matches the image—subtle colors work the best.
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Make the font size small enough to be subtle, but big enough to be readable. For an average image, 14 point font is big enough.
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Switch to the Pick tool and give your text a transparency value of around 70 percent.
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Press F4 and export your image for use on the Web.
Figure 8.5 A visual watermark.
As Figure 8.5 shows, the text is noticeable but it doesn’t ruin the picture. I’ve purposefully picked a huge font size (45 points) so you’d be able to see it in this book, but for viewing on the Web with a normal monitor I’d pick something between 12 and 16 points, depending on how obvious of a watermark I’d want it to be.
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TIP If you’re looking for a tricky technique to mark your images, try this: Make your watermark really subtle. So subtle that unless you knew what you were looking for, the average person wouldn’t notice. This might be 8 point text with 90 percent transparency tucked off in a corner. Or it might be something even more specific like four yellow pixels at specific X,Y coordinates. The point is to use a method to mark your images that only you will know and can identify later when you need to.
NOTE The reality is that there are people out there who have no moral objection to not only taking your image, but also to editing out your watermarks. Think of it as a digital duel—your skills vs. theirs. While there are no hard-and-fast rules for this, you should be aware of where you place your watermark. Is it in a monochromatic zone that can easily be painted over? Or is it in a zone of subtle colors and gradients that would take a more sophisticated cloning effort to erase? Again, you don’t want to ruin your image, but you do want to place your watermark in a place that will deter all but the most determined digital thieves.
I haven’t found a specific graphics-industry term to describe this practice, but it’s essentially an extreme version of the graphical watermarking technique I described above. The process is used to visually watermark an image in such a way that the image can still be seen by the viewer, but it’s so obviously watermarked that it would take a monumental effort to digitally remove the watermark. This method is used in fields like portrait photography where you want to show the buyer the image, but you don’t want them to take it and print it out on their own. The figure in 8.6 has this technique applied to it. I simply bumped the transparency down to 44 percent, rotated the text 40 degrees, and copied it all over the image.
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Intense Watermarking
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Figure 8.6 Intense watermarking— this image won’t be stolen any time soon!
Image Slicing We’ll discuss the Image Slicing tool in Chapter 10, but this method involves using the Slice tool in a way that I doubt Ulead ever could have predicted! The simplest way to steal an image from a Web page is to right-click on the image, then select Save As. This puts the image where the user wants it. But what if that image appeared on the screen to be a single image, but in reality was dozens of smaller images? The Slice tool will let you automatically slice images into multiple parts and then display them together seamlessly. The image shown in Figure 8.7 is made up of eighty different image pieces, so when a user right clicks and does a Save As on the image, they’ll only get the one small piece. This will mystify the average person, so your image will be protected (unless they have the sheer patience to right-click every single piece and reassemble it themselves). Here’s a little secret, though: If they were really smart, they’d just take a screen capture and edit it in a graphics application. Thankfully, the average Web surfer won’t think of that, so this method will protect your images from average users.
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Figure 8.7 This 80-piece image is nearly impossible to steal!
High Image Compression
Figure 8.8 High-compression JPEG images are another option.
TIP A variation on the image compression method is the low resolution method. Instead of offering normal-sized images on your site (i.e.: 640 x 480 or higher), you re-sample the images (CTRL+G) down to thumbnails (128 x 96) and users will have to join your site to get access to the high resolution images. This method works well for stock photography sites that have images for sale.
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This method trades image quality for security, so it’s not one that I would suggest, but it’s worth mentioning. The process is very simple: When you save your image as a JPEG, take the quality level all the way down to between 10 and 15 percent. This drastically drops the image quality and file size, but the image is still recognizable. A common use here would be for sites that want to offer non-watermarked images, but not images that are high enough quality to be used for anything. Because this really ruins the quality of the image, I would only suggest using this under extreme circumstances.
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JavaScript Image Protection The above methods I’ve described involve various tricks with graphics—the JavaScript method is pure programming protection, and as such offers a unique method of protection. When you implement this code on your Web page, the user will see the error window shown in Figure 8.8 when they try to use any right-click function. This has two effects: The user can’t do a Save As function on your image, and they can’t use any other right-click function on the page (Print, Select All, etc.). The image is still downloaded to the local cache file of the user, so savvy Web surfers will still be able to get at it. Furthermore, not all browsers support JavaScript, and a clever user can get by this by disabling JavaScript support. Still, this code will stop most users from taking the image because the deterrent is obvious and immediate. Figure 8.9 No right-click options here!
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=“JavaScript1.1”>
The above code was taken from The JavaScript Source (http://javascript.internet.com/pagedetails/no-right-click.html).
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Built-in Filters for Special Effects Filters are complicated presets that are applied to your entire image. Some filters require a selection and some do not. Remember, however, that if you want to apply a filter to only part of your image, use a selection. Chapter 3 is a must-read before you continue with this chapter. PhotoImpact includes some incredible image effects, and I’ve spent many hours experimenting with the different tools. There are more than fifty effects built into PhotoImpact, but we can’t go through all of them. Let me show you some of my favorites. Figures 8.10 and 8.11 are the starting images, and you’ll be able to compare the enhanced images with these to see how they’ve changed. For each effect that I’m using, I’ll choose one of the starting images to apply it to. I can promise you that some of the effects will be so incredible that you won’t need to look back to the original!
CAUTION Remember to have your Undo settings turned on (File > Preferences > General > Enable Undo) and set to at least twenty levels. I find that when I’m experimenting creatively, it’s a good idea to have a lot of Undo levels so I can go back to where I started.
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Figure 8.10 Our first starting image.
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Figure 8.11 Our second starting image.
Find Edges The Find Edges filter is found under Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Find Edges on the menu bar. This effect attempts to find the edges of your image and then darken everything else around it (see Figure 8.12). An effect like this works best with an object selection rather than an entire screen. Prior to applying the Find Edges effect, I used the Lasso Selection tool to draw a selection around the car. The Emphasize Edges effect (found in the same location) performs a similar, albeit less drastic, effect and has more user controls. Figure 8.12 The Find Edges effect.
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TIP If you want to experiment with different settings but don’t want to risk wrecking your original image, press CTRL+D. This command will create a duplicate image onto which you can project your special effects talents.
Background Blur Effect (a.k.a. “Depth-of-Field Effect”) It’s a very common practice among 35mm photographers to take a shot where the subject of the image is in focus, but the background is a little blurry. This is sometimes called the “depth of field effect.” Using a technique like this allows the focus to be completely on the subject. I used this effect constantly when shooting 35mm and greatly missed it when I went digital (it’s much more difficult to achieve with a digital camera). The good news is that you can create a background blur very easily with PhotoImpact. Figure 8.13 shows this effect done from a digital camera image. I purposely made the effect a little on the extreme side so it would show up in print, but you can have a lot of control over the effect using different tools.
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Figure 8.13 The background blur effect.
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There are several blur tools in PhotoImpact. Three standard methods to achieve the effect as seen in the above figure are: Make a selection around the object, right-click on the selection, and choose Invert. This will create a selection of everything but your object. From Effect > Blur & Sharpen on the menu bar, choose either Blur or Gaussian Blur. Each effect has its own fine differences: Blur can be quite subtle, while Gaussian Blur is more extreme. Use the Blur Retouch Tool from the set of Retouch Tools on the Tool Panel; this allows you to “paint on” the blur effect. This is my preferred method if making a selection is difficult. I simply choose a large brush size and, in smooth motions, paint over the background. Be sure to not “blur” the same section twice, or it will look unnatural. The final effect is fantastic! An interesting variation on this technique is to use the Motion Blur effect, found under Effect > Camera Lens > Motion Blur on the menu bar. Figure 8.14, using a selection of the background, shows how the Motion Blur can affect your image. A new addition to PhotoImpact 7 is the Zoom Blur effect, found under Effect > Camera Lens > Zoom Blur on the menu bar. Figure 8.15, using a selection of the background, shows the Zoom Blur action. It’s worth noting that unlike the Motion Blur effect mentioned above, I wasn’t able to use the Zoom Blur effect until I had selected the base layer. I had to cut the selection of the car, paste it back in, then press the space bar to select the base layer before the Zoom Blur would work. It was worth the effort, though—the Zoom Blur effect is powerful! Figure 8.14 The Motion Blur effect.
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Figure 8.15 The Zoom Blur effect.
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TIP Always work with the highest-resolution image that you can if you plan on printing it later (computing power permitting, of course). For instance, if you have a digital camera image that is 21001600, don’t shrink it down to 640480 before working on it unless you’re sure you won’t be printing it. The higher the original resolution, the larger and higher quality the photo print you end up with will be. Remember that if it’s a Web image, you can always resize it in the final export step. Better to be safe than sorry! Speaking from experience, I can tell you there’s nothing worse than needing a higherresolution image and being forced to attempt to duplicate your efforts from scratch—it never quite turns out the same.
Mosaic Effect The Mosaic effect, found under Effect > Camera Lens > Mosaic on the menu bar, is a simple effect that essentially over-pixelates your image. There are several user-controlled settings, and the effect can be subtle or extreme. Figure 8.16 shows the effect on a relatively mild setting in which the image looks similar to a witness-protection effect you’d see on TV or an Atari from the 1980s. This effect was applied to the entire image, without a selection. Figure 8.17 shows it applied to the background after I inverted the selection of the car. The setting for this figure was quite high, but I think it looks cool!
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An alternative to the Retouch Blur tool is the Gaussian Blur tool found under Effect > Blur and Sharpen > Gaussian Blur. It’s a smooth blur effect that adds a lot of dimension to your images. Give it a try!
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Figure 8.16 The Mosaic effect applied to an entire image—can anyone say, “Witness Protection Program?”
Figure 8.17 The Mosaic effect applied only to the background.
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Natural Painting Effects PhotoImpact has some beautiful natural painting effects that can make your image look like it was done in watercolor, charcoal, colored pen, or oil pen. These settings are found under Effect > Natural Painting on the menu bar, and each one can be applied to either a selection or an entire image. Of all the effects in PhotoImpact, these are the ones I find among the most powerful. A simple image can be made to look like a hand-drawn sketch, and when printed out by a Web-based, high-resolution photo-printing service, the results are breathtaking (we’ll discuss printing services like this in Chapter 15). Figure 8.18 shows the Watercolor effect applied to the image of the car and background, while Figure 8.19 shows the incredible Charcoal effect (this is one of my favorites). The Charcoal effect is the easiest way to create an impressive-looking image if the original photo was shot properly. I’ve used a heavy setting on the image to illustrate what it can do, but a more subtle setting creates beautiful-looking images. Figure 8.18 The Watercolor effect applied to a selection around the car.
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Figure 8.19 The Charcoal effect applied to the entire image.
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Figure 8.20 shows the surreal Colored Pen effect. The adjustments on this effect will allow you to create surprisingly different images depending on how you choose your settings. The Oil Paint effect in Figure 8.21 can be beautiful if applied with relatively low settings. Figure 8.20 The Colored Pen effect applied to the entire image.
Figure 8.21 The Oil Paint effect applied to the entire image.
Each effect has different settings, so be sure to experiment with the various sliders and thumbnail previews to find the setting that’s right for your image.
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TIP If you’re ever trying to apply an effect and the effect is grayed out, it means that the image type doesn’t support that filter. The most common reason for this is that the image isn’t a 24-bit True Color RGB image—most effects and plug-ins won’t work on grayscale or 8-bit GIF images. Convert the image to 24bit color and you can use any effect. Another factor is the active selection— some filters can only be applied to a selection, or to a background with no selection. Try getting rid of your selection by pressing the spacebar and trying to apply the effect again.
Cool Blends with Merge Methods The Merge setting on an object is an extremely powerful and deeply mysterious thing. I say that it’s mysterious because the terminology used in relation to this tool is difficult to grasp; it’s much easier to experiment with it and see the effects instead of explaining them all. The official explanation from Ulead: “Merge determines which composite characteristics of the object you want to apply to the base image.” Not exactly crystal clear! But that’s why you bought this book, right?
Figure 8.22 Our starting image.
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To explain how to use this tool, let’s see an example to illustrate how it all works.
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I like the image, but the effect isn’t quite what I was going for. I want it to be softer and have more subtle imagery. Adjusting the merge settings of my objects will help me fix this. Note that this will only work with objects, and it is most effective with objects that are on a background with color of some sort. Let’s try changing the merge setting! 1.
Right-click on the object you want to change.
Figure 8.23 Changing the merge setting.
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A window like Figure 8.23 will pop up, giving you access to the Merge setting. The default setting will be Always. You can scroll through the list of merge settings and see an immediate preview of the setting. After some experimentation, I’ve chosen Soft Light as the merge setting. It gives me a nice blend with the background colors and gets the image closer to the effect I want. You can see how the object has changed after I changed the merge setting to Soft Light.
Figure 8.24 Merge setting changed to Soft Light.
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Following the same steps for my two other objects, I end up with the image shown in Figure 8.25. The overall effect is exactly what I was looking for, and the only thing I did was change the Merge setting on each object to Soft Light. Easy!
Figure 8.25 My final image with Merge settings applied.
The Stamp Tool Paint Shop Pro, another graphics application, has a feature that many of its users enjoy: picture tubes. A picture tube is a series of similar images that users “spray” on to their workspaces, essentially creating a paintbrush of sorts that uses images for paint. It’s an interesting concept, a feature that was frequently requested by PhotoImpact users—so Ulead has given us the Stamp Tool!
Using Stamps The Stamp Tool has several settings that you’ll see when clicking on the Stamp Tool icon. Going from left to right on Figure 8.26, the functions are: Figure 8.26 The Stamp Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
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Special thanks to Stephanie Baker-Thomas’ excellent tutorial on the subject that first got me started! (http://www.eastofthesun.com/pi6/merge.htm)
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Thumbnail—The small icon on the far left is the currently selected stamp. To change stamp types, click on it, and a preview window with many stamps will drop down. Select a new stamp with a single click. View—This function allows you to see the number and type of images inside a stamp preset. Trans—Short for “Transparency.” Like other functions in PhotoImpact, the higher this value, the more you can see the background through your images Scale—This is the size of the stamp. A value of 100 gives you the image at its original size, but keep in mind that each stamp will have different sizes—finding the correct setting will take experimentation. Spacing—This value controls the spacing of the images in a stamp. The lower this value is, the more images are placed in a row in any given area. Order—This controls the orientation of your images, giving you the option of Random, Sequential, or Angular. Placement—The placement option gives you a choice of Stamp or Trail. Stamp gives you one image per mouse click, while Trail creates a stream of images. Object—Separate Objects or Single Objects gives you the choice of how your objects will be linked when done stamping. If you’re planning on changing an element in all of them (color hue, for example), choose Single Objects. Or, if you’re planning on moving each one individually, make sure they’re Separate Objects. Lines—These settings help you control how you are allowed to stamp a line of objects. The options are Freehand, Straight Lines, and Connected Lines. Tablet—If you have a graphics tablet, you can use its pressure-sensitive features to control the transparency of stamps. Add—You can add a stamp preset to your EasyPalette settings via this button. The use of the tool is fairly simple, so follow along: 1.
Create a new blank image or prepare an image of your own. We’re going to create a border of sorts, so the image should have space around the outside with enough room for the stamps. Figure 8.27 shows the image I’ve created.
Figure 8.27 An image ready for the Stamp Tool.
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Click on the Stamp Tool. The Stamp Tool’s Attribute Toolbar will load, giving you access to all the settings you’ll need (see Figure 8.26). I’m going to select the snowman preset with a transparency of 0, scale of 60, and spacing of 115. I want a relatively constant stream of snowmen, so the order is set to random and the placement is set to trail. By clicking and holding the left mouse button and dragging the cursor, I can create a stream of snowmen as Figure 8.28 shows.
Figure 8.28 Using the Stamp Tool.
When you’re done using that stamp, let go of the mouse button, and the stream of images will stop. You can continue to stamp on images as I’ve done in Figure 8.29 to create a multi-layered effect. I’ve also added a large stamp in the middle with a transparency value of 66 and a scale value of 420. The image looks pixelated, which tells me that although PhotoImpact has the option to go up to a scaling of 500, not all their stamps were saved in a high-resolution format to support scaling to his level. If you’re creating your own stamps, remember to use high-resolution images in case you ever need a large stamp.
Figure 8.29 The completed image, created with the Stamp Tool.
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Importing Paint Shop Pro Picture Tubes Luckily for you and me, there is an entire community of Paint Shop Pro users out there that have been creating picture tubes for years! Ulead recognized this fact and gave us a great import tool that will add the picture tubes into the Stamp Tool. First you’ll need to find some picture tubes to download—I’ve found a few sites for you to download tubes from using Google.com and the search terms “Picture Tube Downloads.” Paint Shop Pro Foundry (http://www.digitalfoundry.com/paintshop/tubes/library.shtml) Anne Gerdes Picture Tubes (http://gerdesdesign.com/tubes.htm) Hood’s PSP Downloads (http://www.northnet.com.au/~robrow/tubes/downloads.htm) StarBryte’s Picture Tubes (http://graphics.starbryte.com/tubes/tubes.html) Lace Picture Tubes (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Louvre/2445/lace_tubes.html) B8 Graphics (http://www.b8graphics.com/tubes.htm) Once you’ve downloaded and unzipped the files (if necessary), you should have .tub files. To import these files, follow these steps: 1.
Click on the Stamp Tool to load the Stamp Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
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Click on the small, drop-down arrow next to the image preview. A drop-down menu will appear (see Figure 8.24), and you should select Import Picture Tube.
Figure 8.30 The Import Picture Tube command.
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The Open window will appear (Figure 8.25) and you should browse to the location of your .tub files. You’ll be able to see a small preview of the picture tube in the lower middle portion of this window. Locate the file, select it, and click Open.
Figure 8.31 The import window.
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You’ll know if the import was successful, because the current selected stamp will be the new import (see Figure 8.32). If this is the case, then you’re done!
Figure 8.32 The successfully imported picture tube is now a stamp.
NOTE When I was experimenting with importing Picture Tubes, I noticed a few oddities. First, some Picture Tubes (like the ones from JASC, the makers of Paint Shop Pro) demand to go into a specific folder that you’d have if you had Paint Shop Pro installed. Since I didn’t, I couldn’t install these Picture Tubes. That’s rather unfortunate, because the tubes they had looked great! Another thing I noticed was that some of the tubes I imported came in as blocks of six images rather than individual images. I don’t know why this occurs, but it’s probably related to how the images are saved by the creators of the tubes. There’s no easy way to fix this problem, so if you run across a tube that has this problem, you’re out of luck.
Using PhotoImpact to create your own stamps is surprisingly easy. The process is almost identical to importing picture tubes, only you need to make sure your stamp objects are stored as unique file names. Follow these steps to create your own stamp: 1.
In a single file, gather together all of your objects. Each stamp item needs to be a separate object; so, if you’re creating a stamp from a dingbat font, make sure that each item is a unique text item. You can import items from the Hemera PhotoObjects collection or you can even draw your own. The key is to have all objects be separate.
Figure 8.33 My objects are ready to become a stamp.
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I saved this creation of objects as a UFO file, so the objects are intact.
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Under the Stamp options, select Add Stamp (see Figure 8.30).
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Browse to your UFO file and click Open.
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Frames and Edges PhotoImpact has a massive collection of frames and edges that add a touch of elegance, flair, or creativity to any image. A framed image makes a printed image even better, while adding a drop shadow makes it perfect for Web-based galleries. Figure 8.34 shows a sample image with Classic Frame #17 around it. There are four frame-and-edge groups, all found under EasyPalette’s Frame Gallery: 2D & 3D—The complex, path-based frames in this section have a beveled, 3D look. Edge—These simple edge effects add subtle beauty to any image. Magic—These frames are similar to those in Edge but have more complex patterns. Classic—Similar to 2D & 3D, Classic frames are complex and intricate and require much more CPU power and time than the other types. The results, however, are quite impressive. Figure 8.34 An image with a Classic frame.
Using Frames and Edges Applying a frame or edge to your image is simple: Browse through the EasyPalette, pick the one you want, and double-click on it. That’s all! However, there are some cases where you want to control certain elements of the frame or edge. Let’s take a look at how to do this: 1.
Start with an image that would look good with a frame or an edge. The image in Figure 8.35 would look best with an edge effect because the subject is off-center.
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Figure 8.35 The subject in this image is off-center.
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Figure 8.36 Use this command to modify edge and frame properties.
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When going to the EasyPalette, pick out an edge effect by using the thumbnail previews as shown in Figure 8.36. Right-click on the thumbnail and choose Modify Properties and Apply.
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A new window will open, giving you access to the various settings for that edge or frame (see Figure 8.37). In our example, I want to change the color of the edge to be a rainbow gradient instead of a single color. To do this, I simply click the box for Gradient color and click the gradient preview to select a new gradient.
Figure 8.37 Frame & Shadow properties window.
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If you don’t want to apply a shadow to this image, click OK and you’re done! In my example, however, I think a drop shadow behind the image would look great. The second tab in Figure 8.37 is for Shadow settings, so once clicked, a window like that in Figure 8.38 will appear. From this window, you can adjust the many options, but all of them are identical to what was discussed in the shadow section of Chapter 3. In my example I’m going to use a standard shadow (10, 10 offset) but with a Soft edge value of 3.
Figure 8.38 Adding a shadow to the image.
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The final result of our edge effect and shadow can be seen in Figure 8.39.
Figure 8.39 Our image with an edge effect and shadow.
Most of the frames were created assuming that the subject of your image is in the center. If it’s not, you’ll find the subject getting trimmed out of the image by the frame. Try using an edge effect or crop your image so that the subject is in the center. It may take a few tries to get right.
Adding New Frames and Edges to the EasyPalette If you’ve customized a frame or edge and would like to keep it, it’s simple to add your creation to the EasyPalette. I’m working on creating an online photo gallery with some of my work, but I wanted each image to have exactly the same edge effect, shadow type, and coloring. This was easy once I added the edge effect to the EasyPalette. To add an edge or frame effect to the EasyPalette, follow these quick steps: 1.
Create your edge effect—and add a shadow if you wish—and then click on the Add button. This button is found in the bottom right corner of the Frame & Shadow settings window (refer back to Figure 8.38).
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Once you’ve clicked Add, the Add to EasyPalette window will appear (see Figure 8.40). Give your effect a name, choose the location where it should be stored (likely the Frame Gallery or My Gallery), and then click OK. The preset has been stored for future use. It even stores the preview of it on your source image!
Figure 8.40 A much closer look at the same project. Zooming in can allow editing at the millisecond level.
TIP Be sure to use a descriptive name when saving your EasyPalette preset so it’s easy to find and apply later. The image you used when saving the preset for the first time will always appear in the preview, so make sure it’s something you want to see over and over!
Third-party Plug-ins As I mentioned in Chapter 2, PhotoImpact has the ability to use Photoshop-compatible plug-ins to create impressive special effects. Plug-ins can be thought of as shortcuts to achieving an effect. While it’s always nice to create every effect manually by hand, if your life is hectic like mine, time-saving features are always welcome. Plug-ins are found under the Effect menu, so you have quick access to them at all times. There are literally hundreds of free plug-ins found all over the Internet. Here are some of the best places to look: Photoshop Plugged In—http://perso.club-internet.fr/gpl/index.html Plugins.com—http://www.plugins.com/plugins/photoshop/ PlugPage—http://www.plugpage.com/ Graphic Design Resource Guide—http://www.graphic-design.com/dtpresources/photoshop.html PC Resources for Photoshop and the Digital Photographer— http://showcase.netins.net/web/wolf359/plugins.htm The best things in life aren’t always free, so here are three of my all-time favorite commercial plug-in packages: Kai’s Power Tools (KPT) and Flaming Pear Software’s Blade Pro and Designer Sextet packages.
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NOTE If you download a third-party filter and it won’t work, giving you an error about a missing DLL file, you need to get the msvcrt10.dll and plugin.dll files into your /windows directory before the plug-ins will work. There’s a Web site at http://cedesign.net/pi/filtered/ that will help you get the files and install them. Once installed, restart PhotoImpact and you should be able to use all those new plug-ins!
Kai’s Power Tools (KPT) http://newgraphics.corel.com/products/kpt6.html Kai Krause is one of the most famous figures in digital design and he was the driving force behind some of the most innovative add-on products created under the MetaTools banner. KPT is a collection of plug-ins that function more like miniature programs than simple filters. Figure 8.41 shows the user interface of KPT 6.0, and it’s a marvel to behold. You don’t even feel like you’re using Microsoft Windows anymore! The KPT interface was so well-liked that years ago, the company began work on an entire operating system built around it. Sadly, it never came to fruition.
Figure 8.41 The KPT 6.0 interface.
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KPT products have been through many versions, and what’s interesting is that in most cases, the filters aren’t upgraded; each version is totally new. I have both version 3.0 and version 6.0 on my machine, and each offers unique options. See Figure 8.42.
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Figure 8.42 Texture Explorer from version 3.0.
The features for version 6.0 are: KPT Goo—Smear and pull images in unique ways; create animations with this feature. KPT Equalizer—This makes an interesting image-adjustment tool. It can be used to sharpen an image or create an artistic, gauzy, and dreamlike blur. KPT Gel—Paint over your images with different materials. KPT Materializer—Create dynamic surface textures. KPT LensFlare—You can create powerful lighting options with this one. KPT Turbulence—Words can’t really describe this one—2D waves of color can be made into animations. KPT Reaction—Create realistic organic textures. KPT SceneBuilder—Create 3D scenes with this very interesting tool. KPT SkyEffects—This is the most powerful tool for creating cloud and sunset effects. Figure 8.44 was created in a matter of seconds. KPT Projector—Although this wasn’t listed on the Corel site when I went there, it’s included in my KPT 6.0 package. It creates incredible perspective effects (see Figure 8.45).
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Figure 8.43 The KPT 6.0 SkyEffects plug-in interface. Figure 8.44 SkyEffects applied to an image.
Figure 8.45 My image with the KPT 6.0 Projector plug-in.
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The entire KPT line was purchased by Corel in early 2000, so you can purchase this package through them at the link above or from www.corel.com. If you’re looking for older versions of KPT, try an online auction site such as www.ebay.com. Although the current pricing of $149 makes KPT more expensive than PhotoImpact itself, this is a nice package to have if you’re interested in creating some incredible effects.
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Flaming Pear Software http://www.flamingpear.com I think Flaming Pear’s products are as unusual as the company’s name. These plug-ins are my most-used third-party tools because they allow me to achieve eye-catching effects in little time. They work with selections or on entire images and are surprisingly affordable, considering their sheer power. There are two plug-in packages I’d like to tell you about: BladePro and the Designer Sextet.
SuperBladePro Text effects are an essential creative tool for designing Web sites. Used properly, text effects can add style and flair to your site, especially for personal sites where self-expression is key. BladePro, a very popular plug-in with a huge installed user base, is essentially a random texteffect generator that uses textures, reflective surfaces, beveling, and many other effects to create incredible-looking text. Figure 8.46 shows the user interface for BladePro—you can create random effects, save presets of your own, or use presets that other people have developed. Whether you’re looking for text that looks like chocolate or gold, BladePro is a fantastic tool, and relatively inexpensive at $30. You can download a demo from Flaming Pear’s Web site. Figure 8.46 The SuperBladePro user interface.
PhotoImpact 6.0 offers some incredible presets for text that BladePro can’t match, but the beauty of BladePro is the random effects that can be generated with a few clicks. Figure 8.47 shows the results of a quick application of BladePro’s random effect generator and a shadow from PhotoImpact. Remember that like all plug-ins, you can apply this to selections for interesting background effects.
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Figure 8.47 A SuperBladePro text effect with a shadow added.
Designer Sextet In all my years using graphic design programs, I’ve never encountered effects so beautiful and simple to use as the Designer Sextet filters. This series of six filters consists of: Aetherize—A dreamy, wondrous effect. Twist—Churns and smears your image in interesting ways.
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Swerve—Deforms shapes. Lacquer—Adds a resin-like effect to images. Silver— Silver effects (just as the name implies). Glare—Glorious light effects. My favorite filter in this set is Aetherize. The interface for this tool (Figure 8.48) is very simple to use and, like other Flaming Pear products, clicking on the six-sided die will generate a random effect. The sliders allow you to control every aspect of the effect for tweaking. The effects that this filter generate are gorgeous—a combination of soft-focus effects, hue shifting, and gradient fills. Figure 8.48 The Aetherize plug-in.
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Using these filters involves two steps: click and play. There is no right or wrong way to use them, you just keep clicking and “playing” with the tool until you get the effect you want. You can also save your presets for use later if you’ve happened upon that “killer” effect. Figure 8.49 is a digital image in its raw form. After applying the Aetherize filter (Figure 8.50), the image takes on a whole new look and will evoke a “Wow!” response from anyone looking at it. Figure 8.49 Our image before the Aetherize plug-in... Figure 8.50 ...our image after the Aetherize plug-in.
Rorshack’s Ripleyer http://perso.club-internet.fr/gpl/html\/rorshack.html Another great filter that I’ve found is the freeware plug-in called Ripleyer. It’s a plug-in made by a designer named Jose Fernando Baldo Caneiro from Sao Paulo. The plug-in is simple and produces basically one effect, but it does it so well I wanted to mention it here. The plug-in adds horizontal lines by adding or subtracting values from the RGB channels. Translation? It makes your images look like they’re being viewed on a TV set or an old computer monitor. The effect is very realistic, especially with monochrome images and a soft edge effect. Figure 8.51 shows the Ripleyer interface, and Figure 8.52 shows the final image at 200 percent zoom. Don’t set Bars Height above one if you want to get the TV effect—anything over one will ruin the effect. Figure 8.51 The Ripleyer editing interface. Figure 8.52 Post-Ripleyer image.
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Flaming Pear and PhotoImpact As you might have guessed by now, PhotoImpact and Flaming Pear software are two of the best weapons in my graphics arsenal. Keeping in mind that Flaming Pear plug-ins can be applied to selections, you can create some pretty incredible things! Let’s look at dramatic before-and-after images so you can see what I mean. Figure 8.53 is a shot I took during a music/drama production. I felt the image had the potential to be a lot more exciting, so I fired up PhotoImpact and the Flaming Pear Designer Sextet plugins and got to work. Figure 8.53 Our starting image.
Figure 8.54 After heavy modifications, our image looks quite different.
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Figure 8.54 is the result of my efforts. I created this image through experimentation. I began by making a selection of the background. This would let me greatly alter the background into an unusual-looking backdrop for the performers. Flaming Pear’s Swirl filter did the job perfectly, creating a shiny, metallic, colorfully blended background. You’ll notice the selection touched on the darker images in the foreground, so some of the people in the image are also affected by the swirl.
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Next, I wanted to add a heavy glowing effect to the singers in the front. Using the Modify Properties and Apply feature of the Lens Flare presets in the EasyPalette, I was able to apply the glow effect exactly where I wanted and adjust the size and strength of the flair. I also kept the Ambient Light setting quite high so the image wouldn’t darken too much. As you can see, the gold headbands on the singers were perfect points for the glowing effect, so I applied each of them separately. The most powerful glow effect was saved for the centrally positioned performer’s hand, giving the viewer a single focal point in this image. After a final tweak of Brightness & Contrast, I was done. This image took roughly fifteen minutes from start to finish, and most of that time was spent positioning the glow in exactly the right spaces. Once you master the basic concepts of selections, you can create some really incredible effects in a surprisingly short amount of time. Enjoy! NOTE For more samples of Flaming Pear effects, check out the color insert! I’ve put together some full-color images of my favorite Flaming Pear effects.
The Zoom Blur Effect One of the new effects in PhotoImpact 7, the Zoom Blur effect is a high-impact special effect that will give your image a level of impact difficult to achieve with other effects. The Zoom Blur effect does a remarkable job of drawing the viewer to the “eye of the storm,” the area not affected by the Zoom Blur. The net result is that your viewers look exactly where you want them to look. In order to use the Zoom Blur effect, look under Effect > Camera Lens > Zoom Blur. There are four Zoom Blur effects, each slightly different than the rest. There are four settings that control Zoom Blur: Figure 8.55 The Zoom Blur effect controls.
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Unblurred area radius—This is the zone that isn’t affected by the Zoom Blur effect. A larger zone means that less of the image will be altered. This is very important because if your unblurred area radius is too low, you end up with a design that’s all blur and no image. Conversely, you want to have enough of a Zoom Blur to have a noticeable impact on the viewer Inward Blur Extent—The higher this number, the more the blur pushes into the Unblurred Area Radius. In most cases you’ll want to leave this number fairly low. Surrounding Blur Extent—The opposite of the Inward Blur Extent, this allows you to control the zoom blur effect on the outside of your control area. You can create more subtle effects and have precise control over the size. Twist Extent—The Twist Extent controls the intensity of the twisting/zooming effect. The higher the setting, the more the image will distort as it pushes into the center. There are four Zoom Blur types, shown below from left to right: Zoom In, Zoom Out (top row), Clockwise, Counterclockwise (bottom row): Figure 8.56 The Zoom Blur types.
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Lens Distortion Another new feature to PhotoImpact 7 is the Lens Distortion effect. It was designed to correct lens distortion but also works well as a creative tool for special effects. The Lens Distortion tool is found under Effect > Camera Lens > Lens Distortion. The tool is interesting in that it allows you to push and pull the image in different ways, all in a non-destructive manner (i.e. it doesn’t affect the integrity of the image like the smudge tool does). Figure 8.57 shows the editing interface, and Figure 8.58 shows an image post-Lens Distortion. Figure 8.57 The Lens Distortion controls.
Figure 8.58 Our distorted image.
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9 Designing for the Web One of the most important elements of the World Wide Web is, without a doubt, graphics, and whether you’re doing Web design for a business or just for fun, PhotoImpact is a great tool for creating your Web graphics. PhotoImpact 7 offers a number of design tools for the Webmaster, both as templates and custom tools for creating your own designs. PhotoImpact 7 is truly a “Web Studio.” This chapter assumes you’re familiar with the previous chapters on creating paths, text, and working with objects.
The World Wide Web The World Wide Web was born in 1989, but it didn’t really start to capture the imagination of the mainstream public until the mid-‘90s. Early Web sites had few graphics, and with good reason: Modem speeds were a fraction of what they are now. As the Web evolved, it grew from a stomping ground for computer geeks to a massive world-wide network of users who posted Web sites on everything from planting tulips to Tom Jones. The sheer variety of content on the Web never ceases to amaze me, and as someone who has several Web sites, I’m also amazed at how many people will enjoy something that I created on a personal whim. No matter who you are or what you’re interested in, sharing with the rest of the world is a wonderful thing! But if you want to do it right, learning to create quality graphics is critical. Content is king on the Web, but presentation of that content is important.
What is “good” graphic design for the Web? That depends on what your goal is and who your audience is. Are you designing a corporate site, something where clarity is paramount? If so, your design should be subdued, professional, and have simple but powerful navigation. Or is your site a games-and-entertainment portal for tech-savvy hardcore gamers? Then throw in a bit of chaos with creative graphics, visually assault them with interesting colors, and, above all, make your site exciting! The key is to target your audience and design to their tastes or, in the case of a personal site, express your own tastes.
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A common mistake beginners make is over-using a certain effect. Flaming text has a nice “wow” factor the first time you see it, but what about the ninth time? Figure 9.1 shows my very first attempt at Web design in December 1995. When I look back on it now, I get quite a good laugh. Like many first-time Web designers, I thought that the incredibly “cool” swirly background was more important than being able to read the words on the page. I was fixated on special effects, at the expense of my content. Learn from my mistake—content should always be readable! Figure 9.1 Learn from my mistakes and don’t focus too much on “cool” effects.
Here are some other things to keep in mind: Screen resolution—Test your design in different screen resolutions and see what it looks like. Don’t assume that everyone has the same screen resolution as you do. Internet speed—If you have a cable modem or DSL, try viewing your Web site on a friend’s dial-up connection. Do you find it frustrating to surf your own site on a 28.8 modem? If you do, so do others! Most HTML editors also provide a way of indicating how long a particular page will load under a certain type of connection speed. Try to keep it under sixty seconds or less on a 28.8K connection. Clarity—It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a corporate site or a personal site: Your visitor has to understand what to click to find what they need, or they’ll leave the site.
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Get feedback—Your site may make perfect sense to you, but what about others? Can they find what they’re looking for? Ask friends and family to test the site out and give you honest feedback. Cool is good…in small amounts—Don’t try too hard to impress your visitors. They can tell! The KISS principle—Some of the best designed sites in the world are surprisingly simple: Keep it simple, silly! Content—Having a great-looking site means nothing if you have no content. Strive to put up engaging, interesting, and useful content. Content is king. Be inspired by the best—Take a look at the sites that you like. What is it about them that draws your attention? Combine the best elements of each site into something that is uniquely your own.
The Browser-safe/Web-optimized Color Palette In many graphics books I’ve seen, entire chapters are devoted to the “Zen of the Browser-safe Color Palette.” What is it? Well, you need to understand that around the early- to mid-’90s, many computers were limited to 256-color (8-bit) displays—sometimes by design, but more often by configuration because users didn’t know how to change their color depth settings. Web designers could make images in 16-bit color (64,000 colors) or higher (see Figure 9.2 for the 24bit color palette), but when an 8-bit color computer tried to render the graphic from 64,000 colors down to 256 colors, it would make guesses about what colors were dropped and what weren’t. This often resulted in horrible-looking graphics, which was unacceptable to Web designers. Figure 9.2 The 24-bit color palette.
Both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer had special color palettes (collections of color) that they would use to render images (see Figure 9.3). By basing their Web graphics on this limited color palette, the designers could control users’ experiences and achieve maximum quality with these limited colors. This didn’t always work out nicely, however.
Figure 9.3 The browser-safe color palette.
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Adding to that fact, forty of those 256 colors show up differently on both Macintosh computers and PCs. Hence, the browser-safe palette contains only 216 possible colors.
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To understand what this looked like in practice, take a look at the source image in Figure 9.4. This is the “original” screenshot of the image in 24-bit color (16.7 million colors). The colors are crisp and defined. Figure 9.5 shows the radical drop in quality that a browser-safe color palette has on an image of this type. As you can see, applying a browser-safe palette to a photo results in a dithered, speckled look that ruins the image. Figure 9.4 Our image in 24-bit color (16.7 million colors).
Figure 9.5 Our image in the Websafe color palette (216 colors).
The results are different when you design your graphics (logos, buttons, and so on) from scratch using only colors found in the Web-safe palette, but who wants this limitation? And if you’re designing sites for clients, are you going to tell them you can’t match their logo colors because they are not in the browser-safe palette? The reality is that today the vast majority of users are browsing the Web with 16-bit or higher color depth, at resolutions of 800600 or higher. TheCounter.com is a Web site counter that Webmasters can install on their sites. It records a variety of anonymous statistics about the user’s computer and can be helpful when deciding how to design your Web site. According to the September 2001 sample of 718 million page visits across all the sites that use their counter, the following information was gathered: Approximately 93 percent of all visitors were running a version of Microsoft Windows (95, 98, 2000, or NT). More than 87 percent of all visitors were using a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer; 10 percent used Netscape. About 90 percent of all visitors were running at 800600 or higher resolution. Nine out of ten visitors were running at 16-bit color (64,000 colors) or higher. This may seem like a bold statement, but looking at the above statistics, I think it’s reasonable to design your Web graphics with the assumption that your users will be using at least 16-bit color and running 800600 resolution. Leave the browser-safe palette back in the mid-‘90s where it belongs and design your images in thousands of glorious colors! http://www.muskalipman.com
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Creating Web Graphics with PhotoImpact As you already know, PhotoImpact is one of the best tools for Web graphics on the market, and it’s no secret that Ulead has tweaked and tuned its products for the Web. PhotoImpact 7, however, goes far beyond previous versions in giving the user many options for designing Web graphics. These options all boil down to making one choice: Do you create your graphics from scratch, or do you use templates?
Graphics from Scratch Creating Web graphics from scratch is easier than you think. Templates, while great for Webmasters just starting out, don’t really cut it on the professional level. Learning to create your own Web graphics from scratch is a skill that you’ll find very useful. Creating your own Web graphics combines the topics we’ve covered in previous chapters: creating shapes with paths, adding text, and using the EasyPalette for special effects and objects. Let’s create a header graphic (the kind that sits at the top of the page) for a personal Web page about music. 1.
First, create a blank image of the appropriate size. Click the New icon and create an image that is 350 pixels wide by 150 pixels in height, has 24-bit color, and a background color of your choosing. Your image should look like Figure 9.6.
Figure 9.6 Our beginning image.
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Pick a colored background that will match the color of the background of the Web page so that it will be consistent. Alternatively, you can also use a transparent background, but be aware that when you use the Image Optimizer on an image with a transparent background, text, image, and path objects are not optimized against any color background and will appear jagged (but you can use them against any background nonetheless). You can remedy this by going to the Mask Options tab and choosing a color for the Matte option. Do this only if you plan on using the image on a planned background color.
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Next, let’s create some text. Click on the Text Tool icon on the Tool Panel and create some text (see Figure 9.7). I’ve created two pieces of text, one with the word “My” and the other with the word “Music”—both in a fancy font. The font I’ve chosen is SleepTalk; if you do not have this font, choose something similar that expresses the feeling of the graphic you want to create. Pick the color you want as well.
Figure 9.7 Creating text.
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Arrange the text in an attractive way. In my case, the SleepTalk font has a surreal, dreamlike look to it that’s almost unfocused, yet defined. See Figure 9.8. It’s probably a good idea to change to the Pick Tool and, while holding down the CTRL key, click on both text objects. You’ll see the selection marquee around both pieces of text. Right-click on the object and select Merge as Single Object. This will ensure that the text stays together if it has to be moved.
Figure 9.8 Combining the text objects into one object.
TIP Be sure that you have the text objects the way you want them, as you won’t be able to edit the text after the fact since the text objects will be converted into one image object.
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Let’s insert something to show the user that this is a music site: For my example, I have a piece of custom art in the EasyPalette that I can easily drag and drop into my composition. You can use your own objects that you’ve stored in the EasyPalette’s My Library or use an image of something like a Compact Disc (CD), also found in the EasyPalette’s Image Library. Double-click to insert the object. The default size will be too large (see Figure 9.9), so resize the image to roughly
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25 percent of its original size using the Bicubic resize method. Place it under the “My” text using the Pick Tool’s Arrange option on the Attribute Toolbar (Figure 9.10). Figure 9.9 Inserting an object that’s too big for the image.
Figure 9.10 A more appropriate size for the CD image.
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Because the image loses a little quality while resizing down (due to image data being deleted), let’s quickly sharpen the image a bit using Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Sharpen on the menu bar with the image active. Figure 9.11 shows the Sharpen dialog window.
Figure 9.11 The Sharpen command will help to clear up images that have been resized down.
Let’s now get a little artistic and bring out the Raphael in us. I’ll next merge just the angel image to the base image by using SHIFTM on my keyboard. I’ll then click Effect > Camera Lens > Zoom Blur on the menu bar (making sure nothing is active but the base image). I then set my parameters as shown in Figure 9.12, which shows the Zoom Blur dialog window, then click OK.
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Figure 9.12 The Zoom Blur dialog window.
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Our image is almost done! The text seems to blend in with the rest of the image, making it almost unreadable. I’ll add a shadow to the text so that it stands out from the image. This will also make the overall composition more attractive. Let’s select the text, right-click, and select Shadow. I’ll choose a direction that places the shadow right behind the text. I’ll set Transparency to 0 and Soft Edge to 4. Figure 9.13 shows the results.
Figure 9.13 The text now stands out from the rest of the image.
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Now right-click on the image and select Merge All. To give the image just a hint more flair, I clicked on Effect > Magic > Light on the menu bar and added some ambient light to the whole image. Your image should look similar to Figure 9.14. You’re done! Another option for export is using the Image Optimizer (explained later in this chapter).
Figure 9.14 Adding some ambient light adds a nice touch.
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TIP If you want to make the “My Music” text 3D, you need to do so while the text is still a text object. Once we combined the two text objects into one entity, it was no longer a text object and couldn’t be edited like regular text.
Template-based Graphics: The Component Designer If you need a little help getting started, PhotoImpact 7 has some great tools for creating Web graphics based on templates. Ulead’s Component Designer is a mini-program within PhotoImpact that walks you through every step of creating Web graphics. It can be used to create: Banners—This is perfect for creating a banner if you want to advertise your site on another page. Bullets—Bullets are useful in breaking out points in text or in creative use. Buttons—You can create a variety of buttons that are perfect for building custom site navigation. Button Bars—Button bars are the staple of Web site navigation. Icons—You can make small, cartoon-style graphics on everything from download icons to office supplies. Java Rollover Buttons—These buttons will change when you pass your mouse cursor over them in your Web browser. Separator—Use this tool to break up large amounts of text. What makes the template such a powerful tool is that you can change any element of the template you want—the text size, font, color, the button color, texture, and dozens of other things. There are literally thousands of potential combinations, so even if you use these template graphics, your Web site can look unique. By now, you know the best way to become familiar with the tools is to use them. Let’s get started creating a button bar for Web site navigation! 1.
Under the Web menu on the menu bar, select Component Designer.
You can also use F12 on your keyboard to open the Component Designer.
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A new window will load. Click on the Button Bar plus sign to expand the view and select the Rounded collection (see Figure 9.15).
Figure 9.15 Our choices for a Button Bar.
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Select the third from the left in the bottom row (green with yellow text), then click Next.
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The next stage of the Component Designer allows you to customize the text, color, spacing, and many other settings for the buttons. Let’s start by simply changing the text on the buttons. To do so, click on the text you want to change in the window near the middle (see Figure 9.16), type your own text, and press the Enter key. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume our HTML work will be done later, so we’ll leave the URL, Target, Alt Text, and Status Text empty.
Figure 9.16 Editing the button bar text.
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Once you’ve changed the text, let’s try changing the panel from green to a gradient. On the left side of this window, click on Panel. This loads the color selection tool. The second icon under the word Color is the gradient color icon (see Figure 9.17). Select a diagonal fill type for the gradient, then select Multiple colors, click the color swatch, and select gradient number 102.
Figure 9.17 Changing the background to a gradient.
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We could also change the colors of the moon shapes and text, so I’ll change the moons to black and the text to white using a solid fill. We’ll also want to change a few other things, however, so click on the words Button Bar on the left side of the window to put us back into the edit mode.
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Click on the Layout tab and change the layout of the buttons to be horizontal. Change the button spacing to zero so they’re close together (Figure 9.18).
Figure 9.18 Changing the layout of our button bar.
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Next, since I’m going to be using this button bar against a black background, I’ll click the background color swatch in the middle right of the Background Designer window and change it to black. See Figure 9.19.
Figure 9.19 Changing background color.
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Next, click on the Size tab and change the size to 120 percent (Figure 9.20). This gives us an export size of 512 pixels wide, which is a good size. It’s big enough to be seen easily, but not big enough to cause scrolling, even on a 640480resolution monitor.
Figure 9.20 Changing the size of our button bar
10. I’ll next add a shadow (see Figure 9.21), so I’ll click the Shadow tab, click off the box, and set my values so that I have “halos” around my buttons.
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Figure 9.21 Adding a shadow to the buttons.
11. Export is the final step. You’ll be presented with a list of four choices: —To HTML—This allows you to export the project as a series of graphics and HTML code files, complete with a table that matches the size of the pixels between your objects. This code can be easily edited in an HTML tool like Microsoft FrontPage 2000. Figure 9.22 shows the final project assembled in HTML with the inclusion of the header graphic from the previous section. —To Image Optimizer—Each button is exported and saved individually as a GIF, JPEG, or PNG file. You also have the option of exporting it as a single graphic (on which you’d use an image map for hyperlinking individual sections). —As Individual Objects—Exports each object into PhotoImpact. You have full control over every element, including font sizes. You can then add each button or element into the EasyPalette for use later (see Figure 9.23). —As Component Object—Exports the project as a single PhotoImpact object, which can also be added to the EasyPalette. You can also easily come back and edit the object using the Component Designer again by making the component object active and using SHIFTE on your keyboard.
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Figure 9.22 All the pieces put together in HTML and viewed in a Web browser.
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Figure 9.23 Our project exported to PhotoImpact as objects.
TIP If you want your buttons to be different sizes depending on the amount of text they have on them, uncheck the Same width for all buttons box on the Layout tab.
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PhotoImpact Web Design Tools I tried several different graphics programs when I first began doing Web design work: Corel PhotoPAINT was my first, then I used Paint Shop Pro for a while, followed by PhotoImpact 3.0. Eventually, I settled on Photoshop 4.0—It had a lot of resources for the time that it came out. I enjoyed PhotoImpact 3.0, but as a Web design tool, it was lacking features I needed. When I saw PhotoImpact 4.0 in the stores, I picked it up and was immediately hooked on the great Web features it included. Over the next year I bounced back and forth between Photoshop and PhotoImpact 4.0, but I found myself enjoying the speed of PhotoImpact more and more. When PhotoImpact 5.0 came out, it became my primary tool. And, as you might guess, PhotoImpact 7 is now my main graphics application. It’s a powerhouse program that can do nearly any task I need, and I just keep finding new functions that it’s capable of. As I explained in earlier chapters, designing Web graphics involves a lot of different elements, but two of the most important things a Web design tool needs are speed and flexibility. Does the tool allow you to create the desired effect in three mouse clicks, or does it take ten? Does the program work the way you do or force you to adapt your methods to its peculiar ways? PhotoImpact is a great application in that there are several ways to do most things, and all of them are fast. And with a fully customizable toolbar and extensive right-click functions, PhotoImpact is one of the most flexible applications around. The box for PhotoImpact 5.0 dubbed its contents “The Best Image Editor for the Web,” while the box for PhotoImpact 7 is labeled “The Power of Total Image Editing.” This is not just idle marketing hype. Ulead has made this new version not only as a complete image editing program for print, but also a very compelling tool for complete Web site design, from start to finish. It’s unlikely this will be the only tool needed for a very large site, but the vast majority of people with personal Web sites will find this to be quite a sufficient tool. This chapter will walk you through the various Web design tools PhotoImpact has, explaining each tool separately. It will then cover the task of creating an actual page with full text and graphics. Let’s start with one of the most important tools in this set: the Image Optimizer.
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The Image Optimizer Creating attractive graphics is one thing, but creating attractive graphics that download quickly over any modem is another thing altogether. Broadband Internet connections are rapidly spreading across the world, but those of us lucky enough to have them are still in the minority. The city in which I live, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a test-bed for different broadband technologies, so I was lucky enough to have had a cable modem in 1997. I moved to DSL in late 1999. With broadband, file sizes are almost irrelevant. Yet even as more and more desktop computers get access to high-speed connections, portable devices are just starting to acquire Internet access—and often at very low speed rates (equivalent to a 14.4 Kbps modem). If I’m browsing a Web site on my iPaq Pocket PC connected to my cell phone, I don’t want to wait sixty seconds for a single graphic to download. Waiting that long is both irritating and potentially expensive. Making lean graphics is a critical part of effective Web design. The balance between quality and file size is hard to maintain, but you have a great tool to help you out: the Ulead Image Optimizer.
Understanding the Image Optimizer The Image Optimizer (found under the Web menu on the menu bar) is a powerful tool and should be your final step in prepping graphics for the Web. The job of the Image Optimizer is to give you, the user, real-time previews of the file formats (GIF, JPEG, PNG) and show you how an image changes as you alter settings. This is invaluable when making your graphics as small as possible, because you can do so without seriously compromising the quality. Let’s walk through the various options the Image Optimizer gives you. In order to activate the Image Optimizer, you first need to have an image open. Then select Image Optimizer from the Web menu. You’ll see your image load in a new window as in Figure 10.1: Welcome to the Image Optimizer! Figure 10.1 The Image Optimizer window.
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TIP Looking for a fast way to load the Image Optimizer? Press the F4 key or, if you want to export a single object, right-click on the object and chose Image Optimizer.
Zoom in—This tool zooms in on the image. It’s useful for determining how compression affects an image if you’re running in a higher resolution than most of your Web site visitors. Zoom out—This function zooms out from the image and is useful for seeing more of a large image at once. Show actual size—This feature gives you a 100 percent view of the image. This is my preferred mode because you can see the image without reducing the quality, which happens when looking at a zoom level other than 100 percent. Fit in window —This enables you to zoom out on the image until it fits in the preview window. Center in window —You can automatically center the image in the middle of the preview window. Display the compressed image—This function toggles between showing only the compressed image and showing the before-and-after preview. Modem speed menu—This drop-down menu allows you to select the modem speed at which the estimated download time is based on: 14.4 Kbps modems up to 128 Kbps ISDN. Faster connections (like cable and DSL) aren’t listed, likely because they can download images too quickly for this figure to matter. Remember that a 56 Kbps modem tops out around 7 KB per second, and that’s under completely ideal conditions! Browser preview—Clicking this shows you your actual image on a temporary Web page, along with a summary of the settings, dimensions, and download time. If you have multiple browsers installed (Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer), you can choose which browser you want to use with the dropdown menu as well as add your own, like Opera. http://www.muskalipman.com
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There is a wealth of information on this first screen and a lot of icons worth exploring. First, your original image is in the left preview window, while the preview of your changes is in the right window. If you’re changing the JPEG quality, the changes will be previewed in the right window. Above each image is the file size, compression ratio, and download time on a 56K modem (this is a default that you can change). Let’s look at the icons you’ll see on this screen and what they mean.
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Resample—This allows you to make the image larger or smaller, based on a percentage or pixel amount. Crop—This functions much like the regular Crop Tool and other crop methods.
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JPEG Image Optimizer—This puts the Image Optimizer tool in JPEG mode (see Figure 9.24 in the previous chapter). Options in this mode include applying and saving presets for later use, different modes (Progressive is usually best), different Subsampling modes, the Quality slider, the Soft function (adds a soft-focus blur to your image), and File Type, which is used for creating grayscale images. NOTE The acronym JPEG is officially pronounced “jay-peg,” not “jay-pee-ee-gee” or “jay-pee-gee.”
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GIF Image Optimizer—This puts the Image Optimizer tool in GIF mode. The options in this mode include using and saving presets; picking the number of colors for your image (see below); what type of palette to use; the Soft function (adds a soft-focus blur); File Type (normal or grayscale); Lossy rating (the higher the number, the more pixels are dropped and the resulting file size is smaller—a sort of brute force file size reduction technique); Dither (mixes image colors to make up for lost colors); Interlace (adds to file size slightly but allows progressive downloads—see below for more info); and Transparency (see below). The Weight option allows you to push the palette towards your image colors; if you have an image with a lot of red tones, for example, select the Red option. NOTE The acronym GIF is officially pronounced “jiff,” not with a hard G. Some people still insist on using a hard G. Let them balk, but CompuServe, which created the format, knows best.
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PNG Image Optimizer—This puts the Image Optimizer tool in PNG mode, an emerging file format that may eventually replace GIFs, because the format supports high image quality and transparency like GIF but also supports high color quality like JPEG. As with the previous modes, it offers support for presets. The options here are a mix of the JPEG and GIF tools.
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NOTE The acronym PNG is pronounced “ping,” not “pee-en-gee.”
Batch—This function allows you to select a specific number of image setting previews, and the Image Optimizer will perform each setting and show you the result (see Figure 10.2). In the example shown, I have ten options, with quality settings from 55 to 100 in five-step increments. This allows me to see what my image would look like at each setting, see the file size for each (from 9K to 54K), and pick the best one for the job. Figure 10.2 The Batch Results preview window.
Save As—When you have the image you want, click Save As, give the image a file name, and choose the location. NOTE JPEG has an option for a Progressive mode, and GIF has an option for Interlace. Both of these functions have essentially the same job: When enabled, they allow the user to see a low-resolution version of your image right away, and, as the image downloads, it becomes clearer. In the case of GIF files, this adds about 10 percent to your file size. For JPEG files, it’s actually beneficial for file size to leave it on Progressive. The Web design community is divided on the interlaced GIF issue; some people feel it’s a gimmick and it’s better to focus on making file sizes smaller, while others feel it’s a legitimate option designed to reduce the wait time visitors have before they see something. Experiment with this feature and decide for yourself.
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Compress by Size—This function allows you to specify a desired file size or a compression ratio and lets PhotoImpact worry about the actual settings. This is useful for meeting the specific file size limits of certain Web sites (banner ads and so on).
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TIP When using JPEG compression, you should experiment with the two different subsamplings modes. YUV411 results in the smallest file size, but if you have red tones in your image, YUV422 will give you much higher quality red tones at the expense of a very slightly larger file size.
JPEG Compression As explained in Chapter 1, the JPEG file format uses lossy compression. The higher you set the compression, the smaller your file size will be, but more of your image will be lost. PhotoImpact was one of the first applications to give the user real-time previews of how different JPEG compression settings work. Using compression is simple: the lower the quality value, the more the image is compressed, and the smaller the file size is. As the quality level is dropped, more JPEG artifacts are introduced—artifacts are areas of the image where the data has been lost and will appear “chunky” or distorted. In the following four examples (Figure 10.3 to 10.6), compare the image quality and file size to see how these changes affect the image.
Figure 10.3 This image at 90 percent quality is 20 KB and has no noticeable artifacts.
Figure 10.4 This figure at 70 percent quality is 12 KB and has minor artifacts.
Figure 10.5 This figure at 30 percent quality is 7 KB and has mild artifacts.
Figure 10.6 This figure at10 percent quality is 4 KB and has heavy artifacts.
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GIF Color Depth The more colors a GIF has, the bigger the file size. It’s a simple rule! Thankfully, Image Optimizer makes it very easy for you to control the exact number of colors your image has. Figure 10.7 shows the GIF interface of the Image Optimizer—changing the number of colors is simply a matter of punching in a number or using the slider. I can’t emphasize this enough: Optimizing every GIF on your site can cut down dramatically on the amount of time users have to wait for a download. Be stingy with your file sizes! Try to make them as small as possible. Figure 10.7 The GIF settings of Image Optimizer.
As you drop the number of colors from 256 (the maximum) down to 16 (the minimum), you’ll see the file size drop and the image preview on the right change to reflect these new settings. There’s no magic setting that’s perfect for every image, but here are some things to keep in mind when optimizing your GIF files: Try your image with Dithering turned off and on. Not all images need dithering, and if the quality is acceptable with it turned off, you’ll shave off about 10 percent of the file size. Experiment with different Palettes. The Detail palette makes the GIF look incredible (nearly like a JPEG file) but the file size will jump between 10 and 30 percent. The Optimized palette is a safe tradeoff between quality and file size. Interlace adds about 10 percent to the file size. If your image can be made grayscale, select Gray as the file type. Your image will be smaller. http://www.muskalipman.com
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As you can see, the file size shrinks a great deal (from 20KB to 4KB) when the quality is pushed down, but the cost is image quality—Figure 10.6 isn’t acceptable, and Figure 10.5 is borderline. For my own sites, I use a setting between 70 and 85, depending on the purpose of the site. For general use, a setting of 75 is fine, but when I’m putting up my own photography, I use a setting of 85 to maintain crisp quality. Experiment on your own and find the best setting for your needs. Remember that, with smaller images, someone can browse through your site quickly, but if the image quality is poor, they’ll leave even more quickly.
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Preview your image at its actual size so you can see the changes (1:1 ratio). If you’re running at a resolution of 1024768 or higher, try lowering it a few notches. GIF quality is hard to benchmark when the image is very small. Many images can be knocked down to 128 colors and even 64 colors with little loss in quality. Experiment! TIP Remember to eliminate as many unnecessary pixels as possible by cropping. The fewer pixels there are in your image, the smaller your overall file size will be.
Transparency Transparency is a popular Web site effect, but one that can be difficult to achieve on a consistent basis. In the early years of graphic design, applications would let you pick a single color to remove. This was fine if your image was suited to it, but more often than not, single-color transparency resulted in a lot of ugly Web graphics. Modern tools like Image Optimizer allow multiple-color GIF transparency, and better yet, they make it easy to do. The key to successful transparency is planning ahead. Let’s go through a quick example. 1.
Our image in Figure 10.8 needs to “float” on a blue patterned background (see Figure 10.9). While with enough painstaking work we could make an image with a white background float seamlessly on a blue background, there’s a faster way: a tuned fill. A tuned fill is simply a background fill that is set to match the color of the eventual background the graphic will need to float over. To get the right color, I first take a sample of the blue tile in Figure 10.9 using the Eyedropper Tool. I chose the most dominant shade of blue in that image.
Figure 10.8 The graphic that needs to be made transparent.
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Next I’ll fill (CTRLF) the white background with the shade of blue I selected with the Eyedropper Tool. My image now looks like Figure 10.10.
Figure 10.9 The background of the Web page. Figure 10.10 A Tuned Fill for our image.
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Press F4 to launch the Image Optimizer—click the GIF mode icon, check off the Transparency box, and switch to the Mask Options tab. Under the Mask options, use the dropdown menu to select Pick Color, then click on the Add to Mask button as Figure 10.11 shows.
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Figure 10.11 The GIF Mask Options.
The cursor will turn into a small eyedropper—this is the stage where you click on the color you wish to add to the transparency mask. Click on the blue background, and it will disappear (see Figure 10.12).
Figure 10.12 The transparency mask is engaged.
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Save the image and preview it in the Web browser—Figure 10.13 shows us perfect transparency! It’s critical to get the first two steps correct in this process. Figure 10.14 shows an attempt at taking a white-background image and making it transparent without using a tuned fill. You can see the white “halo” around the blue letters, and on a Web site this severely detracts from the overall quality.
Figure 10.13 Perfect transparency.
Figure 10.14 Poorly done transparency.
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NOTE If you’re looking for a more in-depth discussion on transparency, check out the two-part series I did for Ulead’s WebUtilities Web site: http://www.webutilities.com/community/tutorials.htm
The Background Designer In the early years of Web design, the biggest way your site could differentiate itself from others was with a “neat” background. Tiled backgrounds were difficult to create properly, and many tools and Web sites sprang up to explain the cryptic process. Thankfully, times and tools have changed, and while backgrounds aren’t as important as they once were, an attractive background can still add a dash of class to your site. The Background Designer is found under the Web menu on the menu bar or by pressing SHIFTB on your keyboard. It has many options (see Figure 10.15), but it’s fun and easy to use. Let’s start at the top and work our way down. Your first choice is to generate a new file with the background or apply the background to a current image. In most cases, you’ll want to create a new file, and 8080 pixels is fine for most tiling backgrounds. You have the option of selecting from Schema, which are essentially groups of presets. They include everything from random pastel patterns to cloth tartan textures. Figure 10.15 The Background Designer.
Each Schema contains a group of backgrounds that you can scroll through, and each background has both a Background type and a Palette Ramp that it’s based on. There are twenty-three background types to select from, and each one will change the look of your background. Even better, there are 110 Palette Ramps to choose from with vast editing possibilities. And, by changing the Frequency, Density, Amplitude, and Dark/Light factors, you have an unlimited texture generation tool at your disposal.
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Figure 10.16 Texture and content.
TIP You can also apply your generated background to a selection. So if you want to apply it to some text, select the text using the Pick Tool or Text Tool, create your background with the Apply to Image option selected, and click OK. Instant texture!
Image Maps An Image Map is a series of X and Y image coordinates that connect with HTML hyperlinks. Image maps are used when designing Web site navigation tools that are more complicated than buttons. Figure 10.17 shows an example of this: I created this graphic using a hand from the EasyPalette Image Library, applied a Natural Painting Charcoal effect to it, created the circles using the path tools and adjusted their transparency, and finally, I added some text. I then combined each text item, and the circles around them, into a single object. And voilà! We have a navigation tool!
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One word of caution: Backgrounds are good only when used in moderation. They shouldn’t obscure your content in any way, nor should be they be the focal point of attention. I’ve found a way to mix textures with content and have them both balance out nicely: HTML tables with single-color backgrounds. Figure 10.16 shows our previous example with some content added. By placing the content in a table with a white background and black bordered edge, I can present the text to the visitor without having my background distract them while still maintaining the look and feel of my site.
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Figure 10.17 A complex navigation tool requires an image map.
Before we begin delving into image maps, it’s first important to note how they work in PhotoImpact. You can either work on an image whose objects are already merged using the existing tools available under the Image Map Tool, or on floating, non-merged objects (my preferred method). There’s a little technique in activating floating objects as part of an image map before we even switch to the Image Map Tool. Read on. First, click on the object in question to make it active. Then, right-click the object and select Properties. (CTRLSHIFTENTER on your keyboard.) Switch to the Image Map tab and enter your desired HTML information. See Figure 10.18. Figure 10.18 Access the object’s image map properties and enter your HTML info before switching to the Image Map Tool.
You’ll note at this point that the object whose image map info you filled in will be detected as part of an object-based image map. This is indicated by a deep red color that’s semi-transparent. See Figure 10.19. Figure 10.19 The object is detected as part of an object-based image map.
Next, activate the Image Map Tool by clicking on it on the Tool Panel or by pressing U on your keyboard. http://www.muskalipman.com
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You’ll also note at this point that the HTML information that was filled in earlier will show up in the Image Map Panel’s Properties tab when that part of the object-based image map is clicked on. See Figure 10.20.
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Figure 10.20 The info we entered earlier also shows up in the Image Map Panel under the Properties tab.
NOTE If you don’t see the Image Map Panel, show it by clicking the Panel button on the Image Map Tool’s Attribute Toolbar.
Using the same technique described above, you would do the same for the other floating objects in the composition, until you have a complete image map as shown in Figure 10.21. Figure 10.21 Our final image map.
TIP Switch back to the Pick Tool (K on your keyboard) to quickly assign hyperlink info for use with the Image Map Tool.
What I found a little surprising is that the UFO file can contain complete HTML information. When you save your image map, and you need to come back later and change the color of one of the graphics, you can do so without altering the map coordinates you’ve set up previously. (Just be sure to use the “Shape” option under the Image Map tab under the object’s properties to appropriately reflect the change in shape.) You just make the change and export the file again.
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The Button Designer When I first started using PhotoImpact 4.0, the Button Designer was one of my favorite tools. It’s surprisingly fun to create customized little buttons with beveled edges and shiny surfaces! Buttons can be used for a variety of things: navigation, advertising links, triggers for multi-media events, and more. The Button Designer has two modes: Any Shape and Rectangular, each found under Web > Button Designer on the menu bar. The Any Shape mode has presets and more control over lighting, while the Rectangular mode is very basic. Using the Button Designer is a snap. Let’s get started by walking through the Any Shape Button Designer. 1.
Create a simple shape using the standard Path Drawing Tool on the Tool Panel. I’ve created an ellipse (Figure 10.22). Make sure the object you’ve created is selected.
Figure 10.22 Stage one of our button.
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Under the Web menu on the menu bar, select Button Designer > Any Shape. The Button Designer Any Shape settings window will load (Figure 10.22). There are five tabs that allow for the fine-tuning of your button: —Basic—This main tab contains the Light angle, Light elevation, Bevel size, Bevel smoothness designations, and more than thirty presets for buttons. —Bevel—This tab controls the Bevel type and assorted bevel controls. If you’re looking for some strange bevel effects, this is where to find them. —Light—The Light tab controls the number of lights, the angle and elevation of them, the color, and a few other settings. —Shadow—This feature has all of the controls you know and love for controlling shadows. —Warping—These two controls allow you to alter the Warp level and Smoothness of the warp. Essentially, the Warping feature is an inward distortion on the button.
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Figure 10.23 Button Designer Any Shape options.
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On the Basic tab, set the Light angle at 330, the Bevel size at 35, and the Bevel smoothness at 5.
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On the Shadow tab, add an X offset of 5, a Y offset of 5, shadow with a Soft edge of 10, and a Transparency of 50.
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Click the Warping box and enter a Smoothness value of 38 and a Warp level of 60.
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Figure 10.24 shows our shiny, bumpy button, ready for some text.
Figure 10.24 Our final button.
There are a lot of button combinations you can create. Figure 10.25 shows only a few of the possibilities based on the presets. Figure 10.25 Some of the possibilities with the Button Designer.
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Rollover Effects Rollover Effects, sometimes called Mouseover Effects or Onmouseovers, are very popular Web site effects that help users figure out what elements they can click on by changing the graphic when they move the cursor over it. Sometimes the rollover graphic will be an inverted color, a glowing effect, or even a new image or text. PhotoImpact supports two- and three-stage rollovers: A two-stage effect changes the graphic when the cursor is moved over it, while a three-stage effect adds a new graphic when the image is clicked. PhotoImpact 7 doesn’t allow you to add sound to the rollover, although I hope they add it to future versions. Let’s walk though an exercise in using this tool. 1.
First we need to create the graphics for the rollover effects. I’ve used the Path tool to create three simple circular buttons, each a different color, with corresponding text. I created three because I want a three-stage rollover. For rollovers, you need complete objects, not groups. In the case of my graphics, I had to select the blue button, select the text on it, right-click, and choose Merge as Single Object. I then repeated the steps for the yellow and red buttons. See Figure 10.26.
Figure 10.26 Buttons ready for a rollover effect.
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SHIFTCLICK on each object to select all three, then look under the Web menu on the menu bar and select Rollover. You can also press SHIFTR on the keyboard to bring up the window in Figure 10.27. You’ll see each of your images previewed. The image on the left is your default image; the one that will load with no cursor over it. The image in the middle is the graphic that will load on the cursor rollover, and the one on the right is the image that loads when you click the graphic.
Figure 10.27 The Rollover window.
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Figure 10.28 Selecting the appropriate rollover graphic.
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The next step is to add in the HTML information for your links (Figure 10.29). Add in the HTML page URL you want the link to go to, the Target frame (if applicable), the Alt text, and the Status bar text. At this stage you’ll also want to optimize your graphics. Click on the graphic mode (JPEG, GIF, or PNG) and use the dropdown menu to select a preset. Alternatively, you can click on the Image Optimizer icon to the right of the dropdown menu and optimize each image on your own.
Figure 10.29 Adding in the HTML information.
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Click OK and you’ll be returned to your workspace, but your buttons will be merged into one. From the File menu on the menu bar, choose Save for Web > As HTML. You can also use CTRLALTS. Select a file name, and save your HTML file (see Figure 10.30). When you open it up, you should have a fully functioning three-stage rollover!
Figure 10.30 Our final rollover effect.
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Below each image is a small, blue dropdown arrow. When you click the arrow, it drops down a small selection window that allows you to pick which graphic you want in that position (see Figure 10.28). Because I want the blue button to be my default graphic, I’ll switch them around. There are options here for X and Y offsets, but unless you’re planning on doing something very clever, leave these all at zero. There are also Alignment options you can use if your images are uneven, but I strongly recommend not touching these. Every time I tried to use them, all my images ran together and the rollover effect was ruined. Use them only when one rollover image is bigger or smaller than another.
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NOTE If you want to use this rollover in an HTML page that’s already in existence, you’ll need to copy the code. In most browsers, you can right-click and select View Source to see the code. You’ll want to copy everything from <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=“JavaScript” TYPE=“text/javascript”> to . This is part of the JavaScript that makes it all work. The other part of the script is in the code for the image: Look for
TIP If you want to change an element on one of your buttons, you’ll need to break apart the rollover. To do so, right-click on the rollover group, select Web Attributes, then Split Rollover. This returns your buttons to their individual states.
TIP If you make an error on some part of the rollover, you can right-click and choose edit rollover to change any aspect of it. Pressing SHIFTE also brings up the rollover window.
TIP Small file sizes are absolutely critical when using rollover effects. When the user moves the cursor over the image, the new rollover file needs to download in one or two seconds. If it doesn’t, the browser will show the file as a broken image link. What this means in practical terms is that your images need to be extremely small, around 2 KB or 3 KB. The exception to this is if you have a preload page where you deliver all the graphics to the user “behind the scenes”: When the rollover graphic is requested on subsequent pages, it comes from the cache on the user’s hard drive rather than the server.
TIP If you want to learn to construct your own rollover effects manually in HTML and JavaScript, read an article I wrote an article on the Ulead WebUtilities site that can assist you: go to http://www.webutilities.com/community/ tutorials.htm and look for my JavaScript tutorial.
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The Slice Tool
Why would you want to slice up an image? There are several reasons: Small images download faster than larger ones, giving your visitors the impression that the download is happening faster. If you have images on your Web site that you want to protect, slice them up into six or nine parts. You’ll defeat the people who would either link to the image directly from their own site (which steals your site bandwidth) or right-click on the image and use Save As to take it. There are still ways to get around this, but a sliced-up image will deter most image thieves. If you’re exporting an image that needs to have several parts at specific sizes, the Slice Tool gives you exact pixel dimensions. For example, I was creating a new Today screen banner for my Pocket PC and needed to cut the image into two pieces. The top one needed to be exactly 20 pixels high and the bottom one 40 pixels high. I was able to perform this quickly and easily using the Slice Tool. File sizes can be made smaller if you export the photographic elements in your image as JPEGs and the text elements as GIFs. Different options include slicing up images evenly (you just punch in the number of rows and columns) and, manually with horizontal and vertical tools and preview optimization results within the same window. Figure 10.31 shows the tool in action. You can find the tool on the Tool Panel or by pressing I on your keyboard. Figure 10.31 The Slice tool with a 4row 3-column slice.
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The Slice Tool is a powerful tool when applied properly. The tool allows you to slice up images in any combination of horizontal or vertical cuts and then export the individual pieces with custom Image Optimizer settings. They can be GIF, JPEG, or any combination of the two. The images can also have HTML information for hyperlinks, making it an alternative to the Image Map tool.
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TIP If you have an image slice that you’ll be performing over and over, you can export the slice table using the Export Slice Data option under the Slice Data function on the Slice Tool’s Attribute Toolbar and use it again later by importing it for the next image by using the Import Slice Data function under the same option.
Script Effects This is just scratching the surface of the Slice Tool. On top of being able to assign hyperlinks to certain slices just like the Image Map Tool, you can also assign certain advanced script effects without writing a hint of code. Two of my favorites are pop-up menus and swapping an image.
Pop-up Menus Making a pop-up menu is a relatively easy task. You first slice your image to your liking, pick a slice using the Pick option on the Slice Tool’s Attribute Toolbar, and then use the Add Script Effect button on the Slice Tool Panel to select the Pop-up Menu option. Note you should have the Triggered by cell listing selected in the Slice Tool Panel before performing this operation. See Figure 10.32. Figure 10.32 The Slice Tool PanelScript Effects tab.
Add Script Effect
You can then easily assign what you want in your pop-menu by specifying the text that shows when the rollover occurs on the slice as well as hyperlink info and even background and foreground color for both normal and mouseover text in the pop-up menu. See Figure 10.33. Figure 10.33 The Pop-up Menu dialog window.
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Once parameters are specified and OK is clicked, an icon appears in the specified cell to indicate that there is a script effect assigned to that cell. See Figure 10.34.
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Figure 10.34 The slice now has script effect data assigned to it.
TIP The data can later be modified if you so desire by simply clicking on the Modify Script Effect button on the Slice Panel.
Saving the whole composition as HTML would give us the result of having a pop-up menu on our sliced image. See Figure 10.35. Figure 10.35 Our final pop-up menu.
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Swap Image Another neat technique is the use of swapping an image for another, whether it be in the same cell or another cell in the sliced image. Figure 10.36 shows a selection made on an image. I intend to convert this selection into an object (CTRLSHIFTO on your keyboard). Figure 10.36 An image with a selection. This selection will become a future object for use later as a swapped image.
As soon as I convert the selection into an object, I quickly hold down CTRL while dragging the object onto the workspace. I’ll then quickly merge this copied object using SHIFTM on my keyboard. Because this will become my swapped image, I’ll want to make it obvious when the user rolls over the cell, so I’ll make the modifications as shown in Figure 10.37. I simply inverted the image and added a text object on top of it and merged that. I then saved it as a JPEG. Figure 10.37 The modified swapped image that will be used later.
Switching back to my main composition, I activate the Slice Tool and use the Auto Slice option on the Attribute Toolbar. Since I have a floating object, the Auto Slice function will slice around the object. I specify hyperlink properties under the Slice Tool Panel’s Cell Properties tab. Under the Slice Tool Panel’s Script Effects tab, I click the Add Script Effect button and choose Swap Image. With the onMouseOver event selected, I click on Display effect on event checkbox and then click the cell I want the image swap to occur in, in this case the original cell, and browse to the image I want to swap with. I also click the Restore after rollover checkbox and click OK. See Figure 10.38.
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Figure 10.38 The Swap Image dialog window.
CHAPTER 10 I can now save everything as HTML. Figure 10.39 shows the fruits of my labor. When the mouse cursor rolls over the cell in the image, the image swaps. Figure 10.39 My final sliced image with image swapping.
TIP You can also swap other cells remotely from the one you rollover as well. You can also do an image swap in the same cell AND in another cell remotely. The options are open to you. Just remember to use the above-mentioned technique of using selections to make the swapping images and select the appropriate cells in the Swap Image dialog window.
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Creating Seamless Tiled Backgrounds If you don’t want to use the Background Designer, or already have an image you want to make into a tiled background, PhotoImpact has a tool you’ll find useful: Create Seamless Tile. Found under the Web menu on the menu bar, this tool takes most of the manual work out of creating a seamless tiled background. Let’s run through a quick use of this tool: 1.
Open the image you want to tile and draw a selection around the part of the image that you want to be the central part of the tile. In Figure 10.40, I have an angel image that I think would make an interesting tiled background. Using the Standard Selection Tool, I’ve drawn a selection around the angel in the center. It’s important to understand that in order to blur the edges of the image and make it a seamless tile, you need to give the effect room to work. When you draw your selection, do so by drawing at the very least 5 percent to 10 percent inside the border of your image.
Figure 10.40 Prepping our image for tiling.
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Once the selection has been made, go to the Web menu and choose Create Seamless Tile. A small settings window will load (Figure 10.41). The merge sizes will max at different maximum values depending on how much space you had for the selection. Adjusting the Merge Size and Merge Ratio will result in drastically different tiled backgrounds, and you can press the Preview button to see a full screen sample of what your tiled background will look like. Figure 10.42 shows a sample with the Merge size set at 2 and the Merge ratio set at 50, while Figure 10.42 shows a more dramatic blending that occurs when the Merge size is set past 30.
Figure 10.41 Seamless Tile settings window.
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Figure 10.42 A small Merge Size setting produces a subtle effect.
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Figure 10.43 A large Merge Size setting produces a more extreme effect.
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Once you’ve finalized your settings, click OK. This will return you to the PhotoImpact work area and your image will be waiting for you (Figure 10.44). Save the image as a JPEG or GIF file (depending on the complexity of the colors) and reference it in your HTML program or with the PhotoImpact tools (we’ll explain these later in this chapter).
Figure 10.44 Our final seamless tile.
TIP If you’re looking to use a flashy background but want to minimize its distracting nature, try changing the transparency.
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Designing Entire Web Sites with PI 7 So far in this chapter we’ve covered a variety of the tools that you have at your disposal when creating Web graphics, backgrounds, rollover effects, image maps, image slicing, and optimization of every last pixel. The biggest change in the PhotoImpact line is that in recent versions Ulead has added support for designing entire Web sites, from start to finish, with HTML code and text support. This is a very ambitious move on Ulead’s part, because it creates a new type of hybrid application that hasn’t existed before—the graphic designer’s HTML studio. It seems a logical extension: When I’m creating a site, the bulk of the initial work is in graphical concepts and design ideas, and that’s all time spent in PhotoImpact. I’ve developed a method of moving from PhotoImpact concept to actual HTML, but with PhotoImpact 7 many of the steps I used to take are no longer necessary. I can design the concepts, insert real HTML text, and export the stuff as a functional Web site. While PhotoImpact won’t replace my HTML editor of choice as my overall site-management tool, the features added into version 7 are a large step in the right direction. The best way to show you how these new features work is to jump right into an example: I’m going to create a new graphical look for a personal Web site I have and use the new features in PhotoImpact 7 to do it. This example will be fairly lengthy and will incorporate many of the things we’ve covered in earlier chapters. Let’s get started! 1.
Select File > New on the menu bar, select Standard for the image size, and choose Web page 600440 (see Figure 10.45). I’m choosing this because I’m running in 800600 resolution as I write there. Were I in my preferred resolution of 12801024, I would have chosen Web Page 750550.
Figure 10.45 Starting a Web page with a standard file size.
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Now that we have a blank canvas, it’s time to get creative. The site I’m working on is a music Web site. I want a really mysterious, mystic look, in muted tones of blacks, grays, and whites. I also want a flat, 2D look to the site. I’m going to create a fairly standard left/top interface, and I’ll use a few buttons along the way. The first step in creating the new design is to switch to the Path Drawing Tool and select Rounded Rectangle as my shape (see Figure 10.46).
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Figure 10.46 Selecting Rounded Rectangle.
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Figure 10.47 Creating our first shapes.
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Both the color and the roundness of the edges are wrong. I’ll change the color a shade of white by clicking on the Color box and change the Roundness value to 30. This gives me the shape in Figure 10.48.
Figure 10.48 Our modified shape.
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Next I want to create something to go in the top left. Because this is a site about music, some special imagery relating to the subject might help. I’ll search my handy collection of clipart, copy a selection into a separate file, and resize it to fit in the corner as an individual object. Figure 10.49 shows the results of my efforts. http://www.muskalipman.com
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I’m going to draw a shape near the top. This will be the location of the page header and logo. I want it to cover most of the top space but leave enough space free on the left for the other section (see Figure 10.47).
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Figure 10.49 Adding some interest to our site.
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Next, I want to create a series of buttons below the angel image. I’ll use the Path Tool as before and create rounded rectangles with a roundness value of 30. Once I’ve created the first button, I’ll hold down the CTRL key and click and drag on the image to create copies, while also holding down the SHIFT key to make sure they stay in vertical alignment with the original button. This sounds complicated, but it’s really easy once you get the hang of it!
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Next I’ll select all the buttons by using the Pick Tool and holding down the SHIFT key to select each button. Then I’ll right-click and Align > Space Evenly all the icons. The results are down in Figure 10.50.
Figure 10.50 Our buttons are in place.
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The large white banner at the top is looking a little out of alignment with the other images, so I’ll click on it. Using the arrow keys on my keyboard, I’ll nudge the banner a few pixels down and to the left.
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Now it’s time to add some text to our buttons. I’ll click on the Text Tool, then click on the first button for the location of the text. I’ll enter the text (see Figure 10.51), guess at a font size of 15, and click OK. That font size was correct, so I’ll click on the text once, hold down the CTRL key and the SHIFT key at the same time, and copy the text by dragging it, keeping it in perfect vertical alignment with the source text.
Figure 10.51 Entering text using the Text Entry Box.
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Once all the button text pieces are in place, I’ll then change the text to the appropriate values (the different sections on my site). 11. I’ll then add some appropriate text to the banner area at the top of my site. Using two fonts (Arial and SleepTalk) and different font sizes for contrast, I end up with Figure 10.52. Looking at the whole page (Figure 10.53), I can see it’s starting to come together!
Figure 10.52 Our banner logo for the site.
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Figure 10.53 Things are starting to come together!
12. Next I need to fill in the middle space with something eye-catching. I have my own custom-made art that I’ll use, and when combined with some colored text, I get Figure 10.54. Figure 10.54 Adding some central content.
13. I’ve decided that I want to create rollover effects on the buttons. Because everything is object-oriented, this is easy to do at any step of the game. First, I’ll select each of the buttons and text and make copies of them (Figure 10.55).
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Figure 10.55 Making copies of the buttons.
Figure 10.56 Changing button colors.
15. I’ll then merge each button and text as a single object, then select the first set of black and white buttons and hit SHIFTR to open the Rollover tool. Once there, I’ll enter the URL links, Alt text, and everything else I need. This procedure needs to be repeated for each button. When I’m done, my workspace looks just like in Figure 10.54 above. 16. Now I want to insert some HTML text content into the body of the image. Under the Web menu on the menu bar, I’ll select HTML Text Object. This gives me a text box (shown in Figure 10.57) into which I can enter text. This tool allows you to create text that will remain as text when you export the project to HTML. This is a very critical feature because it allows you to actually create a full Web page with text, something you could not do in previous versions. You can specify the style (H1, H2, and so on), the font and weight, the size, create bulleted or numbered lists, indent the text, control the alignment, and manage the text color. Lastly, you can also create hyperlinks in your text by selecting the words you want to turn into the hyperlink, then clicking the Hyperlink icon (to the left of Help). Once my text is entered, I click OK.
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14. Now I need to change the color of the rollover buttons, both the background and the text. A darker gray background and white text work well together. Using the Fill command (CTRLF), I’ll fill the white buttons with the darker gray, and I’ll change the black text to white (see Figure 10.56).
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Figure 10.57 The HTML Text Entry Box.
17. Once my text is completed, I can resize the box by adjusting the black box handles using the Transform Tool (see Figure 10.58). Figure 10.58 Resizing boxes with handles.
18. My Web page looks like it’s complete! Figure 10.59 shows the completed page, ready for export. Figure 10.59 The final page, ready for export.
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19. To export this page, I’ll go to File > Save For Web > As HTML on the menu bar. Figure 10.60 shows the final project in HTML. The layout is duplicated exactly, which I have to admit excited me a lot the first time I saw it. I’ve been waiting for a true WYSIWYG graphics-to-HTML tool for a long time, and it looks like PhotoImpact is the first program to actually deliver on this promise.
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Figure 10.60 All done—image to HTML, perfect layout match. Beautiful!
TIP If you want to create an e-mail link in your HTML text object, put “mail to:” in front of your email address (without the quotes). In Step 16 above, I created my text object with an e-mail hyperlink. I did so by entering “mail to: [email protected]” (without the quotes) into the Hyperlink field.
CAUTION If you’re exporting your project to HTML and you’re getting error messages about the object not falling inside the boundaries of the document, try shifting the object away from the edge. If it’s an HTML text object, shift it away from other graphical objects. If it’s too close to the graphics, PhotoImpact will get confused and turn the HTML text into graphical text, defeating the whole purpose.
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Other Ulead Web Design Tools Ulead has made a name for itself in the world of Web design tools by creating applications that target a specific need and do it better than anything else on the market. In almost every area for which Ulead has developed an application, the product has won awards and industry praise. I’m one of those people who installs and uninstalls a few applications every day because I’m always looking for new programs to help make my tasks easier or help me to get creative and have some fun. Although there are many excellent applications out there on the market, I usually end up coming back to the Ulead products because I truly believe they are among the best in their respective fields. Let’s take a quick look at some of the Ulead products on the market.
Cool 3D Trial Version: http://www.ulead.com/cool3d/ This 3D tool is used for creating 3D text, logos, and animation. It’s fairly simple to use (although there’s certainly room for improvement), but it has a lot of potential for creative use. Creating 3D text is easy in the program—all it takes is a few clicks and the application of some creative thought. It has many presets and textures, so you can customize the look of your graphic; and it also includes many objects and moving paths (for animation). It can import 2D graphics, and, through the use of a path editor, users can make 3D graphics out of their 2D logos and text. One of my favorite features is the support for animated GIFs and movie formats like AVI and QuickTime: You can create an animated sequence and then insert it into a movie project using Media Studio Pro. Very cool stuff! Figure 10.61 shows the user interface and a quick 3D graphic I created. Figure 10.61 Cool 3D 3.0 in action.
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SmartSaver Pro Trial Version: http://www.ulead.com/ssp/
Figure 10.62 SmartSaver Pro 3.0.
Photo Explorer Freeware Download: http://www.ulead.com/pex/ Photo Explorer is an application that covers a lot of functions at once: It’s an image browser, quickly creating thumbnails for whatever directory you point it at. It’s also a slide show tool, allowing you to create Web-based slideshows of your images or to create self-extracting slide shows for distribution to friends and family. Photo Explorer also has built-in camera and scanner functions, allowing you to tie into both kinds of devices if they are connected. Wallpaper tools, auto-rename tools, thumbnail printing tools, and tight integration with Ulead’s iMira service (covered in Chapter 13) make this free package a good tool for anyone to have. The freeware version has ads in it, but as a PhotoImpact owner, you should qualify for the ad-free version (check the Web site for more details). Figure 10.63 shows the interface of the program—I personally find it a bit cluttered, but it’s totally customizable and you can’t beat the price!
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SmartSaver Pro can be thought of as a big brother to Image Optimizer. It’s based on the same idea, but it offers a lot more in the way of options, has system-wide integration, and can be started up independently of PhotoImpact. It offers support for more complex rollovers than the PhotoImpact rollover tool can perform (including support for audio and remote rollovers); an integrated slicing tool; basic animation control; custom color palette design; and control over area quality in an image (meaning you can make one part of a JPEG image quality 80 while the rest is quality 50). My favorite features are the way it’s integrated with the operating system and the coolness of its batch features. SmartSaver Pro will install itself as an option on a right-click menu, so when I need to resize a hundred digital images, I simply select them all, right-click, and activate the batch mode. I can resize images and save them in different formats, completely unattended, making this a fantastic timesaver for me. Figure 10.62 shows the SmartSaver Pro interface.
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Figure 10.63 Photo Explorer 7.0.
Other Ulead Applications Ulead is involved in more than just the Web-design realm. Its video-editing suite, MediaStudio Pro 6.0, has won many awards and is a viable contender to the competing Adobe Premier. Although I consider myself to be an amateur in the field of digital video, I’ve put together a few projects and found MediaStudio Pro to be an excellent tool for video work. Ulead also has a more entry-level video product called Video Studio: This product is aimed at video beginners and offers simple methods for putting together videos. A “little brother” to PhotoImpact is PhotoExpress. It’s a more basic package that focuses on photo editing rather than Web graphics, but it also has an incredible number of templates and presets for cards, calendars, and so on. I find PhotoExpress to be quite fun to use, and it’s perfect for beginners and experts who are looking to save some time by using a template. Ulead’s Web site (www.ulead.com) has more information on all these products, and I’d encourage you to go check it out if any of them interest you. I’ve enjoyed using the company’s applications for years now, and they continue to impress me with quality releases.
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11 Speedy Moves: The Quick Commands Automation and Efficiency
Well, with PhotoImpact, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Quick Commands are the easy way to get out of doing the same task over and over again. In the beginning of this chapter, I’ll quickly show you how to use Quick Commands and some examples. Later on, I’ll show you the specifics of using Quick Commands as well as how to incorporate operations like Batch Tasks to automate tasks across any number of images.
Quick Commands and Batch Convert—The Differences Let’s begin first by noting the key difference between Quick Commands and the Batch Convert command in PhotoImpact, since for some reason people tend to confuse the two features. A Quick Command (also called a task) is a set of commands, arranged in a particular order. This arrangement tells PhotoImpact to perform a series of commands contained in the task from the top of the list to the bottom of the list. The commands can be almost any type of command you can perform within PhotoImpact. You can either program your own tasks or use those that come with PhotoImpact. Quick Commands can be anything that you can think up that doesn’t require too much intervention on your part. And why do I say, “almost any type of command”? Because there are some commands that, like it or not, still require human intervention. PhotoImpact, has no way of knowing, for example, how big you want a selection to be or even the type of selection because those types of commands require a tool to achieve an effect. It would be like telling PhotoImpact to fire away with the Paintbrush Tool.
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Life would be so much better if everything was based on automation, wouldn’t it? We have so many things to do, it would be so nice if some tasks could just do themselves. Being able to do a task in an image editor that would otherwise be tedious if you were to do it manually is a big plus. Being able to do a task on a whole range of images without doing it manually, one at a time is even better.
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The Batch Convert command takes a set of files and converts them to a different file format. For instance, if you had a folder that contained a collection of JPEG images and wanted to convert them all to the BMP (Windows Bitmap) format and save them in another folder, Batch Convert is the way to go.
Using Quick Commands—The Absolute Basics You’re probably just itching to try out Quick Commands. Like I said, I’ll skip the specifics for now and concentrate on quickly using Quick Commands. Later on, I’ll cover all the aspects of the Quick Command Panel. The Quick Command Panel is the interface you use to access Quick Commands.
Task Menu Commands Figure 11.1 The Quick Command Panel.
Record,
Batch Task
Show Existing Tasks Task Commands
Show Preset Properties Include/Exclude Play Stop TIP
Access the Quick Command Panel by toggling CTRLF2 on your keyboard.
Using a Quick Command is a very easy task to do. You simply open up the image you want to perform the Quick Command on, open the Quick Command Panel, select your task, and click Play. Take a look at Figure 11.2, which shows an image opened and ready to have a Quick Command performed on it—the Pointilize Effect task.
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Figure 11.2 An image before applying a Quick Command.
Figure 11.3 An image after applying a Quick Command.
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Just by clicking Play on the Quick Command Panel, the task is performed in a matter of seconds. See Figure 11.3.
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NOTE The time it takes for a Quick Command to be performed depends on several factors, including the amount of commands in the task, the complexity and size of the image, and, of course, the speed and setup of your computer.
TIP If you don’t like the results after a Quick Command is applied, you can quickly undo everything by using File > Restore on the menu bar. This will effectively restore your image to its original state.
And there you have it.
Using Quick Commands—In Depth With that out of the way, let’s get right down to the specific aspects of Quick Commands. First, its basic functions. By default, the Quick Command Panel opens with the Task tab active. Across the top are five buttons, from left to right: Task menu commands, Record, Play, Stop, and Batch Task. See Figure 11.1 above. Immediately underneath is a drop-down menu that allows you to select any existing tasks that are stored. The present task is always listed and visible. Next, the list of commands for the present task is visible underneath the drop-down menu. This list contains the commands necessary to carry out the task. The topmost command is the first carried out in a task, while the bottommost command is the last command carried out. Depending on the type of command, there may or may not be an icon associated with it appearing to the immediate left of the command. Going further left is the Use preset properties button. This button lets you decide whether or not to include the properties of a command when a task is first created. When it is on (the default), you don’t have to give any input for the properties of the command, since it was preprogrammed when the command was first created in the task. When the button is toggled off, the task will come to a pause until you input your desired properties for the command and click OK. The task then continues. Figure 11.4 shows the button when it is toggled on and off.
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Figure 11.4 The Use preset properties button when toggled on and toggled off.
On Off
You can also choose to include or exclude certain commands in the task by checking the respective box next to the command. When the task is executed, only those commands that are checked will be performed during the task. See Figure 11.1 above. You can also rearrange the order of commands by clicking a command and then dragging and dropping accordingly. Right-clicking any of the commands will provide you with a pop-up contextual menu: Delete—Deletes the selected command in the list.
Use Preset Properties—The same option that is available via the Use preset properties button. Move Up—Moves the command up within the list. Move Down—Moves the command down within the list. Move Top—Moves the command to the top of the list. Move Bottom—Moves the command to the bottom of the list. The Task menu commands button contains several commands: New—Lets you create a new task. Edit Task—Lets you edit an existing task. Delete—Lets you delete the present task. Task Manager—Where to go to do things like import, export, or add a comment to a task. Record—The same command available by clicking the Record button on the Quick Command Panel. It lets you record a new command or commands to add to an existing task or a brand new task. Play—The same command available by clicking the Play button on the Quick Command Panel. It lets you “play” or execute the list of commands within the task.
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Include in Task List—Does the same thing as checking the respective box next to the command. By default, the command is included in the task.
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Stop—The same command that is available by clicking the Stop button on the Quick Command Panel. It lets you stop the task while it is executing the list of commands. Use this if you made a mistake and want to immediately stop the task. Batch Task—The same command available by clicking the Batch Task button on the Quick Command Panel. It lets you perform a task on a series of images all at once. Later on in this chapter, I’ll go into detail on this subject.
Creating Your Own Quick Commands You know that PhotoImpact comes with its own set of Quick Commands, some of them useful and some artistically inspired. You can make your own Quick Commands, too. Let’s say you want to make a Quick Command that resizes an image smaller and then sharpens it, since when you resize an image down, PhotoImpact throws away some of the image data to compensate for the new image size, which causes a blurring effect to occur. To make this Quick Command, you would open an image and then open the Quick Command Panel. You then click the Task menu commands button and select New. When using the New command, a dialog window opens as shown in Figure 11.5. Figure 11.5 The New task dialog window.
Here you’ll enter a new task name and a comment for the task, which is optional. Once a task is named, you can click the Record button to immediately begin recording your new task, which will be active in the Task tab. Figure 11.6 shows what the Quick Command Panel looks like while recording. Figure 11.6 The Quick Command Panel when recording. Note how most of the functions become “ghosted” except for the Stop button.
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You then go through the actions for the command, in this case by using the Image Size command and then the Sharpen command. Note that as you go through the completed commands, each is added to the list. See Figure 11.7. Figure 11.7 As you record, each fully executed command is added to the list.
When you’re done, click the Stop button. Voila. Instant Quick Command, ready for action when wanted. Later on, you can still add to a Quick Command by clicking the Record button again and going through the action. Click the Stop button when done. The new command will be added to your existing task.
Managing the Quick Commands is an easy affair that lets you do things like import your own tasks and rename tasks. When you click the Task menu commands button and select Task Manager, a dialog window pops up as shown in Figure 11.8. Figure 11.8 The Task Manager dialog window.
There are several options available in this window: New—Creates a brand new task to record immediately. Does the same thing as clicking New under the Task menu commands button. Edit—Opens the Edit Task dialog window. Rename—Lets you rename a selected task under the list of tasks. Delete—Lets you delete a selected task. Does the same thing as clicking Delete under the Task menu commands button. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Import—Lets you import task files (*.TSK) that were created by you or another PhotoImpact user. Export—Lets you export a selected task under the list of tasks. There is also a Comment option that will let you add an optional comment to an existing, selected task.
Editing Quick Commands You may also wish, from time to time, to “power” edit a Quick Command to further refine a task. You can edit a task by clicking the Task menu commands button and selecting Edit Task. Figure 11.9 shows the resulting Edit Task dialog window. Figure 11.9 The Edit Task dialog window.
NOTE As you may have guessed at this point, there are multiple ways of getting to a certain function. For example, you can also get to the Edit Task window from within the Task Manager window. Pick the way that works best for you.
This window has several functions: Menu—Lets you select from the main menu items available on the menu bar in PhotoImpact via a drop-down menu. Immediately underneath is the list of commands available under that menu. This can include any installed, thirdparty programs like effects filters. Task—This element in the upper right tells you what task you are currently editing. It is not selectable and is for monitoring purposes only. Add—Adds any selected commands available in the menu list. Break—A function that when inserted into the task list will temporarily pause your task until you either tell the task to continue via the Play button or halt using the Stop button. Remove—Removes any selected commands available in the task list. Remove All—Removes all commands from the task list. Up—Moves a command up in the task list. Down—Moves a command down in the task list. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Alias—Lets you rename a particular command in the task list for easy identification of the command. Use preset properties—The same command available under the Use preset properties button under the Task tab on the Quick Command Panel. Properties—When available, will let you edit the particular properties of the command. Easy enough, right? TIP You can add, select, and remove menu and task list items using the conventional methods of selecting files just as you do in Windows, like using CTRLclick to select separate commands in a list and SHIFTclick to select a whole list of commands in the list.
Batch Tasks
Figure 11.10 The Batch Task dialog window.
The Batch Task dialog window contains a few functions you should be familiar with: Task—Lets you select any of the tasks available, even your own. This option is very similar to selecting the tasks available in the main Task tab in the Quick Command Panel. Source—Lets you select the folder where the images are that you want to perform the batch task on as well as the image file type. By default, all image file types are selected, but you can narrow it down to something like only the BMP image file type by clicking on the drop-down menu if you’d like. You can also select any subfolders within the specified folder as well by clicking the Include all subfolders checkbox. http://www.muskalipman.com
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The Batch Task button lets you perform a task on a series of images all at once. You can even choose to save the results into another folder if you want. Figure 11.10 shows the dialog window that appears once the Batch Task button is clicked.
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Destination—Lets you select just exactly where you want the images to go once a batch task completes itself. You have three choices: 1. Open to workspace will leave the images in the workspace once the batch task is complete. The original files will not be overwritten unless you do so using the Save command (CTRLS). 2. Save and close will overwrite the original files once the batch task is complete. 3. Save to this folder and close will save the files once the batch task is done to a specified folder of your choosing. This option will spare the original files from being overwritten. TIP More than likely, the Save to this folder and close option will be the best choice if you want to keep the original images just in case something goes awry.
TIP You can either have a folder ready and available to choose or create one straight from the Save to this folder and close option. PhotoImpact will prompt you if you want to create the folder since it won’t find the named folder in the specified location.
Disable Open/Save related commands—A fail-safe method to spare your images from being overwritten just in case a task contains such a command. Show message when error occurs—Lets you know of any errors that occur during the batch task process. Once you specify your parameters and click OK, the Batch Task is carried out. Once the batch task is done, the Task Report dialog window pops up as shown in Figure 11.11. This window lets you save the report as a text file (*.TXT) for your reading—and potential future troubleshooting—pleasure. Figure 11.11 The Task Report dialog window.
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Batch Task Step-by-Step A lot to take in, isn’t it? I’ll next show you a real-world example of creating a Batch Task. Let’s say I want to take a bunch of high-resolution images that are in a folder and resize them all to around 30 percent, sharpen, put a frame around them, and save them in JPEG format. Using Batch Task makes it move along more quickly, and without my supervision. Since this task is uniquely my own, I’ll have to record the task on just one image for use later as a Batch Task. I first open an image on which I’m going to perform the task, as shown in Figure 11.12. Figure 11.12 The image I’ll be using to record the task.
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I’ll next click the Task menu commands button and select New. I’ll enter the name of this task Modify & Save for Web and click Record. See Figure 11.13. Figure 11.13 I’ll now name my task and click Record.
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First I’ll go through resizing using the Image Size command (CTRLG). See Figure 11.14. Figure 11.14 The Image Size window.
Next I’ll use the Sharpen command (Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Sharpen). See Figure 11.15. Figure 11.15 The Sharpen window.
Then I’ll use the Frame & Shadow command (SHIFTF). See Figure 11.16. Figure 11.16 The Frame & Shadow window.
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Finally, I’ll use the Image Optimizer and save the resulting image as a JPEG. See Figure 11.17. Figure 11.17 The JPEG Image Optimizer window.
Figure 11.18 The newly created Quick Command.
I’ll now use this task on my folder of images using a Batch Task. I next click the Batch Task button on the Quick Command Panel, set my parameters, and click OK. See Figure 11.19. Figure 11.19 The Batch Task window.
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Next, I click the Stop button on the Quick Command Panel. Note my newly created task in the Quick Command Panel in Figure 11.18.
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I then let the Batch Task run through its motions. I must offer input when the Batch Task asks for it or the process stops. See Figure 11.20. Figure 11.20 The Batch Task pauses for my input on the JPEG Image Optimizer.
NOTE I mentioned this about Quick Commands in the beginning of the chapter, but the Batch Task will also pause if it goes through a command that requires a little more input, like saving a JPEG. Unfortunately, at this time PhotoImpact does not have the ability to automatically save your altered images with a prefix or suffix. You still can’t beat the automation, though.
NOTE Because of the nature of the Batch Task that I created, it’s best to make backup copies of the original images, especially if I use Save and close or Save to this folder and close. Though I’m saving as JPEGs through the Image Optimizer, the Batch Task is still assuming that I want to save the modified originals, which it will do. Be careful.
Once the Batch Task is complete, PhotoImpact will alert me that it’s done. I click OK and the Task Report window appears, giving me the option to save the report. I click Close and it’s done! See Figure 11.21.
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Figure 11.21 My images after the Batch Task is complete.
The History and Cache There are two other functions you should be familiar with on the Quick Command Panel, the History and the Cache.
History This tab focuses on the history of each particular image that’s been opened in PhotoImpact. With it, you can go back to a particular moment of editing an image. Figure 11.22 shows the History tab.
Duplicate
Figure 11.22 The History tab.
Clear Undo/Redo History Change Undo Level
Enable/Disable Undo
Restore File History List
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Now you know just how useful Batch Tasks can be. Let’s now move on to the other elements you should know about on the Quick Command Panel: the History and the Cache.
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There are five buttons running across the top of this tab, from left to right: Restore File—Restore an image to its state when you first opened it and before you made alterations. This button is available only to the original image. A duplicated image, for instance, will not be able to be restored until it is saved, closed, and then reopened and modifications have been made to it. The image has to have a file name. Duplicate—Duplicates an opened and active image. You can also use CTRLD on your keyboard to do the same thing. Once an image is duplicated, the duplicated image will become active and have its own history separate from that of the original image. Clear Undo/Redo History—Clears out the history for the image. You’ll be asked with a dialog window if you want to continue. Use judiciously, as you won’t be able to get the history back once you click OK. Change Undo Level—Lets you specify how many levels you want to undo on the fly, from 1 to 99. You can also change the levels of undo by pressing F6 on your keyboard. Enable/Disable Undo—Toggles the ability to undo. By default, undo is enabled. Unless you’re really low on RAM and know for sure any changes you make to an image are the ones that you want, leave it enabled. Underneath all the buttons is the complete history of an active image. You can go back to a certain command by clicking on it in the list or by moving the slider to the left of the commands vertically. The most recent command is at the bottom of the list, while the oldest is at the top of the list. TIP You may also use CTRLZ to undo and CTRLY to redo commands in the list.
Cache The Cache tab lists all and any commands performed within PhotoImpact. Figure 11.23 shows the Cache tab. Figure 11.23 The Cache tab.
Lock/Unlock Use Preset Properties
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This tab will keep any commands that were performed in any PhotoImpact session, even if PhotoImpact is closed and later reopened. Any recent command is listed at the bottom, while the oldest is at the top. You can perform a command on an active image by clicking on it in the list. NOTE The Cache tab will only hold up to thirty-two commands at any one time. When the limit is reached, the oldest command drops off the list and the newest one appears at the top.
Depending on the command, there may be a Use preset properties button available. Just like in the Task tab, you can specify whether or not you want to use the properties for the command at the time that command was performed. Going further left, there is an option to lock or unlock a command within the cache by clicking the option. If locked (indicated by a padlock icon), the command will not be deleted when the thirty-two command limit is reached. It will go to the next available, unlocked command instead. Note that even locked commands will be deleted when the cache’s contents are deleted manually.
Add to Task List—Adds the command to the present and active task under the Task tab. Delete—Deletes the command that was right-clicked. Delete All—Effectively deletes all commands in the list (even locked ones). Lock—This same command is available by clicking the Lock/Unlock checkbox on the Cache tab and will prevent the command from being deleted once the thirty-two command limit is reached. And there you have it. Knowing the History and Cache tabs can definitely help you out in a pinch.
Quick Command Panel Tips Using Third-Party Filters in Quick Commands Using third-party filters in Quick Commands is just as easy to record and use as any other filter native to PhotoImpact. PhotoImpact, however, cannot record any preset properties for the thirdparty filter or effect. The task will pause and initiate the filter’s interface and you’ll have to make any tweaks before continuing with the task. Figure 11.24 shows an example using Melancholytron—a plug-in available from Flaming Pear Software—within a task.
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By right-clicking any of the commands, a pop-up context menu will appear with the following options:
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Figure 11.24 The Melancholytron interface pops up when the command is executed within a task.
Exporting Quick Commands Exporting Quick Commands is a simple affair when you need to backup any custom made tasks. Initiate the Task Manager, highlight the desired task by clicking on it, then click the Export button to save the task (*.TSK) file to a desired location. Exporting often-used Quick Commands will save headaches in the event you ever need to install PhotoImpact again; you can quickly import the TSK file to restore a task in the Quick Command Panel using the Import button in the Task Manager.
General Tips Create Quick Commands for those tasks that you do frequently. I know I might be overstating the obvious, but that’s why the tool is there. If the Quick Command Panel is in the way of your image, you can double-click the title bar to temporarily minimize the panel. Double-click the panel again to restore it. This also holds true for all the panels within PhotoImpact. Be aware that some commands (and therefore some tasks) can’t be carried out on images at or lower than 8-bit (256-color) images and will only work with images at 16-bit color (High-Color) or higher. If a task can’t be carried out on an image, PhotoImpact will ask if you want to abort the process or not. If you click Yes, PhotoImpact will then skip the command it couldn’t execute and continue with the next command in the task. If you click No, PhotoImpact will not continue the task. Clicking the No button is very similar for a Batch Task. If the No button is clicked during a Batch Task, the Batch Task will continue to the next available image. A Cancel button is also provided for Batch Tasks, which, when clicked, will cancel the whole Batch Task.
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12 PhotoImpact Templates Are you the type of user who wants to quickly compose something without all the fuss? Templates are an easy way for you to quickly compose a project. One very practical use of a template would be to aid updating the home page of a Web site you must regularly update. Another application would be for a band to use a template to fill out information for different gig dates on flyers they hand out at clubs. It’s quick, it’s easy, and no one gets hurt in the process. And lucky for you, PhotoImpact comes with a number of templates that are easy to modify. They range from business cards and certificates to Web pages. You can also easily make your own templates—backgrounds and all—and store them for use later, just like the templates that come pre-loaded with PhotoImpact. First, let’s get acquainted with the Template Library.
The Template Library The templates are located under the Template Library under the sets of Object Libraries on the EasyPalette. Access the EasyPalette by pressing F2 on your keyboard and click the drop-down arrow right next to the Object Libraries button. See Figure 12.1.
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Figure 12.1 The Template Library on the EasyPalette.
Object Libraries
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Web Page Step-by-Step Let’s say I want to make a new Web page using one of the templates, specifically, “Web Page 4.” I open up the EasyPalette, click the drop-down arrow next to the Object Libraries button, and then select the Template Library from the list. I then expand the Template Library tree and select the Web Pages group. I then simply select and drag the thumbnail for the “Web Page 4” template onto the blank workspace. PhotoImpact makes a new composition based on the template. See Figure 12.2. Figure 12.2 Dragging a template thumbnail onto the workspace produces a new composition based upon the template.
TIP By default, when a template is dragged from the Template Library onto the workspace, all the objects in the composition become active. To quickly deselect all objects and select the base image, use the Space bar on your keyboard.
Now, on to customizing the composition. A template’s contents contain one or more editable objects. They can be anything from text objects to component objects. TIP Most editable objects’ properties can be changed by making them active and using SHIFT+E on your keyboard. Be sure to keep only one object active at a time or it won’t work.
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The button bar on the left is a component object. I can actually use the Component Designer to redesign the bar to reflect my preferences. To do so, I make the bar active and use SHIFT+E on my keyboard, which opens the Component Designer. See Figure 12.3. Figure 12.3 I can easily redesign a component object using the Component Designer.
TIP If selecting the object is a little difficult, you can zoom in by holding down “Z” on your keyboard to toggle the Zoom Tool and click the area you want to zoom in to. To zoom out, use the same method but instead right-click the area. You can also use the Layer Manager under the Access Panel (F10 on your keyboard) to choose the object.
I then redesign the component object using the Component Designer and click OK. To spice it up a little more, I add my own images. I can even add my own elements if I want to, as well as change colors and delete objects I don’t want. See Figure 12.4.
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Figure 12.4 I can also add my own images and other elements to the composition.
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So I do my own creative thing and end up with the following result, shown in Figure 12.5. Figure 12.5 My own changes to the composition.
I can then save the composition as HTML.
TIP Consider saving an extra copy of your template-based composition in UFO format as well—you’ll be able to come back and modify it (and its objects) later.
Wasn’t that easy? Modifying the other types of templates is just as simple and affords the same time savings over starting from scratch. Now that you know how to modify templates, you’ll next learn how to make and store your own.
Creating Your Own Templates Creating your own customized templates is a relatively easy task, provided you keep several things in mind when creating them. First off, create and keep a separate group just for your templates. Name it anything you want. Suggested name is “My Templates.” You can create this group within My Library. See Chapter 6 for further information on creating groups within the EasyPalette. Also remember the properties of your background. It’s important especially if you intend to use a Web page type of template. A template like the flyer template uses a base image containing merged objects. Want to know how to do that? Read on.
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Flyer Step-by-Step Let’s say I want to create my very own flyer template using a background like you see in the flyer templates that come with PhotoImpact. There’s a little trick for getting the background to show up in your template when you store it as such in the EasyPalette. I first create my own blank image that I’m going to use. See Figure 12.6. Figure 12.6 A new blank image.
TIP For templates such as flyers and cards and anything else printable, keep the resolution relatively high when you begin, at least 150 dpi or more. Web page templates only need a maximum of 72 or 96 dpi.
I then make modifications to this composition. See Figure 12.7. Figure 12.7 The composition with my modifications.
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It’s very important to note that you should have at least one floating object in your composition. The object can be any type, whether it’s a path, image, text, or any other type of object. Make sure it’s a floating, non-merged object. If you do not have any floating objects, PhotoImpact assumes you want the background (which in this case would be the base image) to be an object to store. With that done, I save the composition as a UFO file to a location on my hard drive where I know where it is. Next, I click the Thumbnail Menu Commands button on the EasyPalette. See Figure 12.8. Figure 12.8 The EasyPaletteThumbnail Menu Commands button.
Thumbnail Menu Commands
When the button is clicked, a submenu appears. I chose “Add Image File as Thumbnail,” which is toward the bottom of the menu. An Open dialog window appears. I browse my hard drive for the composition I just made and click OK. See Figure 12.9. Figure 12.9 Browsing for the saved UFO file to add to the EasyPalette.
The Add to EasyPalette dialog window then appears. I name the sample “Flyer 1” and click OK. See Figure 12.10.
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Figure 12.10 The Add to EasyPalette dialog window.
TIP If you highlight the template group before using the Add Image File as Thumbnail command, you shouldn’t have to choose a Library or a Tab Group. Those fields should be automatically chosen for you, since PhotoImpact is assuming you want your added image file to be in that group.
The image is now added to my library, and I now have my template. See Figure 12.11. Figure 12.11 My new template.
I can now take this template and drag it onto the workspace just like the other templates. The background will even be included.
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Web templates are just a little different to create. If you intend to create a Web template, be sure to specify via the Web Properties (SHIFT+ENTER on your keyboard) a color and/or image on the Background tab. Then hide the base image by using CTRL+F5 on your keyboard. This is to ensure that the background of the Web page matches that of your template. See Figure 12.12.
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Figure 12.12 Specify a color and/or image on the Background tab via the Web Properties for Web templates.
TIP You can also choose to show the base image for a Web template, but be sure to specify a color or image on the Background tab in the Web Properties nonetheless so it still matches the Web page background it will be against.
After you do that, you can follow the same steps above and save the composition as a UFO (making sure there is at least one floating object) and then add the composition to your templates group using the Add Image as Thumbnail command under the Thumbnail Menu Commands button.
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GIF Animator 5.0 An Introduction to GIF PhotoImpact’s forte is preparing images for the Internet. But what if, at some point, you’d like to make one of those neat banners you see on the Internet that try to sell a product or make a point that uses animation to get your attention? That’s where GIF Animator 5.0 comes in. With PhotoImpact, this tool, and a little know-how, you can make GIF animations that equal or exceed the best banners you can find on the Web. In the beginning of this chapter, I’ll show how to create a basic GIF animation. Later on in the chapter, I’ll get more specific about GIF Animator’s deep feature assortment. You’ll find it’s very easy to make GIF animations with this tool in almost no time at all. NOTE An Extremely Brief History: GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. CompuServe created the format way back in 1987. The file format never contains more than 256 colors in any given color palette.
GIF Animator and PhotoImpact Version 5 of GIF Animator integrates with PhotoImpact using an object-based composition model. In fact, GIF Animator 5 works on the same object-editing principal as PhotoImpact and therefore is the perfect companion to that image editor. You can even do “round-trip” editing using the UFO file format (PhotoImpact’s proprietary image format), something not available in earlier versions of GIF Animator. Because of this, GIF animation is not only much easier but also more fun and creatively inspired.
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NOTE If you also happen to have either Jasc Software’s Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop, you’re in luck. Those image editors also work and play well with GIF Animator 5, including the ability to do round-trip editing by using Photoshop’s PSD format.
Because of the new ways of achieving GIF animation using the two programs together, you can safely throw the conventions of composing GIF animation out the window. In the old way, if you wanted to use the utmost quality possible for the frames in your animation, you’d use something like the BMP format for the frames in your animation. Since that format doesn’t have transparency and doesn’t let you manipulate objects or layers, there wasn’t much flexibility. Keep in mind that GIF Animator is mainly a post-production tool that needs other programs for maximum effectiveness. I wouldn’t suggest using the program all by itself. It actually assumes you have an image editor already installed, namely PhotoImpact 7. To make really nice GIF animations, GIF Animator needs PhotoImpact and PhotoImpact needs GIF Animator. Lucky for you, Ulead designed the two applications to work hand-in-hand with each other. There are many different ways that PhotoImpact can work with GIF Animator to create animations. I’m going to show you the way that I compose my GIF animations, a way that is, in my opinion, one of the best. It’s important to think of a GIF animation like a cartoon. It has a series of frames that continually overlap each other during the course of the animation to show the progress of the action, just like a cartoon. With that in mind, you can compose your frames in PhotoImpact, and then import them into GIF Animator to assemble the animation, tweak the frames, and optimize the animation for download speed on the Web.
A Step-by-Step Overview of Making an Animated GIF In these next few pages, we’re going to create a basic GIF animation. I’ve provided illustrations for each step. We’ll use the Animation Wizard tool to help us along. So let’s get started! Let’s begin by taking a look at my example. Figure 13.1 shows the PhotoImpact workspace with a blank image open. I have my custom objects ready in the EasyPalette for use in the frames of the animation.
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Figure 13.1 The PhotoImpact workspace with a blank image open and active.
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Using this one image, I begin to compose frames. TIP Use My Library under the EasyPalette’s Object Library (F2 on your keyboard) to store objects for use in your animation.
I compose the first frame in my animation and then save it as “1.ufo.” By using CTRL+D on my keyboard, I can make an exact duplicate of this frame. Figure 13.2 shows frame one and a duplicate. NOTE Saving in the UFO format will ensure that you can come back to the composition later and still have full editing capability, including the use of text, path, and image objects, since the UFO format is PhotoImpact’s proprietary image format.
TIP It’s a good idea to save your frames in a custom folder on your Windows Desktop for handy access and organization. I call mine “GIF Animation Frames.” Title the frames in the animation with numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) or letters (a, b, c, etc.), because it makes it easier to distinguish which frame is which in the animation.
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Figure 13.2 Frame one of my future animation and its exact duplicate.
As soon as I make a duplicate, I add to or modify the duplicate to represent the next frame for the animation by dragging an object from the EasyPalette onto the duplicate or by moving and editing the elements within the duplicate and then saving it as in Figure 13.3. Figure 13.3 The duplicate is now modified to reflect the next frame in the animation.
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Using the same steps as before, I create successive frames for as many as I want in the animation. Figure 13.4 illustrates the entire set I’m going to use for the animation.
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Figure 13.4 The complete set of frames for the animation.
With that done, I can close all the frames in PhotoImpact and open GIF Animator by clicking the Start button and choosing Programs > Ulead PhotoImpact 7 > Ulead GIF Animator 5. When you first open GIF Animator, the Startup Wizard appears as in Figure 13.5. I click the Animation Wizard button. Figure 13.5 The Startup Wizard.
Animation Wizard
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The Animation Wizard will first ask what size I want my canvas to be as shown in Figure 13.6. Figure 13.6 The Animation Wizard—Set Canvas Size. This will effectively act as a base for your whole animation.
TIP It’s wise to set the canvas size to the exact same size as the images you want to insert. If you have an image that’s bigger in size than the rest of the images, set the canvas size to the size of the biggest image. You’ll be able to position the other images later on.
The Animation Wizard next asks me to select the images to be inserted as shown in Figure 13.7. I click the Add Image button and browse to my image. I repeat the process for every image I want to insert. I then click Next. Figure 13.7 The Animation Wizard—Select Files.
TIP Images added to the list will be shown in the animation in the order they were added. You can change the order by clicking and dragging the list item.
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The Animation Wizard next asks what duration, in hundredths of a second, that I want each frame in the animation to be displayed as shown in Figure 13.8. Changing the value in the Delay time box will also change the value in the Specify by frame rate box, accordingly, and vice versa. I enter “75” for the delay time and click Next.
If you input 100 as a value in the Delay time box, it will equal one second of duration for each frame. So, 100 equals 1 second, 200 equals 2 seconds, etc.
Figure 13.8 The Animation Wizard—Frame Duration.
The Animation Wizard next tells me in Figure 13.9 that I’m finished with this part and I click the Finish button. I then wait for GIF Animator to insert my frames into the workspace, which doesn’t take very long. Figure 13.9 The Animation Wizard—Finished.
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I’m now almost done. All I have to do now is optimize my animation for download speed on the Web. I press F11 on my keyboard to initiate the Optimization Wizard. The first thing this Wizard asks is if I want to build a general, global color palette for all the images in my animation to use (thereby reducing file size) or if I want to leave each frame’s palette untouched (see Figure 13.10). I use the recommended setting of using the Global Palette by clicking Yes and then clicking the Next button. Figure 13.10 The Optimization Wizard—the type of palette.
The Optimization Wizard then asks in Figure 13.11 how many colors I want to include in the Global Palette, up to a possible 256 colors, and what amount of dithering do I want, from 0 to 100 percent. Since fewer colors equals a smaller file size, I choose 32 colors and a dither value of 60, since I have an image in my animation. Figure 13.11 The Optimization Wizard—colors and dithering.
The Optimization Wizard next asks if I want to remove redundant pixels and all comment blocks to reduce file size. I choose the recommend settings by clicking Yes for each option in Figure 13.12 and then click Next.
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Figure 13.12 The Optimization Wizard—redundant pixels and comment blocks.
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As a final step, the Optimization Wizard gives me a summary of the choices I made in Figure 13.13. If I want to modify any of these choices, I may go back by clicking the Back button. I choose the Finish button and let GIF Animator do its thing. Figure 13.13 The Optimization Wizard—summary.
As soon as GIF Animator is done optimizing the image, it will present me with a window detailing the results of the process before and after the optimization, with details such as how many bytes were saved and the download time based upon a typical 56K dial-up connection. Figure 13.14 illustrates this. Figure 13.14 The Optimization Wizard—optimization results.
From here, I have several options open to me, including saving the optimized, animated GIF or giving it another go at optimization if I didn’t like the results. I can even preview, frame by frame if I like, the optimized GIF before saving it by using the Preview button. I clicked the Save As button and saved my final, optimized and animated GIF to a location on my hard drive. http://www.muskalipman.com
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TIP You can, or course, name a final, animated GIF anything you like, such as “anigif_001.gif” or “my_animated_gif.gif.” Just pick a name you can remember for easy identification later.
And that’s it! I now have an animated GIF ready for the Internet. All I have to do is use my favorite HTML editor to insert and position the animated GIF on a Web page via HTML and then publish them together. Now that you know how to make a GIF animation, let’s next take a look at some more options, features, and tips for creating GIF animations with GIF Animator 5.
Customizing Your GIF Animations and How You Work Getting to Know the Workspace Figure 13.15 shows the GIF Animator workspace and its basic features. You should familiarize yourself with these features, since you’ll spend most of your time dealing with them when composing GIF animations.
Workspace
Figure 13.15 The GIF Animator window.
Object Manager Panel
Standard Toolbar
Tool Panel
Frame Panel Mode Tabs
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Standard Toolbar—This toolbar contains most of the basic functions available within GIF Animator. Tool Panel—This toolbar contains the tools necessary to manipulate the objects within your animation.
Object Manager Panel—This is where you’ll manage all of the objects contained within your animation. You can perform functions such as duplicating and deleting objects within this panel. Workspace—All of your editing actions will be performed in this area. Frame Panel—This is where you’ll manage all of the frames contained within your animation. Very similar in basic functions to the Object Manager Panel, you can perform functions such as duplicating and deleting frames within this panel. Mode Tabs—There are three work modes used in GIF Animator—Edit, Optimize, and Preview—that are accessed via the Mode Tabs. You’ll do most of your editing work in Edit mode, while the Optimize mode is used for making animations download as fast as possible. Finally, the Preview mode is for previewing an animation within a specified Web browser of choice.
Using the Work Modes Edit Mode By default, GIF Animator opens in Edit Mode. Edit Mode is where you’ll be spending most of your time and doing most of your editing chores, like arranging and duplicating objects and frames, adding effects and text objects, specifying delay time, etc. See Figure 13.15 above, which shows Edit Mode. The Tool Panel The Tool Panel consists of several rudimentary tools. Each tool has a corresponding Attribute Toolbar, very much like PhotoImpact’s Attribute Toolbar. Even their options on the Attribute Toolbar are very similar. See Figure 13.16. Figure 13.16 The Tool Panel.
Rectangle Selection Tool Elliptical Selection Tool
Pick Tool Text Tool Paintbrush Tool Eraser Tool Fill Tool Eyedropper Tool Zoom In Background Color
Magic Wand Selection Tool Lasso Selection Tool Transform Tool Actual View Zoom Out Foreground Color
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Attribute Toolbar—This toolbar contains the adjustable options available to a selected tool on the Tool Panel; it works much like the Attribute Toolbar in PhotoImpact.
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NOTE The whole range of tools, with the exception of the Transform Tool, work only on image-type objects. If you have any other type of object, you must first convert the object to an image object before using the tools. To do so, rightclick the object and choose Convert to Image.
Pick Tool—Use this tool to pick out objects that you want to move or edit. Selection Tools—These tools let you make a rectangular, elliptical, magic wand, or freehand lasso selection on an image object for editing. You can use the other tools to select just a portion of an object for precise work and then perform functions such as erasing, painting, or deleting. Text Tool—This tool, very much like the Text Tool in PhotoImpact, lets you create text objects in your animation. Paintbrush Tool—A basic paintbrush tool. By default, you can paint on transparent areas. If you need to isolate just the object, clear this option via the Attribute Toolbar. NOTE If you paint on a transparent area with an object that’s active, that part of the painted transparent area merges with the active object.
Eraser Tool—This tool lets you freely erase a portion of a selected object. Fill Tool—This tool lets you perform a color fill on a selected object. By default, performing a fill on a transparent area of an object will usually perform a fill on the entire area of the animation. If you want to isolate just the object, clear this option via the Attribute Toolbar. Transform Tool—The only tool that will work with all types of objects, the Transform tool lets you resize and rotate a chosen object. Eyedropper Tool—This tool lets you directly select the foreground color by leftclicking the animation. Choose a background color directly by right-clicking the animation. Actual View—This returns you to the actual viewing size of the project no matter the zoom ratio at which you were viewing. Zoom In—This zooms the view in on your project. Zoom Out—This zooms the view out on your project. Foreground Color—Select your foreground color by clicking here. Background Color—Select your background color by clicking here. Swap Color—Quickly switch the foreground and background colors using this button.
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Optimize Mode Optimize Mode is for the truly power-hungry who want complete control over the way an animation is optimized for the Web. This is also happens to be the mode that you’ll need to be in when saving a final GIF animation. Figure 13.17 shows GIF Animator in Optimize Mode.
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Figure 13.17 GIF Animator in Optimize Mode.
Attribute Toolbar
Color Palette
Optimize Palette
Optimize Mode contains an Attribute Toolbar that contains some functions you should get to know. See Figure 13.18. AutoAuto-Remove Garbage Pixels
Optimization Wizard
Matte Color
Optimize
Figure 13.18 The Attribute Toolbar for Optimize Mode
Preset
Desired Colors
Dither Range
Lossy Range
Show/Hide Compress Color Palette by Size Transparency Show/Hide Optimize Panel
Preset—Select an optimized color palette through this option. You can also delete a stored preset. Selecting a preset here will change other options on the Attribute Toolbar. If you customize a preset, the preset field will change to reflect that a custom preset has been created, with the option of storing the custom preset for use later. Desired Colors—Choose the maximum colors, from 2 to 256, that you want to include in the optimization. Dither Range—Set the range, from 0 to 100, that you want for colors to dither together. Setting it to 100 is ideal for photo-realistic images, while 0 is ideal for line art images.
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NOTE Setting a high dither value will also increase file size; try to keep it as low as possible.
Auto-Remove Garbage Pixels—Works in conjunction with the Dither Range setting. It clears up extra pixel noise generated by dithering. Lossy Range—Lets you remove pixels based upon the setting, from 0 to 100. A higher setting equals more pixels removed. TIP Be sure to experiment with the lossy range. It can really shave off some of the file size without sacrificing too much quality.
Matte—This option lets you define the color you want for transparency in the background of your animation. You can choose to define white, black, foreground color, background color, custom color, an image file (which will fill the transparent area with the image), or none. TIP Be sure to choose a matte color that will match the Web page background against which the animation will appear. This will ensure the animation blends smoothly with the background.
Transparency—This option enables or disables transparency in the animation. More than likely, you can leave this option enabled, since it will reduce file size considerably. Optimization Wizard—Launches the Optimization Wizard. Use this as an alternative to using Optimize Mode. Compress by Size—Lets you optimize the animation based upon a target file size or by a compression ratio from 1 to 100 percent. This option is useful if you need to keep your animation under a specific file size requirement. See Figure 13.19. Figure 13.19 The Compress by Size dialog window.
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Auto-Optimize—This option, when enabled, will automatically update the optimization when a setting is changed in Optimized Mode. By default, it’s enabled. Show/Hide Optimize Panel—Shows or hides the Optimize Panel.
TIP If you have a large animation or a slower system, disable this option. When you’re ready to see the changes, click the Optimize Now button in the lower right corner of the Optimize Mode workspace.
There are two panels available in Optimize Mode that aren’t available in the other modes: The Optimize Panel and the Color Palette. The Optimize Panel The Optimize Panel consists of several options under three tabs: Palette, Local Palette, and Advanced. The Palette tab contains the following functions, shown in Figure 13.20: Figure 13.20 The Optimize Panel— Palette tab.
Palette—This lets you choose three different types of palettes via a drop-down: Optimized, Web 216, and User-defined. Method—This lets you choose from two different methods for color reduction. Median Cut will produce the smallest file size but will produce the poorest color reproduction. Minimum Variance will produce the best color reproduction but will produce a larger file size versus Median Cut. TIP Experiment with Minimum Variance and see if it produces a better GIF animation. Most of the time the file size difference between the two is negligible.
Weight—This option lets you choose which color channel is favored over the others when deciding which colors to keep within the spectrum. For example, if Red is chosen, the colors leaning towards the red spectrum will be favored for the palette. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Show/Hide Color Palette—Shows or hides the Color Palette.
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Web snap—Lets you decide through a percentage of the colors in the palette how many of those colors will snap to the Web-safe color palette. The Local Palette tab contains the following functions, shown in Figure 13.21: Figure 13.21 The Optimize Panel— Local Palette tab.
Preserve Local Palette—This option determines whether or not you want to preserve the local palette, either for the whole animation or for a specific frame. Local Palette for all frames—This preserves the local palette across all the frames in the animation. Local Palette for current frame—This preserves the local palette for the currently selected frame on the Frame Panel only. You can also select a optimized color palette preset for this option. The Advanced tab contains the following functions as shown in Figure 13.22: Figure 13.22 The Optimize Panel— Advanced tab.
Remove redundant pixels—This removes any duplicate pixels that are between frames for a smaller file size. Interlace—This option allows the animation to gradually fade in as it’s downloading in a browser. Note that not all browsers support this feature. Remove comment block—This option removes all comments attached to layers to reduce file size.
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The Color Palette The Color Palette contains several functions for editing the colors within a palette. See Figure 13.23 for location of the following functions: Lock/Unlock Color
Edit Current Cell/Remove Edited Colors Snap to Web Safe Color
Add Color to Palette
Delete Color
Save Palette Load Palette from File Create Gradient Palette Remove Locks and Edited Colors Sort Palette Colors Remove Locks and Edited Colors
Lock/Unlock Color—Prevents the color from being deleted from the Color Palette, even if you change settings on the Optimize Panel. This toggles to allow the color to be deleted. Save Palette—This saves the current color palette as a palette file (PAL). Edit Current Cell/Remove Edited Colors—This lets you edit the color of a chosen color cell. Once a color cell is edited, you can remove the edit and restore the original color by clicking this button again. Load Palette from File—This lets you load a palette file into the Color Palette. Snap to Web Safe Color—This “Snaps” the chosen color to the nearest possible color on the Web-safe color palette. Create Gradient Palette—This lets you create a gradient between three or more chosen color cells. You may also choose to customize the two colors the gradient will start from and end at. See Figure 13.24. Figure 13.24 The Create Gradient Palette button lets you choose the starting and ending color for the gradient.
Add Color to Palette—Add a color to the Color Palette. You have a choice of using the Ulead Color Picker, the Windows Color Picker, or the Foreground Color on the Tool Panel. NOTE Adding a color will essentially replace the closest possible color in the palette, effectively replacing that color in the image.
Sort Palette Colors—Sort the colors in the Color Palette. This feature is for monitoring purposes only and will not remap the colors in the palette. You have a total of seven choices, ranging from sorting by the red, green, or blue channels (RGB) to sorting by hue, saturation, or brightness. The default is unsorted. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Figure 13.23 The Color Palette.
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Delete Color—This deletes a chosen color or range of colors. Remove Locks and Edited Colors—A panic button of sorts. This will revert your palette to its original state before trying to edit the palette. Saving Your Animation Once you finish optimizing and tweaking the animation, you may save it via the Save button in the lower right corner of the workspace. You may also choose to open the Index Editor after saving, which lets you tweak the saved animation for further scrutiny. See “The Index Editor” later in this chapter.
Preview Mode Preview Mode is for simply taking a quick peek at how your animation looks in a Web browser. See Figure 13.25. For this feature to work, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher or Windows 98 must be installed. For those of you using Netscape, you can always use the Preview in Navigator button on the Standard Toolbar. Figure 13.25 Preview Mode.
The different work modes assist in composing, editing, optimizing, and previewing your animation. Get to know them well. You’ll thank yourself later. Let’s now figure out how to go about adding images.
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Add Images The first thing to get acquainted with is adding images to the animation (which will become objects to manipulate using the Object Manager Panel).
Add Video Figure 13.26 The Add Images button, the Add Video button.
Add Images
TIP As I said near the beginning of the chapter, it’s certainly helpful to alphanumerically name the frames to your animation. In the case of inserting images, GIF Animator will sort the frames by numbers or letters.
TIP You can also use the INSERT key to insert images as well.
Add Video Also in Figure 13.26, the Add Video button lets you browse for a video, such as videos in QuickTime or AVI format to insert into your animation. You can even choose portions of the video for insertion. Figure 13.27 shows the Add Video dialog window. Figure 13.27 The Add Video dialog window.
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One way to insert images is to use the Add Images button on the Standard Toolbar as in Figure 13.26, which allows you to browse both removable and non-removable disks. You may add multiple images at once with this option.
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NOTE Be sure to make note of the dimensions of the video you’re inserting. You can find out the dimensions of the video using the Info button in the Add Video dialog window. Also take note of the number of frames of the video via the Info button as well. You don’t want to end up inserting a huge number of frames if you can help it.
When you select a video, there is an additional button you should pay attention to that becomes active—Duration. This option will let you mark the point at which the video starts and ends via the Mark In and Mark Out buttons. This is important especially if your chosen video has a large number of frames. See Figure 13.28. Figure 13.28 The Duration dialog window.
Mark In Mark Out
Now that you Object Manager know how to add elements to your animation, let’s take a look at how to manage them.
The Panel First, we’ll get acquainted with objects, since they form the action of the animation. The Object Manager Panel is where you’ll manage the objects in your animation. See Figure 13.29. Show Objects Transparency Object Manager Commands Figure 13.29 The Object Manager Panel.
Object Thumbnail Show/Hide
Duplicate Active Objects Delete Selected Objects
Lock/Unlock Object Type Object Name Object Position and Size
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Object Thumbnail—This shows a thumbnail of your object. Show/Hide—Click to show your object in a particular frame, designated by an eye icon. Click again to hide the object.
Object Type—This tells what kind of type the object is, whether it be a path object, image object, text object, etc. Object Name—This gives the object name. You can rename the object anything you want by accessing the object’s properties (CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER). Object Position and Size—This gives status on the object’s position and size in pixels. Show Objects—This option lets you choose to show all objects or those that are visible only in a particular frame. Transparency—This adjusts transparency for an object. Insert Blank Object—This inserts a blank, transparent object; useful for painting. Duplicate Selected Objects—Use this to create an exact copy of a selected object. Delete Selected Objects—Use this to delete objects that are selected. In addition, there is an Object Manager Commands button that will allow you to do several commands that are also available under the Object menu on the menu bar. There are also two options not available elsewhere: Show Details, which will hide the Object Position and Size indicator, and Thumbnail Size, which will allow you to select Object Thumbnail size from 3232 pixels to 128128 pixels on the Object Manager Panel. TIP Right-clicking an object in the Object Manager Panel can also access most commands as well. This tip also applies to most options in GIF Animator.
Moving/Deleting Objects You can select the objects in the Object Manager Panel or select them by clicking on them in the workspace and dragging them. Deleting objects is a straightforward task. Just select the object and press Delete on your keyboard.
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Lock/Unlock—Click to prevent an object from being moved, designated by a padlock icon. Click again to be able to move the object.
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Duplicating Objects Duplicate objects by selecting them and using CTRL+D on your keyboard. A duplicated object will layer on top of the original object, which makes it especially difficult to select the original object underneath via the workspace. If you want to move the original object without touching the duplicate, double-click the original object in the Object Manager Panel to open the Object Properties dialog window and then click the Position and Size tab. Set a new position via the Left and Top options. About a few pixels should do it. See Figure 13.30. Figure 13.30 The Object Properties window—Position and Size tab.
Combining Objects You can merge two or more objects together as one object. Select two or more objects in the Object Manager Panel (or select them via the workspace), right-click, and choose Combine as Single Object. NOTE Any objects that you want to combine should be visible using the Show/Hide option in the Object Manager Panel. If you try to combine two or more hidden objects, you’ll get an error saying, “Unable to merge objects.” If you try to combine a visible object with a hidden object, the hidden object will disappear and the visible object will move to the leftmost position of all the selected objects.
Synchronizing Objects You can take an object and synchronize its position, transparency, etc. based upon the object’s source frame. You can do this for a single object or number of objects and all frames or selected frames. See Figure 13.31. Figure 13.31 Synchronize Objects Across Frames dialog window.
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Resizing Images You can easily resize the entire animation including the objects in the animation and the canvas (the entire area that everything floats over in the animation, also called the logical screen by traditional standards) by using Edit > Resize Image on the menu bar. See Figure 13.32.
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Figure 13.32 The Resize Image dialog window.
Resizing the Canvas You can resize the canvas by using CTRL+G on your keyboard. The objects in the animation will remain untouched. You can even set where you want the objects to be when the canvas is resized by either a preset position or an offset. See Figure 13.33. Figure 13.33 The Canvas Size dialog window.
Cropping the Canvas You can crop the canvas by using CTRL+R on your keyboard. In order to crop, you must either have an object or multiple objects selected to crop to or a selection using any of the Selection Tools on the Tool Panel. Note that the crop will crop to the selected objects or selection for the entire animation. NOTE It’s sometimes best to crop using a selection. If you crop the canvas to objects, be sure to have enough space between them so you have enough room with which to animate the objects.
Next, let’s get to know the Frame Panel. It will be your best friend for organizing your whole animation.
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The Frame Panel Once you get your frames inserted, the Frame Panel is where you’ll organize the frames to your animation. It’s first important to know how frames work in relation to objects. A series of frames is basically the foundation of the whole animation, since it shows the progression of the animation. Think of it as a timeline. (That’s what it basically is, anyway.) An object is just the subject of the animation. Though you can have the object in a position in one frame and then another position in another frame, it still can be the same object.
Adding Frames You can add frames to your animation by using Frame > Add Frame on the menu bar or by using CTRL+ALT+F on your keyboard. Remember that wherever an existing frame is selected, the new frame will appear to its right.
Moving/Deleting Frames The frames in the Frame Panel can be moved left and right by clicking and dragging the frame accordingly. You can move single or multiple frames this way. Use the conventional Windows method of selecting files by holding down Control on your keyboard and clicking the frames you want to move up or down. You can also use Shift to select a range of frames. You can also move frames by using Frame > Change Frame Order on the menu bar and choosing from four choices: Assign as First Frame, Move Frame Backward, Move Frame Forward, and Assign as Last Frame. Deleting frames is a really straightforward task. Click on a frame or number of frames and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Duplicating Frames You may, if you’d like, make duplicate copies of a particular frame or frames. Use either the Frame > Duplicate command on the menu bar or use CTRL+F on your keyboard with the selected frame(s) active. This command is great if you’d like to create action of a frame by using tweening. See “Tween” later on in this chapter.
Flattening Frames You may also flatten your frames. This will effectively take all visible objects in a frame and merge them together as one object. This is useful if you ever decide to create a traditional-type GIF animation using the “Do Not Remove” method.
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NOTE
Reverse Frame Order You can choose to reverse the entire set of frames in the Frame Panel or selected frames only. Use Frame > Reverse Frame Order on the menu bar. See Figure 13.34. Figure 13.34 The Reverse Frame Order dialog window.
Tween Tweening is another feature that’s new to GIF Animator 5.0. With this feature, you can create “in-between” frames of a beginning and an ending frame that show the motion and transparency of an object (or objects) over the course of an animation. The most effective way to create tweening is by taking a frame, duplicating it, and then positioning and adjusting the transparency of the objects in the duplicated frame to the way you want them to be. Then initiate Tween by using CTRL+T on your keyboard to complete the process. To get a good idea on how this works, see Figure 13.35, which shows one frame in a new animation I created. Figure 13.35 A one-frame animation.
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If you select more than one frame for flattening, only those objects in that particular frame will be merged as one object. For example, if you select two frames and flatten them, the objects from one frame will merge together as one object while the other frame’s objects will also merge together as one object all by itself.
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This frame was duplicated by selecting it and using CTRL+F. See Figure 13.36. Figure 13.36 The original frame and its duplicate.
The duplicated frame’s objects were then positioned and their transparencies adjusted. See Figure 13.37. Figure 13.37 Adjusting the object’s properties in the duplicated frame.
Tween was then initialized using CTRL+T. The Tween dialog window appears. See Figure 13.38.
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Figure 13.38 The Tween dialog window.
CHAPTER 13 The settings for the Tween dialog window are by default set so that five frames are inserted between the starting frame and the ending frame, as well as all visible objects and their position and transparency. Since I want the animation to be consistent, I adjusted the frame delay to 10 instead of the default 30. Then I clicked OK. The in-between frames were then inserted as shown in Figure 13.39. Figure 13.39 The end result.
There’s actually more to it. You can choose to tween a specific object or objects if you want or update any selected frames that are between the starting and ending frames only. These settings can be found under the Tween dialog window. Now knowing how you can apply different ways to work with frames, it’s helpful to next know what adjustable properties the frames have.
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Frame Properties In addition to the above, frames can have attributes assigned to them independently. Figure 13.40 shows the various attributes: Figure 13.40 Frame Properties window.
Delay—This specifies how much time (in hundredths of a second) passes on a specific frame before continuing on to the next frame in the animation. Removal method—This specifies the type of removal method to use when the animation is in progress. Frame title—This lets you name the particular frame to your animation. There are five options under “Removal method”: Smart—This lets GIF Animator decide which removal method is best for your animation, based upon the frames in the animation. NOTE GIF Animator will pick either Do Not Remove or To Background as its choices for the Smart removal method setting based upon the properties of the animation.
Web Browser Decides—This lets the browser decide the best way to remove the layer. You’ll get different results with different browsers with this option. My suggestion is not to use it...unless everyone in the Web browser world decides to get along. Do Not Remove—This method is, in my opinion, the second-best option to pick for the reason of universal compatibility between the different Web browsers. This option makes the animation stack the layers on top of one another during the animation. The downside? If you have transparent layers, anything in the transparent areas will show through during the course of the animation. The best way to remedy this is to merge the transparent layers with a common solid background using the Combine as Single Object command available under the Object menu on the menu bar. Figure 13.41 shows an example of what happens when you use transparent layers with Do Not Remove.
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Figure 13.41 A GIF animation using transparent layers and Do Not Remove. This shows how a moving object appears in a Web browser. Not a good idea.
To Background—This removes and replaces the layer with the background color. You can use this option to achieve a smooth transition effect if your layers overlap evenly. To Previous State—Currently supported only by Microsoft Internet Explorer. It removes the layer and replaces it with the next frame in the sequence of the animation. This would be my preferred method because it’s easier to make GIF animations this way, but since only Internet Explorer supports it, it can’t be at this point in time. You now know what frames are and how they work in relation to objects.
Frame Playback Sooner or later, you’ll want to check out how your animation is coming along. That’s where the playback controls at the bottom of the Frame Panel come in handy. In addition to some commands available for Frames (like Tween and Add Frame) on this part of the panel, there are playback controls for an animation as well. You can playback your animation without having to enter Preview Mode. You also can playback your animation using these controls in either Edit Mode or Optimize Mode. See Figure 13.42 Go to Next Frame
Go to Last Frame
Figure 13.42 The Frame Panel’s controls.
Play Animation Stop Animation
Go to First Frame
Go to Previous Frame
Frames
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Effects Animation Studio and Lighting Effects With PhotoImpact’s built-in animation effects, you have the choice of saving an effect on a composition as a still image or as an animation. In the case of the Animation Studio and Lighting effects, when you save the animation directly as an animated GIF, there is an additional checkbox option asking if you would like to open GIF Animator with this animation to further optimize it at the bottom of the window. When you check this option and save the animation, GIF Animator will automatically launch and insert the animation into its workspace, where you can further optimize and enhance the animation. Figure 13.43 shows a typical example. Figure 13.43 The animation when it was saved in Animation Studio and subsequently opened in GIF Animator.
Artist Texture, Creative Warp, and Transform Effects Animation Studio has a setting so that you can set the number of frames before saving. In the case of Artist Texture, Creative Warp, and Transform effects using the “Advanced” button settings, you must select how many frames (from 2 to 100) that you want the animation to be once you save the animation. Figure 13.44 shows a typical example of using the Creative Warp effect and the subsequent option of setting the frame number and saving. Just like Animation Studio, you have the option to open GIF Animator via a checkbox.
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Figure 13.44 With effects such as Creative Warp, you have the option of setting how many frames you want the animation to be.
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In short, saving an animation in PhotoImpact will simply provide you with the option of opening the animation within GIF Animator for further composition and optimization.
Video F/X There are quite a few nice effects that come with GIF Animator that you can use to make GIF animations. These effects are located under Video F/X on the menu bar. The effects have a “video production quality” to them and provide a nice alternative to creating your own ways of GIF animation in a snap. With these effects, care should taken when using them. By default, they use 15 frames of animation. You can pare this down to around 10 or less. Since they act as a transition between 2 frames, it’s recommended that you keep only two initial frames before applying these effects, one as the source and one as the destination. Figure 13.45 shows one of the many effects available to you. Figure 13.45 One of GIF Animator’s many built-in effects, Run and Stop-Push.
There are more effects available to use with GIF Animator that are available to purchase, F/X for GIF Animator and GIF-X 2.0. For more information, consult the following Web sites: http://www.webutilities.com/products/gifx/runme.htm http://www.webutilities.com/products/fx/runme.htm In addition to the Video F/X, Ulead has also included a number of simple yet effective transition and text effects, which I’ll talk about next. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Text Effects Another main feature of GIF Animator 5.0 is the ability to quickly apply special effects to banner-type text for that certain zing. This feature is located under the Frame menu on the menu bar or by using CTRL+ALT+B on your keyboard. See Figure 13.46. Figure 13.46 The Add Banner Text window—Text tab.
Text—This tab contains controls not unlike the Text Entry Box in PhotoImpact. Effect—Lets you set an enter and exit scene, as well as how they both enter and exit. You can also set the number of frames for both settings. See Figure 13.47. Figure 13.47 Add Banner Text window—Effect tab.
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Frame Control—Lets you set the delay of the entire effect as well as set the key frame delay between the effect coming in and out. See Figure 13.48.
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Figure 13.48 Add Banner Text window—Frame Control tab.
Neon—Will apply a neon-like effect onto your banner text. You can set the color width, direction, and whether you want the effect to glow or have transparency. See Figure 13.49. Figure 13.49 Add Banner Text window—Neon tab.
In addition to now knowing that you can apply various text and video effects to your animation, you can also apply your own third-party Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-ins, which I’ll talk about next.
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APS Plug-Ins You can use your own commercial or freeware 32-bit Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-ins to use with GIF Animator, like Flaming Pear Software’s Melancholytron or Kai’s Power Tools. Use F6 to access GIF Animator’s Preferences as in Figure 13.50 and click the Plug-in Filters tab. Use the Browse button to choose the folder in which your plug-ins reside. Figure 13.50 The Plug-in Filters tab under GIF Animator’s Preferences.
Once you specify the plug-ins installed, close and relaunch GIF Animator for the program to activate the plug-ins. From there, you click the individual layer or layers and use the Filters menu bar command and choose your favorite plug-in to apply to individual layer or layers in your animation. NOTE Using plug-ins on a layer effectively replaces the object. Use CTRL+Z to undo the plug-in effect on the object if the effect is undesired.
You now know a lot about GIF Animator’s features. There’s one more feature you should know about—the Index Editor.
The Index Editor The Index Editor is a powerful editor that lets you edit an existing GIF animation. With it, you can easily tweak any frames within an animation. Still, you’ll just want to tweak your animation with this tool and not totally overhaul it. The Index Editor is dangerous to those who are too quick to click the OK button. Some of the features are irreversible, like sorting the palette, which will remap the entire palette and can therefore totally screw up the way the animation appears.
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You can refuse to save the GIF when exiting the Index Editor, but people tend to click OK too quickly without reading, hence the warning to use it only for touching up a GIF animation. GIF Animator, in my opinion, does a really good job of optimizing the animation to begin with. The Index Editor is for the perfectionists who can’t stand the idea of having one little stray pixel in their animation. Figure 13.51 shows the Index Editor.
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Figure 13.51 The Index Editor.
You’ll notice that most of the functions in the Index Editor look and act very similar to those tools found in GIF Animator. Basically, you can use the Index Editor to clean up any garbage pixels GIF Animator might have missed or tweak the color palette a little. The Index Editor is really nice to have because it allows you to possibly shave off a few more bytes in your animation. Even so, the Index Editor might be overkill for some. Also take caution that any changes made to the color palette are not reversible. NOTE There are only two ways to get to the Index Editor—through the Open in Index Editor option when saving an animation as a GIF within GIF Animator, or through the “IdxEd.exe” executable in the folder where GIF Animator is installed with PhotoImpact. By default, this folder is “C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead PhotoImpact 7\anygif.” You may make a shortcut to this executable the same as you can any other file in Windows.
Now that you know just about everything there is to know about GIF Animator, I’ll next tell you some tips on how to use the features that GIF Animator provides in combination with knowing how to make animations that appear the same in the different Web browsers.
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The Best Roads to GIF Animation Composition Thus far, you’ve learned how powerful a tool GIF Animator can be for authoring GIF animation. It’s now time to give you some very helpful tips on using GIF Animator and some standard procedures you should know about when composing GIF animations. Heed these tips well and making animated GIFs will seem like second nature.
Preferences You can (and should) customize how you work with GIF Animator by specifying your preferences as shown in Figure 13.52, which shows the General tab by default. Click File > Preferences on the menu bar or use F6 on your keyboard to access these preferences. Figure 13.52 Preferences—General tab.
The General tab consists of several options: Default frame attributes—This determines the delay and removal method of imported frames. Levels of undo—This lets you set the number of undo levels, from 1 to 50. Check Ulead’s Web site every X days—When this option is checked, GIF Animator will periodically contact Ulead’s Web site for GIF Animator updates. Enable Startup Wizard—This option will automatically launch the Startup Wizard each time GIF Animator is opened. Color line around object—This lets you determine the color of the dashed border around an active object. Transparency—Sets the options for the transparent background of a frame. You can set the Grid size from small to large and set the Grid color from light to dark as well as set a custom color using the swatches beneath. A small preview area is provided.
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The Optimize tab, shown in Figure 13.53, lets you organize any presets available in the Optimize Mode in GIF Animator. You can easily set the default preset when the Optimize Mode is activated as well as move presets around in the list here.
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Figure 13.53 Preferences—Optimize tab.
The Plug-Ins tab lets you specify any folders in which you may have Adobe Photoshopcompatible plug-ins installed. Figure 13.54 shows an example. Figure 13.54 Preferences—Plug-Ins tab.
NOTE You do not have to specify subfolders within a folder in order for the plug-ins to be found. GIF Animator will automatically “drill down” into a specified folder. You do, however, have to close and then restart GIF Animator for the plug-ins to be available.
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The Add Image/Video tab, shown in Figure 13.55, lets you specify how you want to add images or video to an animation. Figure 13.55 Preferences—Add Image/Video tab.
Add Image/Video—This has several options that apply to both images and animations. By default, any image or animation is added to a selected frame within GIF Animator. Add Video—This offers several options that apply to video only (like AVI and QuickTime files). By default, any video is inserted as new frames within GIF Animator. The Open/Save tab contains several useful features concerning UFO and related image files as shown in Figure 13.56. Figure 13.56 Preferences—Open/Save tab.
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Ask when opening PSD/PSP files—Asks you what you want to do with the layers in a Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro file. You have the choice of either opening each layer as an object or simply merging all the layers together as a single object. If this option is not clicked, GIF Animator will apply the suboptions here without asking. Show tips when launching the favorite image editor—Shows the dialog window, as shown in Figure 13.57, when you go to launch your favorite image editor. This tip is to let you know that the image editor must support and be able to save in the UFO or PSD format in order for the image to update directly within GIF Animator. Figure 13.57 The dialog window when opening your favorite image editor from within GIF Animator.
Show tips when closing a previous session of your favorite image editor— Warns you if you try to edit an animation within your image editor when there is a temporary file already open. Figure 13.58 shows the dialog window. When the option is not clicked, the temporary file will simply be replaced. Figure 13.58 The dialog window when trying to edit your image when a current project’s temporary file is already open in your image editor.
TIP You can close the session by clicking the drop-down menu right next to the Favorite Image Editor button on the Standard Toolbar and choosing Close the Session.
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Show message when there are unsupported features in UFO files—GIF Animator can only support UFO files that contain objects that have their merge mode set to Always. When this option is clicked, GIF Animator will warn you of any objects that will be changed to Always as the merge mode if they are not in that mode. If the option is not clicked, GIF Animator will automatically, and without warning, change any object’s merge mode to Always.
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Show tips when your favorite image editor is still open when closing a project—Warns you if you try to open a new project without closing a current project that has a temporary file already opened in the image editor. Figure 13.59 shows the dialog window. Figure 13.59 The dialog window when opening a new project with a current project’s temporary file already open in the image editor.
The Edit tab contains features that pertain to dealing with text and path objects. Ask when needing to convert to an image object for resizing—This warns you if you want to convert a path or text object to an image object before resizing. Show warning when resizing banner text—This warns you when resizing images that contain banner objects. Generation quality—This sets the quality and appearance of objects once they are resized. Select Best if you want the objects to be smoothed when resized and Fair if you want them to be left alone. Ask when converting an advanced text color—This warns you if you set the original, advanced text color created by an image editor to another color within GIF Animator. This is useful since GIF Animator cannot create advanced text colors like multi-color gradients. The Preview tab lets you specify what browsers you want to use to preview your animations. Available browsers—Lists the two most popular browsers available: Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape. You can choose to auto-detect these two browsers by clicking this suboption. Other browsers—Lets you select any other brand of Web browser, like Opera, by using the Browse folder button and specifying the browser’s executable file (.EXE). Setting your preferences will help you out and cut some corners in the process when creating your GIF animations from scratch.
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Animation Power Tips These tips come recommended not only because they’ll help make your GIF animations that much nicer, but also because using them will make you look like a pro.
Showing Action in an Animation
Using the UGA Format Be sure to take advantage of the UGA format, new to GIF Animator 5.0. This format allows you to save and come back to a project and still have the ability to use the full editing capabilities available in GIF Animator, complete with floating objects. It’s very useful if you use a project over and over again.
Saving Animations You can also save your whole animation in a number of file formats, including GIF, UFO, and PSD. For the most part, you’ll want to save your animations in UGA format. However, those formats are there just in case you need to share the animation with those using other applications. You can also save in Flash format (SWF format) with either BMP or JPEG images. However, saving in this format is not as flexible as you might think, as you cannot adjust settings such as delay. For the most part, you can use it for simple animations, like scrolling backgrounds or glowing text.
Exporting Frames You can quickly export an entire set of frames or selected frames in JPEG or PNG format by using CTRL+E on your keyboard. Saving in the PNG format will preserve the transparency of the frame. This feature is useful if you need to share the frames with those using other applications.
Exporting GIF Animations You can use File > Export > Save as HTML (CTRL+ALT+S) on the menu bar to export the whole animation to a Web page. This feature is very useful if you don’t want to deal with HTML code. You can take the resulting HTML and paste it into your main HTML document. You have to be sure, however, that the GIF animation is in the same directory as the page. Otherwise, you’ll have to edit the HTML code manually to reflect the location of the animation.
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A great way to show action in an animation is to have a couple of variations on a particular object as it “moves” during the course of an animation. Use the Show/Hide feature on the Object Manager Panel to show one object in one frame, hide it, and show its variation in the next frame. One good example is the animated GIF file, “Fruit.uga,” located in the folder where GIF Animator was installed along with PhotoImpact. By default, the folder is “C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead PhotoImpact 7\anygif\Samples.”
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The Best Removal Method I mentioned earlier in the chapter about how GIF animations, depending upon the removal method used in the animation, can affect how the animation looks in the different Web browsers. It would probably be best to set the removal method under the general preferences (F6) to Smart. GIF Animator will know whether or not to choose either Do Not Remove or To Background based upon the composition of the frames.
Use PhotoImpact to Make Your Frames That being said, it’s a good idea to compose most, if not all, of the frames in your animation within PhotoImpact. You can compose your frames within PhotoImpact as UFO files, and since GIF Animator 5.0 uses PhotoImpact 7’s UFO format, both programs are ideal companions to each other. You don’t have to make all the frames within PhotoImpact. You can also make a single UFO composition that you want to animate and import that right into GIF Animator. Then you can perform functions like tweening or using the Show/Hide function to great effect.
File Size vs. Presentation For compact GIF animations, I wouldn’t suggest a final optimized file size bigger than 30K. It’s sometimes OK to go above this number, especially if there aren’t many other graphics on the Web page. Remember that the goal is not to make the absolute smallest GIF animation, but to make it the most presentable. A slightly larger-than-normal GIF animation that looks good is better than a very small GIF animation that looks terrible.
Keep It Simple and Keep it Quick The most attractive GIF animations involve simplicity, like a blinking text message or an animated arrow pointing to an element you want people to pay attention to. Most people aren’t going to sit there while it takes a minute for your animation to play through, so keep the time short. I personally wouldn’t suggest more than five to eight seconds total.
Don’t Limit Yourself Don’t forget there are a few uses for GIF animations other than just banners. Use the format to animate an element on a Web site, like an animated e-mail image. Such elements will also spruce up an otherwise static page. Or use it to make a simple animation for a JavaScript rollover image. Simply call the animated GIF just as you would a regular GIF in your JavaScript code for the rollover. Remember to keep the rollover animated GIF relatively small.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes Keep in mind your own Web surfing habits and inquire about your friends and family’s surfing habits. For example, ask how long you or your friends are willing to stick around for a GIF animation to complete its duration. I bet the answer isn’t very long. Or ask about what gets their attention.
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Time is on Your Side
Optimized Palette vs. Web-Safe Palette In earlier chapters, we covered using optimized and Web-safe palettes. The same applies to deciding which palette to use within GIF Animator for a GIF animation. If you absolutely want to include everyone, use the browser-safe palette. That setting ensures that the animation will look the same across the board no matter what color depth or operating system a person is using, but it also has the potential to reduce the quality of your images. Because nearly all Internet users are browsing in color depths of 16-bit or higher, I recommend using the Optimized palette in all cases.
Keep the Number of Colors Low You really shouldn’t have to use the entire range of 256 available colors when optimizing. More colors in the palette make the overall file size bigger. Try to use 64 colors or fewer within the optimized animated GIF’s color palette. 32 colors or 16 colors can work even better, and the results are not that much worse at all. Figure 13.60 shows the Optimization Wizard’s step that asks how many colors to use; in this case, 64 colors are used. Figure 13.60 Specifying 64 colors or fewer in the Optimization Wizard will help to reduce your animation’s file size.
Use the Global Palette When Possible Try to use the Global Palette in Optimize Mode for all the frames in the entire animation. Use a Local Palette on a particular frame only when that particular frame’s color palette is drastically different from the rest of the animation.
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One of the most frequent uses in your custom GIF animation will be the Delay option under the Frame Properties on the Frame Panel. If you’d like to make a smooth, quick action during an animation, select the frames in the animation and enter a value of 10. If you want the person to be able to read and absorb something like a text message, enter a value of 300, which will make the assigned frame stick around for three seconds.
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Think of Other File Formats, Too When compiling and adding/importing the frames to your custom animation, keep in mind GIF Animator works with many other different graphics file formats, like BMP or TGA, which are essentially lossless formats (the quality of the image doesn’t degrade when saved). If you need to quickly insert images other than your own created images that were saved in the UFO format, keep this in mind. You’ll want to keep the frames in your image as true to the original as possible before optimizing. Lossless file formats are BMP, TGA, PSD, PSP, and PNG.
Working with Video Files When working with video files to insert, keep in mind that you should keep the frame count really low, around five to ten frames at the most, especially if the colors are extremely different from one frame to the other. Use the Mark In and Mark Out buttons to grab just the few keyframes that you need and discard the rest.
Online Help is Your Friend Almost all of the time, a quick question can be answered by conferring with GIF Animator’s online help. Use Help > Help on GIF Animator’s menu bar.
Experiment, Experiment, Experiment! The mantra I live by: experiment. Don’t just expect to make your animation in just one shot. GIF animation takes a lot of practice and some patience. So there you have it. Armed with this information, you now should be able to compose your own captivating GIF animations using PhotoImpact and GIF Animator with a little effort and a lot of imagination.
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14 Keeping Track of Your Images Just like printed photos, digital images have to be stored somewhere, and once they start to accumulate, keeping track of them can be difficult. PhotoImpact Album is designed to give you a central storage place for all your digital images that allows you to classify them, browse through them, search for particular images, and use them once you’ve found them.
PhotoImpact Album shows a thumbnail representation of each image stored in an album file. Without moving the original file, Album collects information about it and stores that information so that you can search for and open the original image within an album file. Images can be stored in more than one album, and you can have as many albums as you want. For example, you might have an album for each of a group of photographers, one for each type of photo (such as landscapes and portraits), or one for each type of subject matter. NOTE You can use Album to store any kind of file, not just image files. Because this book is about creating images with PhotoImpact, this chapter focuses on using Album with images. You can, however, experiment with storing video, audio, or text files in Album as well.
Viewing and Searching for Images You can use as many albums as you want at the same time. All the albums PhotoImpact Album knows about are stored in the Album Panel at the left side of your screen, with closed albums displaying a cover that shows a representative image and open ones appearing to have their covers folded back (see Figure 14.1). You can determine which thumbnail represents the album in the Album Panel—its cover—by clicking the Play button at the top of the panel to rotate through the images in the album. Then click the Stop button when you see the one you want to use.
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Figure 14.1 Your albums are stored in the Album Panel for easy access. The album shown here is in Attribute Mode.
Viewing Albums To open an album, click its thumbnail in the Album Panel. The album opens in the viewing mode that was last used with it; to change viewing modes, click one of the four Mode buttons on the Standard Toolbar: Thumbnail Mode—All images (or other kinds of files) are displayed in gray rectangles that look like slide holders, with the filename underneath each thumbnail. Attribute Mode—Thumbnails are displayed in a vertical list, each one accompanied by the attributes of its original file. File Name Mode—No thumbnails are visible, just filenames and attributes; click a header to sort the list by the values in that column. Data Entry Mode—Fields defined for this album are displayed next to the thumbnail; you can click in a field to add or change data (see “Entering Data in Fields,” ahead). You can view an album in more than one mode by splitting its window: Drag the splitter at the bottom of the right-hand scroll bar upward (see Figure 14.2). The Mode buttons on the Standard Toolbar control the top pane. To change the viewing mode of the bottom pane, right-click and choose an option from the Mode submenu in the contextual menu.
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Figure 14.2 To view an album in two different modes at once, you can split the window. The upper pane here shows Attribute mode, while the lower pane shows Thumbnail mode.
The simplest way to view particular images in an album is to scroll through the album to find them. In Thumbnail, Attribute, or Filename Mode, you can use the scroll bar at the right-hand side of the album window to move through the album. If you’re in Data Entry Mode, four buttons at the top right corner of the window allow you to move to the beginning of the album (Top), one record back (Backward), one record ahead (Forward), or to the end of the album (Bottom). Or, if you want to review the contents of an album without having to scroll through it yourself, choose View > Auto Scroll on the menu bar. You can also find thumbnails with specific characteristics by changing the album’s sort order. Choose Thumbnail > Sort on the menu bar to open the Sort dialog box; click on a field name in the Basic tab, choose Ascending or Descending, and click OK. TIP If the order of the thumbnails in the album doesn’t suit you, you can rearrange them by dragging the thumbnails within the album window.
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If the standard viewing modes don’t include the information you want to see, you can edit their layouts to add the information you’re looking for. Choose View > Mode > Layout on the menu bar and click on the tab for the mode you want to change. Then click to select the fields whose information should be included in that mode. You can also change the appearance of the image thumbnail frames by choosing an option from the Thumbnail format radio buttons on the right.
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Searching Albums Album offers two ways to search an album: using the Search Toolbar or using the Search dialog box. The former method is the quick-and-dirty version—you can keep the Search Toolbar visible all the time for quick searches, but it doesn’t have all the options available in the Search dialog box. It searches only the album you’re currently working in, while the Search dialog box allows you to search all open albums. To view the Search Toolbar, choose View > Toolbars & Panels > Search Toolbar on the menu bar. The first dropdown menu contains fields you can search—some are data entry fields and others are information that’s automatically saved about every image, such as file size. The other interface elements on the toolbar change depending on your choice from the menu. For example, if you choose a text field, the second dropdown menu has the choices Contains and Empty, with Contains followed by a text entry field so that you can enter the text you’re searching for. Press Enter to begin the search. For slightly more complex searches in which you can use logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT, click the Edit Criteria button on the Search Toolbar. This brings up the Edit Search Criteria dialog box (see Figure 14.3), in which you can enter multiple search terms separated by operators. For example, you can search for “tree NOT autumn” to find only green, summery trees. If you want to use multiple words as single terms, surround them with the selected delimiter (by default, double quotation marks). Enter your search terms and choose operators from the menu as they’re needed, then click OK to return to the Search toolbar, and press ENTER to begin the search. Figure 14.3 This search will find thumbnails that contain sad clowns and those that contain clowns who are not specifically indicated as happy.
Once you’ve completed a search, only those thumbnails are shown in the album. If you want to clear the search results and go back to viewing all the thumbnails, click the View All button at the end of the Search Toolbar. For the most complex searches, Album provides the Search dialog box, with many more options. To get there, choose Thumbnail > Search on the menu bar or click the Search button on the Standard Toolbar (see Figure 14.4). Here you can set up as many search criteria as you’re likely to need by entering the information at the top of the dialog box in the same way as you do in the Search Toolbar. As you set up each criterion, click on And or Or to determine whether the criterion is added to the list as an alternative (Or) or a requirement (And), then click Add. That criterion is added to the list in the middle of the dialog, and you’re free to begin the search or add more search criteria. To change a criterion, click on it in the list, make changes at the top of the dialog box, then click Change.
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Figure 14.4 You can create complex searches using the Search dialog box, and you can save the criteria for future use.
Several options allow you to determine what thumbnails you’ll come up with: Search all open albums except minimized—This is self-explanatory. Search entire tab—This searches only the current visible tab.
You can also choose whether to select the located thumbnails (the selection won’t show up in Data Entry Mode) or just view them. Once your search options are chosen, you can either save the search (click Save Query) for future use or go ahead and begin the search by clicking OK. If Album doesn’t find any thumbnails that match your search criteria, it lets you know with an error message. Otherwise, the found set is either displayed (with the other thumbnails hidden) or selected (with the other thumbnails still visible but unselected).
TIP If you want to move certain thumbnails in an album to another album or use them to create a new album, use the Search dialog box with the Select matched thumbnails option turned on. Once the search is complete, the thumbnails are selected and ready to drag to another album. Or you can choose Edit > Make Album on the menu bar.
NOTE The results you get from your search will only be as good as your keywords. If you’re serious about having a searchable database of images, get into the habit of entering keywords for every new image—your future searches will be much more accurate.
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Add search result to current view—This option doesn’t dismiss the current search results; instead, it adds the new search results to them.
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Marking Thumbnails Once you’ve located a thumbnail you’ve been looking for, it’s a good idea to mark it so that you can go on sorting through your other images and still find this one when you need it again. Marking works is similar to keywords, but marks are visible on the designated thumbnails, so you can use them even in Thumbnail Mode. You can assign your own values to marks, but they appear on thumbnails as letters of the alphabet (which means you can use twenty-six different marks within each album). To mark thumbnails: 1.
Choose View > Toolbars & Panels > Mark Panel on the menu bar.
2.
Double-click a letter in the Mark Panel and enter your own description of what the mark will signify, then click OK (see Figure 14.5).
Figure 14.5 Each letter can be keyed to a text description of what you want the mark to indicate.
3.
Click in the Mark Panel to select the mark you want to assign, then click the Assign Marks button.
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With the Mark cursor (a magic wand with an “M” at the end), click on each thumbnail you want to mark (see Figure 14.6).
Figure 14.6 You can mark an image with more than one code at a time.
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When you’re done marking, click on the Assign Marks button again.
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TIP You can assign more than one mark at a time by SHIFT+clicking in the Mark Panel to select a range of marks or CTRL+clicking to select noncontiguous marks.
Once files are marked, you can see the mark letter next to the thumbnail number. You can’t sort by marks, but you can search for marked thumbnails.
Adding Images As you create images, you’ll want to add them to your albums right away so you won’t lose track of them. Album allows you to insert images that you already have, as well as acquire images directly from a scanner or digital camera and put those right into albums at the same time as the original files are created.
Adding Existing Images
With the album open, choose Thumbnail > Insert on the menu bar and then choose an option: Insert files from a folder allows you to choose specific files, while Collect files from a folder (and subfolders) adds all the files in the selected folder. Click OK, then locate the files you’re looking for. Click to select the ones you want to add to the album, then click Insert (or Collect if you chose Collect files from a folder). With the album open, choose Thumbnail > Visual Insert on the menu bar (see Figure 14.7). Visual Insert allows you to look at thumbnail images, while Insert just shows you a standard file tree. Locate the files you’re looking for, click to select one, then click Open—you can add only one file at a time. Figure 14.7 If you remember images better than filenames, Visual Insert is the thumbnail insertion method for you.
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There are five methods for adding existing images to an album, four that are based on locating the original file and one that’s a helpful shortcut if the images are already in another album. Here are your options:
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Open the album, then locate the image files in Windows Explorer and drag them into the album window. When you’re saving an image from PhotoImpact, click the Album button in PhotoImpact’s Save As dialog box. In the Insert Thumbnails Into Album dialog box, choose an album from the list or click New Album to create a new album in which to catalog the file. If the images are already cataloged in another album, open both albums, SHIFT+click to select the thumbnails you want to move, then just drag them into the window of the destination album. If you want the thumbnails to be copied from the current album to the new one, hold down CTRL as you drag; then the thumbnails will exist in both albums. Remember, because the thumbnail in an album is only a reference to its image file, you can catalog an image in as many different albums as you want.
Acquiring Images from Scanners and Digital Cameras If you’re generating a lot of images from a scanner or a digital camera, it’s even more important to keep track of them as you create them. Album allows you to add images to an album immediately when you scan them or acquire them from a digital camera. To do that, choose File > Scanner or File > Digital Camera on the menu bar or click the Acquire from a scanner button or the Acquire from a digital camera button on the Standard Toolbar. TIP Before you can acquire images from a scanner or digital camera, you’ll need to set up PhotoImpact to use that device. For scanners, choose File > Scanner > Select Source on the menu bar; for digital cameras, choose File > Digital Camera > Select Source.
Retrieving Images Once you’ve cataloged all your images in albums, what can you do with the albums? The obvious answer to that is that you can locate and use the images that you’ve cataloged. There are a number of ways you can open the original images via their thumbnails. Probably the easiest method is to drag and drop the thumbnail either into another program’s workspace or onto a program icon on Album’s Tool Panel, either of which opens the original image in that program. If the Tool Panel isn’t visible, choose View > Toolbars & Panels > Tool Panel on the menu bar (see Figure 14.8). This panel starts out “preloaded” with the PhotoImpact programs, but you can add other program icons to it by clicking the Tool Panel Menu button at the top of the panel and choosing New. In the New Group dialog box, create a program group for your own programs by entering a name and clicking New, then click Browse to locate the program you want to add to it. Click New again to add the program to the panel, then click Close. To switch between the default Tool Panel and the one you’ve created, click the Tool Panel Menu button and choose a panel from the list—the preloaded panel is called “internal.” http://www.muskalipman.com
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Figure 14.8 The built-in ToolPanel group contains icons for Album commands such as Send Mail and Print.
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To delete icons or groups from the Tool Panel, chose Delete from the Tool Panel Menu and choose what you want to delete in the Delete dialog box.
TIP You can add program icons to the Tool Panel quickly by dragging them from Windows Explorer onto the Tool Panel.
If you prefer to drag and drop thumbnails directly into another program’s workspace, what happens to them there depends on whether there’s a file open in the second program. If you drag the thumbnail into an open file, it will be either embedded or linked, as follows: If you don’t hold down any modifier keys as you drag, the image is linked to its originating program. If you hold down CTRL as you drag, the image is embedded in the document. Linked objects are updated each time their original file is modified, while embedded ones stay the way they were when they were embedded in the container document. TIP Switch to Compact Mode to hide most of Album’s windows and toolbars, so that you can see other programs behind it. This makes it a lot easier to drag images into other programs. Choose View > Compact Mode on the menu bar.
Creating a New Album Album comes with one album file, called Demo, but you’ll want to create your own albums customized to reflect the way you want to organize your files. There are several ways of doing this, including creating a new album as you save a file from PhotoImpact (click Album in the Save dialog box, then click New). The other methods are as follows: To create a new, empty album, click the New button on the Standard Toolbar. To create a new, empty album, choose File > New on the menu bar in Album. To create a new album from thumbnails in an existing album, select the thumbnails and choose Edit > Make Album on the menu bar.
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If you hold down CTRL+SHIFT as you drag, the image is linked to Album.
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Once you’ve done any of these, you need to set up the new album in the New dialog box. First, choose a template from the Album template list. As you click on each template name, its description is shown in the Album description field and its fields are listed so that you can see what kind of information it can hold. If you don’t find a template that’s exactly what you want, choose the closest one and click Customize to change its fields for your uses (see “Creating and Modifying Fields” for more information on setting up data entry fields in an album). Finally, enter a name in the Title field and click OK.
Adding Image Data to an Album All data about an image is stored in fields. If you’ve worked with databases before, you’re probably used to this concept. If it’s new to you, think of each field as a slot designed to hold a particular piece of information. Although you can customize the fields in each album file, it’s a pretty good bet that you won’t have an image album without at least one field that contains each image’s filename. And you’ll probably want more fields to keep track of other information about each file.
Creating and Modifying Fields When you’re creating an album, you start with a list of templates, each containing predefined fields of various types. For example, the Scrapbook template includes six fields: Members in Photo, Event, Place, Date, Keywords, and Description. From this starting point, you can modify each template to change existing fields or add new ones. Each field has a type that ensures only the right kind of data ends up there, as follows: Number—Any number from 0 to something over 4 billion Date—Dates between 1/1/100 and 12/31/4099 Text—Text as long as 255 characters File Name—File names as long as 259 characters Keyword—As many as 32 keywords from a list that you set up List—One term from a predefined list that you set up Memo—Text as long as 65,535 characters If you try to enter text in a date field, for instance, Album tells you it’s “unable to change the current field.”
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To define fields in an existing album: 1.
Choose Album > Properties on the menu bar to display the Album Properties dialog box.
2.
Click on the Fields tab to see the list of fields that already exist (see Figure 14.9).
Figure 14.9 Each field has a name and a type.
To add a new field, type its name in the Field name field and choose a type from the Field type menu, then click Add.
4.
To edit an existing field, click on it in the list of fields, then change its name or field type and click Change.
5.
To remove a field, click on its name and then click Remove.
6.
To restore the field list to its original condition, click Restore.
7.
To add, delete, or edit keywords or list values for a field, click on the field, and then click the Edit Keyword or Edit List button (see Figure 14.10).
Figure 14.10 The Edit Keywords dialog box shows all the keywords that have been added to an album.
To add a term, enter it in the New keyword or New value field and click Add. To delete a term, click on it in the list and click Delete. To edit a keyword, click on it in the list, make changes in the New keyword or New value field, and click Change. 8.
Click OK when you’re done editing the terms.
9.
When you’re done editing the fields, click OK.
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Entering Data in Fields To get started, click the View in Data Entry Mode button in the Standard Toolbar. This displays the data fields next to each image thumbnail, and you can just click in a field and start entering data. TIP Click in any field and check the status bar at the bottom of the Album window for a clue as to what data the field’s looking for.
Entering Keywords To enter a keyword, double-click in the keyword field to open the Keyword dialog box (see Figure 14.11). Although predefining the keywords forces you to be consistent in entering them, you can create new keywords as you go; either choose one from the list labeled “Current keywords available” or type a new one in the New keyword field and click Add. Figure 14.11 If you didn’t enter the keyword you need when you set up the fields, you can enter it on the fly in the Keywords dialog box.
If you want to use keywords you’ve created in one album for another album, go to the Fields tab of the Album Properties dialog (choose Album > Properties on the menu bar), click on a keyword field, and click Edit Keyword. In the Edit Keyword dialog box, click Save to export the keyword list as a text file. To import into another album, return to the Edit Keyword dialog box and click Load. You can load any text file (filename extension .txt), so you can create lists of keywords in any program that will save as text-only.
Entering List Values List fields require you to set up the list values ahead of time, like keywords, but they’re intended to operate more like multiple-choice questions. For example, in an image database, you might have a field called Image orientation in which the list values are portrait (for images that are taller than they are wide) and landscape (for images that are wider than they are tall). A list field for a thumbnail can have only one value, so the values have to be exclusive, rather than overlapping—in other words, each image must fall into one and only one category in a list.
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To enter a list value, double-click in the list field and choose an option in the List dialog box (see Figure 14.12). Figure 14.12 The List dialog box works the same way as the Keywords dialog box.
TIP If you’re using an album that contains a field with list values, you can use the values as the basis for tabs. Choose View > Show Tabs on the menu bar—each tab will be labeled with one of the list values.
Exporting Data from an Album In addition to allowing easy access to the original images an album catalogs, Album allows you to create catalogs in other formats, such as a slide show of images that you can post on the Web for others to view, or, similarly, a photo album of images that you can post on the Web. You can also export the text data that you’ve entered about each thumbnail.
Creating a Web Slide Show A Web Slide Show consists of an HTML file and copies of all the included images in GIF format, which can be displayed on the Web. All the images you want to use in the slide show have to be in the same album, so if you have images scattered among several albums, you’ll need to copy them to a new album for the purposes of creating the slide show. Here’s how to create the slide show: 1.
Select the images you want to include.
2.
Choose Thumbnail > Export > Web Slide Show on the menu bar to display the Export Web Slide Show dialog box.
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If tabs are showing, you can change the value of one or more thumbnails by selecting the thumbnails to change (SHIFT+click to select more than one) and dragging them onto another tab. This moves their thumbnails to the other tab and changes the value entered in their list fields.
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3.
In the Output tab, click on Save as Web pages and choose an Output folder in which the files will be saved (see Figure 14.13).
Figure 14.13 The Output tab of the Export Web Slide Show dialog box.
4.
In the Page Setup tab, click on all the elements you want to include, such as a Page title, a Heading, and Page numbers (see Figure 14.14). For those elements that have customizable content (including Heading), enter your own information.
Figure 14.14 The Page Setup tab of the Export Web Slide Show dialog box.
5.
In the Slide tab, set a maximum size for the images, choose a compression level, click on or off Automatically advance to next page (if you leave this option on, enter a number of seconds between images), and whether or not you want a border around your images (see Figure 14.15).
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Figure 14.15 The Slide tab of the Export Web Slide Show dialog box.
6.
Figure 14.16 The final slide show has navigation buttons, a title, and page numbers.
TIP If you want to package up the Web album and e-mail it to another person, check Save pages in a self-extracting EXE file in the Output tab of the Export Web Slide Show dialog box; then you have only to attach the file to an e-mail message.
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Click OK to create the album. If you selected Launch default browser to view pages when finished under the Output tab, you’ll see the album immediately; if not, you’ll need to locate the album HTML file and double-click on it to view the album (see Figure 14.16).
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Creating a Web Album If you want to show off a large selection of images, and give your audience a choice of which images to view at full size, a Web Album is a better choice than a Web Slide Show. It starts out by displaying small thumbnail images. Clicking on one of these displays the full-size image. You can also display thumbnail data along with each image. To create a Web Album, follow these steps: 1.
Select the images you want to include.
2.
Choose Thumbnail > Export > Web Album on the menu bar to display the Export Web Album dialog box (see Figure 14.17).
Figure 14.17 The Export Web Album dialog box looks very much like the Export Web Slide Show dialog box.
3.
In the Output tab, click on Save as Web pages and choose an Output folder in which the files will be saved.
4.
In the Page Setup tab, click on all the elements you want to include, such as a Page title, a Heading, and Page numbers. For those elements that have customizable content (including Heading), enter your own information.
5.
In the Thumbnails tab, enter numbers of rows and columns to determine the album’s layout, along with the size of the thumbnails in pixels (see Figure 14.18). Click Show thumbnail in frame at the top of the dialog box if you want the thumbnails to be visible at the same time as a full-size image.
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Figure 14.18 The Thumbnails tab is unique to the Export Web Album dialog box.
In the Image tab, set a maximum size for the images and choose a JPEG compression level.
7.
In the Description tab, click to select the information that will be displayed with each image, then choose an option at the bottom of the dialog box for where the data should be placed (see Figure 14.19).
Figure 14.19 The Description tab allows you to determine what text information is included in a Web album.
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8.
Click OK to create the album. If you selected Launch default browser to view pages when finished, you’ll see the album immediately; if not, you’ll need to locate the album HTML file and double-click on it to view the album (see Figure 14.20).
Figure 14.20 The appearance of the final album can be customized in several ways. Here a frame shows thumbnails while a larger frame contains a full-size image.
TIP To customize the appearance of any of the text that’s used in an album, click the Format button that appears within the Select fields to display options under the Description tab in the Export Web Album dialog box.
Exporting Text Data Once you’ve entered all that useful information into an album, you’ll be pleased to hear that you can get it out again for use in other programs. For instance, you might want to export caption information for use in a newsletter that’s going to contain some of the images in your album. To export text from Album: 1.
Select the thumbnails whose data you want to export. If you want to include all the thumbnails, make sure either all or none are selected.
2.
Choose Thumbnail > Export > To File on the menu bar.
3.
In the File tab, enter a name for the export file and then choose a format based on what formats are supported by the program with which you’ll be using the data (see Figure 14.21).
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Figure 14.21 The File tab looks much like a standard Save dialog box.
4.
Switch to the Fields tab and click in the checkboxes next to the names of the fields you want to include in the export file (see Figure 14.22).
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Figure 14.22 In the Fields tab, you specify what data should be included in the text file.
5.
Choose Windows Text or DOS Text from the Character set menu.
6.
Click Store field names as first record in file if you want the names of the fields included.
7.
Click OK to save the file.
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Maintaining Albums Once you’ve created an album, you need to keep it up to date and make sure that its structure continues to work for your needs. You can accomplish these functions using Album’s Properties and its backup and updating functions.
Editing Album Properties An album’s Properties contain several options (along with the data entry fields) that you can set to make your album more responsive or save memory, whichever suits your situation. To display the Properties dialog box, choose Album > Properties on the menu bar or right-click an album cover and choose Properties from the contextual menu (see Figure 14.23). Here are the tabs you’ll see: Figure 14.23 The Properties dialog box is, in a sense, the heart of an album.
General—Here you can change the album’s title and description, along with the size, compression mode, and color mode of its thumbnails. You’ll generally use JPEG compression for thumbnails, even though it may degrade the image quality slightly. Thumbnails are only for reference, and their compression doesn’t affect the original files. Fields—This tab is where you set up fields for data entry; the tab shows each Field name, its Field Type, and the number of Total fields. See “Creating and Modifying Fields” for more information on setting up data fields. Advanced—The first option in this tab is Folder monitoring, which automatically adds images to the album when they’re placed in the specified folder. You can choose from several formats so that only images of specific types are included in the album. Be sure to click on Enable folder monitoring—just choosing a folder doesn’t start the process up. The other option in this tab is to create a Password so that the album can’t be opened by unauthorized people. More—The information in this tab is purely statistical data about the album itself.
Backing Up and Restoring Albums Album allows you to back up an album and all the associated image files in a neat package that contains copies of all the files. You can save backups to your hard drive, removable media, or floppy disks. To create a backup, follow these steps: http://www.muskalipman.com
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1.
Open the album you want to back up.
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Choose Album > Backup on the menu bar.
3.
Choose a folder in which to save the backup files.
4.
Click Backup selected files to include only the selected thumbnails.
5.
Click Compress files to use compression to minimize the size of the backup files.
6.
If you’re saving to removable media (such as floppy or Zip disks) and the space required for the backup files is more than will fit on one disk, enter the size of the removable media at the bottom of the dialog box.
7.
Click OK to begin the backup process.
Once an album is backed up, you can delete the original files. To use them again, you need to restore the backup, as follows: 1.
Choose Album > Restore on the menu bar.
2.
Locate the folder containing the album backup files.
3.
Enter a location for the restored files in the Restore to field.
4.
Click OK.
Because albums don’t store the original files, but rather information about them, it’s possible for them to become out of date as changes are made to the original files. This section covers ways to make sure that you’re always looking at the correct thumbnails for the images in your albums.
Refreshing Thumbnails If you’re sharing an album over a network (choose Album > Sharing on the menu bar), sometimes the album falls behind on reflecting changes made to the original image files. Choose Album > Refresh on the menu bar to update the thumbnails in your copy of the album. For both shared and standalone albums, you’ll sometimes need to update just one or a few of the thumbnails. For instance, if you only modified their source files, then you know those are the only ones that need updating. To do this, select the thumbnails you want to update and choose Thumbnail > Update—From Source File on the menu bar.
Checking Image Links When changes are made to the original files cataloged in your albums, the thumbnails need to be updated. You can check to see if any of the original files have moved or changed by choosing Album > Check on the menu bar to open the Check Album dialog box. Two tabs in the dialog box are labeled Missing Files and Modified Files. To relocate the missing files, click on each and then click Relink. For the modified files, all you have to do is select them in the list and click Update; Album makes a new thumbnail image and updates the data for each file listed. If you want to relink just a few specific files, SHIFT+click to select them and choose Thumbnail > Relink on the menu bar. Locate the image folder for each file in the Relink dialog box and click OK. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Setting Up Album Preferences You can adjust Album’s preferences to save space on your hard drive, speed up Album’s operation, and customize the way Album works to your liking. To open the Preferences dialog box, press F6 or choose Edit > Preferences. The following sections cover the options you’ll find there.
PhotoImpact Album The preferences dialog is divided into two sections; this section covers behavior specific to Album, while the other affects system settings that have to do with how Album operates. There are three subsections within the PhotoImpact Album’s Preferences (see Figure 14.24). Figure 14.24 In the Preferences dialog box, you can control both Album’s behavior and your computer’s behavior regarding Album.
PhotoImpact Album Most of these settings affect the speed and efficiency of Album’s operations. Here’s a rundown on what you’ll find in the main section of the PhotoImpact Album’s Preferences: Check links to source files—Check this box to have Album constantly monitor links between its thumbnails and the original files and notify you of any problems it runs into. This will slow the program down some. Minimize on use—This setting minimizes Album as soon as you drag a thumbnail into another program, keeping it out of the way while you’re not using it. Free up memory when minimized—Checking this box saves memory by allocating Album’s memory to other programs when Album is minimized. Confirm on thumbnail deletion—With this setting, deleting a thumbnail produces a confirmation dialog box before the thumbnail is actually removed. Create best quality thumbnail images—This setting improves the quality of thumbnail images but increases the time needed to create them and display them. Display fixed-length tabs—If some of your tab names are so long that those tabs are crowding the other tabs out of the window, check this setting to keep the tabs all the same width. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Print field data with source files—When you’re printing source files from Album (choose Source > Print on the menu bar), this setting includes the image data you’ve entered with the printout. Play annotation file after viewing thumbnails—This setting automatically plays attached audio annotations when you view thumbnails (to add recorded annotations, choose Thumbnail > Annotations > Add on the menu bar). Backup album automatically—If your computer crashes frequently (or you’re just the careful type), click here to automatically create backup copies of your album as you work with it. Maximum tab width (in characters)—Here you can choose a maximum number of characters to be displayed in a tab name. This is another answer to the problem of overlong tab names. Number of recently opened files—This setting determines the number of recently opened files listed in File > Recent Files on the menu bar for quick access. Delimiter used in Search toolbar—You can determine the default delimiter for multi-word search terms here.
Font Font Font style Size Album uses these font settings both in its on-screen display and when it prints text. You can choose from all the fonts installed on your computer and a variety of preset sizes between 8 and 18.
OLE These settings determine the treatment of thumbnails that are dragged into other programs. The Object thumbnail link is broken checkbox makes Album the source application for thumbnail images, while the Object representation format area controls how drag-and-drop images are displayed in other programs: Source object—This option displays the original image in all its glory. Thumbnail only—Save time by using this option to show only the lowresolution thumbnail image. Low resolution place holder—Speed things up a bit more by using an even lower-resolution placeholder image. Album program icon—If you’re really in a hurry and you don’t need to see the image at all on-screen (it will still print at full resolution), choose this option to display an icon based on the Album program icon.
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This section of the Preferences dialog box contains the following menus:
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Finally, the checkbox labeled Convert images as display mode will convert images that are copied into other programs using the Clipboard to the current display mode of your system (making them smaller files). This option is only available if your monitor is set to 256 colors.
System Here you’ll find settings that control how Album interacts with Windows and with the other programs you use. The options here are the same as those in PhotoImpact’s System preferences.
System Here you can control the memory and hard drive usage of Album. If you want to use more harddrive space as virtual memory—which will give you more memory but slow down your computer—set additional folders under Define additional folders for virtual memory. To specify an upper limit for how much space should be used for virtual memory, enter a number of megabytes under Limit hard disk usage to ____ MB. And if you don’t have a lot of memory (RAM) in your computer, you can specify that Album shouldn’t use any more of it than you want it to by entering a number under Limit RAM usage to ____ MB.
Display These settings improve the way that Album uses your monitor to display images, as follows: HiColor dithering—If you’re using High Color display, True Color images will display better if this setting is turned on. View images with a common palette—If your monitor is set to display 256 colors, this setting will speed up your work by displaying all indexed color images using the system palette, so there’s no need to redraw the screen when moving from image to image. Ignore background quality—This setting skips repainting background images when you change views, speeding up operations. Monitor gamma—Adjust this setting until the two gray rectangles are the same color. This will calibrate your monitor for the best display
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15 Printing and Sharing This chapter deals with a number of topics that didn’t quite fit anywhere else in the book, but are nonetheless very important. Printing your images, both locally and via Web-based photo printing services, will be covered in this chapter, as will the basics of sharing your images with other people. The Internet allows you to transcend the barriers of the physical world, so if you have family and friends you want to share images with, read on!
Printing from PhotoImpact Creating digital masterpieces is great, but if you’re the only one to see them, what’s the point? Every artist needs an audience, and printing your images is a good way to share them. PhotoImpact 7.0 introduces significant improvements in the printing realm, and with some advance preparation you can easily prepare high-quality prints for any occasion.
Limitations of Bitmap Printing
Because of the limitations around bitmap images, PhotoImpact really shouldn’t be used for textheavy print work. If you’re going to design a brochure, a tool like Microsoft Publisher or CorelDraw should be used instead. That being said, if you have a powerful computer and can work with high-resolution images, crank the resolution of your files up to 300 dpi and your print pieces will look very close to the printed products from a vector-based program—and you’ll have the advantage of being able to apply eye-popping effects to your images and text that no desktop publishing program like Microsoft Publisher could ever dream of. While I wouldn’t suggest to a beginner that PhotoImpact is the optimal tool for print design work, in the hands of a skilled graphic designer, it can be used in very impressive ways. http://www.muskalipman.com
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As I described in Chapter 1, bitmap images are not ideal for printing at sizes larger than their original size, and the quality is highly dependent on the original resolution of the image. As you scale up a bitmap image, the pixels expand, resulting in a jagged, digitized look that no one finds appealing. Bitmap images usually have anti-aliased edges, resulting in a smooth on-screen appearance, but when printed, these edges can cause problems: Text will have “fuzzy” edges, and depending on size and resolution, it will look jagged. Figures 15.1 and 15.2 illustrate this. The first figure was created in PhotoImpact at 72 dpi, and the second figure is a vector-based font character whose resolution is determined by the output device (in this case, a high-quality professional printer).
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Figure 15.1 A bitmap letter “A.” Figure 15.2 A vector letter “A.”
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Getting High-Quality Prints from PhotoImpact If you’re a skilled PhotoImpact user, it’s often easier to generate your projects in PhotoImpact than having to learn another application. As long as your printing projects aren’t too text-heavy, PhotoImpact can be an incredible tool for making high-quality projects. How much text is too much? PhotoImpact’s text tools are meant for short text items like headlines, names, etc. PhotoImpact 7 doesn’t yet support text frames for entering large amounts of text, so it becomes tedious to work with large amounts of text. You could easily do a one-page flyer or poster with a few text elements, but a four-page brochure with blocks of text that require spell-checking? Use Microsoft publisher instead. That being said, here’s how you’d create business cards in PhotoImpact: 1.
Create a new document by selecting File > New > New Image. The Data Type should stay at 24-bit color.
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Select a user-defined size of 3.43 inches1.93 inches—these measurements will vary depending on where you’re getting your cards printed. VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com) has an excellent free online business-card printing service that uses the dimensions I’ve specified. Make sure your measurement size is set to Inches.
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Set the resolution to 300 pixels per inch (PPI). Your settings should look like Figure 15.3.
Figure 15.3 New Image settings for business cards.
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When you click OK, you’ll have an image that is 1029 pixels579 pixels. On your screen, the card will look enormous—this is because your screen is only 72 dpi. Fill the card with black, then print it out—it will be business card sized! Confused? Keep reading to understand how dots-per-inch settings and resolution relate to physical print size.
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NOTE The rule of thumb for creating print projects is to make sure you’re creating them at 300 pixels per inch, and specify the size of the paper you’re going to print it on. You’ll end up with some large images, but this is to be expected. For example, a printed page of 8.511 inches that would takes 25503300 pixels! This is where having a lot of RAM in your computer and a fast CPU comes in handy. It may take longer to work with images this large, but stick with it. You’ll end up with fantastic results in the end!
Printing in PhotoImpact Printing in PhotoImpact is accomplished by looking under the File menu on the menu bar and selecting Print, pressing CTRL+P on your keyboard, or clicking the Print icon on the Standard Toolbar. When you do any of these, the Print window will appear (see Figure 15.4), giving you some basic information and a few options: Figure 15.4 The Print Window.
Printer—This shows you the default printer your file will be printed to. If this isn’t correct, click the Printer button and select a new printer. It will also show the network path to the printer if appropriate (my printer is connected across my network). Copies—This shows the number of times your image will be printed. Fit to available space—This will force your image to fit the page. If the image is too large, it will be scaled down. If the image is too small, it will be scaled up. The quality will drop the more it needs to be scaled up, and it will look somewhat blurry if scaled down automatically.
Center image vertically—Forces the image to be centered vertically on the print area. Title—This is plain text that is inserted on the printout to the above left of the printed image.
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Center image horizontally—This forces the image to be centered horizontally in the print area.
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Options—The Options function lets you calibrate your printer’s output by changing the RGB channels and halftone adjustment. This allows you to correct for a printer’s tendency toward too much of one color. My experience has been, however, that most color printers ship with their own drivers for color correction, and it’s better to use those tools. If you really want to dig into color correction, check out Color Pilot (www.colorpilot.com)—it’s a powerful, yet incredibly easy to use color-correction tool. Preview—This activates the Print Preview function (detailed ahead). Clicking OK on this window will begin the printing of your images. Many color printers have specific settings for quality and paper type that need to be adjusted prior to printing. Clicking the Printer button will bring up the Windows Print Setup screen, and from there you can go into the properties for you printer.
Print Preview The Print Preview function is a function I use every time I print: It’s handy to see exactly how the image will look on the page. Is it big enough? Have I cropped it properly? Looking at the preview will answer all these questions right away. To access the Print Preview function, you can either hit the Preview button from the Print window (see Figure 15.3 above) or press CTRLALTP on your keyboard to jump right to it. The options in the Print Preview window (Figure 15.5) are straightforward: You can set the number of copies (from 1 to 99), the image margins (different from your printer margins), add a text title, pick the page size, center and scale the image as discussed above, zoom in/out, and preview it with a ruler. You can also resize the image and move it around the page—the image has handles that you can click and drag on to alter the size, and clicking and dragging in the body of the image will let you move it. Figure 15.5 The Print Preview dialog window.
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Once you’re sure the image is set up properly, hit the Print icon and you’re done.
Print Multiple The Print Multiple (CTRLSHIFTP) is a new feature to PhotoImpact 7, and it’s a very welcome enhancement. No longer do you need to used third-party applications to print more than one copy of an image on a page! The Print Multiple is found on the main toolbar at the top, the sixth icon in from the left. When you click on the Print Multiple, a new interface will load (see Figure 15.6). It’s important to note that you need to have an image loaded before the Print Multiple icon will appear. Even if it’s not the image you’re going to print, you need to open an image. Figure 15.6 Print Multiple interface.
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Click on the Paper Layout icon. This will load the Select Paper Layout window (Figure 15.7). It’s from this interface that you select your layout. There are a staggering number of choices—there are more than 120 Avery paper options alone! There are a dozen Kodak paper options, and still more in the Multiple Holders options and Disk and Label Tray options. Selecting the right one depends on your needs. Let’s assume that you have a color inkjet printer (Epson products are my personal favorite) and you want to print out a series of nine small photos.
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This is Print Multiple window from which you control the type of paper you’re printing on, the number of images per page, etc. Once you’ve started up Print Multiple, follow these steps to create your customized print-outs:
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Figure 15.7 Select your paper layout.
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Select Multiple Holders, then look for URMHa-2.5x3.5-1(L) in the list (Figure 15.8). Ulead picked some rather unfriendly names for these choices, but it’s easiest to look at the inch measurements and visually pick the best one. Make sure your paper alignment is on landscape mode and click next.
Figure 15.8 Choosing 2.5” by 3.5”prints.
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You’ll be prompted to select the source target if necessary—if you had already opened your image in PhotoImpact before pressing the Print Multiple button, you may already have the image you need. In this example, however, we want to print out different images, all onto one page. We’ll select Open it From Folder, then click Next.
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We’re then prompted to browse to the folder with the images we want to print. When you’ve selected the folder, as long as it has image types that PhotoImpact can recognize, it will draw thumbnail images of the images in that folder as Figure 15.9 shows.
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Figure 15.9 Selecting a folder.
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One at a time, click on the thumbnail of the image you want to print and drag it over to the location on the page. It will take a second to process, and your image will now appear on the page as Figure 15.10 shows. You need to do this for every image—there’s no way to do it automatically. Once on the page, images can be moved around, resized, etc.
Figure 15.10 Selecting a folder.
Click Next and you’ll be at the final step where you are asked how many copies you want to print. One copy is the default, so click on Print and you’re done! Be prepared for a bit of a wait when processing the print job—on my computer with 1 GHz Athlon CPU and 768 MB of RAM, it took nearly 30 seconds before the software even started to send the data to my printer.
The Print Multiple function introduced in PhotoImpact 7 is a welcome addition to this digital photography powerhouse. It makes printing your digital photos even easier than ever! And remember that by using Avery labels, you can put your images onto stickers, address labels, CD cases, and more. http://www.muskalipman.com
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Digital Image Resolution & Print Size In Chapter 7 we discussed printing digital images and resolution issues. It’s critical to understand this issue in order to get the best quality prints possible. Resolution, pixels, and DPI are all confusing concepts for many people to understand, so here’s an explanation that will, we hope, clear it up for you—even you expert users might gain some insight from this! Imagine you have a bucket of paint, and in that bucket there are 1000 droplets of paint. With your paintbrush, you can paint a one-foot by one-foot section of wall really thoroughly, giving it several coats of paint. Or you can paint a ten-foot by ten-foot wall, giving it a lot less paint but covering more area. Because you have to spread out the paint over a larger surface, the paint job doesn’t look quite as good. It’s a question of the quality of the paint job versus the size of the paint job, and that’s exactly the issue you’ll face with printing your digital images. Let’s put this into practical terms: A digital photo with a resolution of 16001200 pixels (2 megapixels) has enough pixels to fill up a 57 print with excellent quality. A 46 or 23 (wallet size) print will look phenomenal—remember that the smaller the area you’re cramming those pixels into, the better it will look because the pixels are closer together. But if you take that same 16001200-pixel image and blow it up to an 810-inch print, the quality will drop. It will still be passable, but you’ll see some quality issues. Anything larger than 810, like 1620 inches or 2030 inches, will look quite poor because those same pixels are being spread out to cover that bigger area. Think of it as a really bad paint job! Here’s a visual example of what I’m talking about. The image on the left (Figure 15.11) is an 1015811 pixel image printed at a size of 2 inches wide, and the image on the right (Figure 15.12) is 12197 pixels, also printed at 2 inches wide. They’re the same physical size, but figure 15.11 has more pixels, and gives us a better quality image. Figure 15.12 has less pixels available to spread over the two square inches, so our image looks quite bad. Figure 15.11 1015811-pixel image. Figure 15.12 12197-pixel image.
So how do you know how big you can go with your digital prints? Use these simple rules of thumb: 23-inch photo: almost any resolution, even 640480 pixels (0.3 megapixel). 46-inch photo: minimum 1500750 pixels (1 megapixel). 57-inch photo: minimum 16001200 pixels (2 megapixels). 810-inch photo: minimum 16001200 pixels (2 megapixels), suggested 20481536 pixels (3 megapixel) for great quality. http://www.muskalipman.com
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1620-inch photo: it’s very difficult to find a digital camera that will deliver quality results at a size this large. A 25601920 (5 megapixel) resolution image would look passable, but not fantastic. 2030-inch photo: almost impossible to find a camera that will deliver quality results at a size this large. A 25601920 (5 megapixel) resolution image would be difficult to print out at a passable quality level. When you get to these sizes, you start to get into the realm of re-sampling (re-sizing) the image to a higher resolution. It can be done (CTRLG), but the quality of the image drops and it becomes fuzzy. Note that the above resolution sizes are approximate—if you have a digital camera that gives you 14001100-pixel images, a 57-inch photo would still look fine. The 1620-inch and 2030-inch image sizes above are extremely large prints, likely more suited to large graphics projects rather than digital camera images. The lesson? Always shoot images with your camera at maximum resolution—it’s easy to go from a high-resolution image down to a low-resolution for Web display, but if you have a small image to start with, it’s impossible to make it bigger without a loss in quality. Think big! NOTE If you don’t own a digital camera yet, or are looking to upgrade the one you have, the megapixel number isn’t the most important thing to look for. Image quality is paramount—cameras vary in how well they reproduce skin tones and how well they shoot photos under low-light conditions. Two of my favorite Web sites are Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) and The Imaging Resource (www.imaging-resource.com)—each site has great reviews to help you make your purchasing decisions. The Imaging Resource in particular has a great feature on their Web site called “The Comparometer” that allows you to compare the same image from different cameras. If you’re trying to decide between two cameras, seeing the real image output will often make the decision much easier. Do a bit of research before you buy a camera and you’ll be glad you did.
Online Digital Print Services
Using a digital print service is a snap. The general concept works like this: 1.
You create an account with the service; in most cases, this will be free.
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Something wonderful has happened in the world of photography over the past few years: It’s now possible to order high-quality and affordable prints over the Web, using your browser as the interface for getting it all done. I’ve tried several different services like this, and I’ll say this much about all of them: Regardless of how good your printer is, nothing can match seeing your high-res image on thick, high-gloss photo paper. These companies invest a great deal of money in cutting-edge printing technology, and through the wonders of the Internet, you can get 46 prints for 29 cents each, sometimes cheaper.
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Using your browser, you can apply special effects to the images and order multiple prints and sizes, frames, photo T-shirts, and other photo-related gifts. You can also select high-quality wooden frames or novelty seasonal frames (varies depending on the service).
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With a credit card, you place your order. Your prints will be delivered to you via mail or courier, usually in a few days.
Kodak PhotoNet Online www.photonet.com This was the first service I tried, and I thought that because it was Kodak, it would be top-notch in every way. Was I ever wrong! The Web site doesn’t allow for the easy drag-and-drop uploads that the other sites do, the print quality was noticeably worse than Ofoto and Shutterfly (my prints looked muddy and dark), and, worst of all, in order to upload your prints you need to buy a virtual “roll of film.” After shelling out six bucks, you can upload thirty-six images, but the “roll” lasts only 30 days! Considering that I routinely shoot a hundred or more images at every event, I’d be spending $20 each month just to host my images. On the plus side, they have interesting photo gifts like mouse pads, coffee mugs, jigsaw puzzles, and T-shirts. Neat gifts aside, I can’t recommend this service. Kodak makes fantastic digital cameras, but it just doesn’t “get it” when it comes to online digital print services. They’ve recently acquired Ofoto (described below) but appear to be still using the site’s old system. At some point I imagine Kodak will absorb Ofoto and use their print services.
Shutterfly www.shutterfly.com Shutterfly wins major points in the creative realm! After you upload your photos, you can choose from dozens of creative borders—everything from romantic hearts to unusual textures. You can also change the hue of your image, crop it, adjust the saturation, and add a soft-focus effect to your image—all in your browser! The print quality from Shutterfly is decent, although not quite as good as Ofoto. Image storage isn’t a problem. You can upload as many images as you want, for as long as you want. They’ve also recently begun shipping outside the United States, making them an option for customers around the world.
Ofoto www.ofoto.com Ofoto is my number-one choice for digital prints. The quality is much higher than the Kodak service and has a little better color saturation than Shutterfly, and the prices are great. You can upload your images via the browser or use their free OfotoNow software package to crop and correct images, then upload in bulk. Ofoto has an incredible selection of great frames. I found the site’s customer service to be fantastic as well. Although they’ve made minor errors on two of my dozen orders since I’ve been a member, I’ve received e-mail responses back the same day and the errors are always promptly fixed. Perfection is hard to find in any company, so great customer service is a must! Lastly, they don’t charge for storing photos. I have more than 500 photos online, which other people can browse through and order prints, and the images can stay up there for as long as I want. Hard drive space being as cheap as it is, offering this to consumers only makes sense (Kodak, are you listening?). Ofoto will also process your 35mm http://www.muskalipman.com
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film for free and load the scanned images into your account. Lastly, Ofoto ships to the United States, Canada, and overseas. One thing I wish they’d add is support for PNG files. When I’m editing a digital photo, I don’t want to resave it as a JPEG and have another generation of quality loss, so I always output as a PNG file.
dotPhoto www.dotphoto.com dotPhoto is an excellent service that has print quality very close to that of Ofoto (described above), very aggressive pricing, and good customer service. One advantage that dotPhoto has that I haven’t seen anywhere else is the ability to set pricing on photos in your shared albums. What this means in practical terms is that if you’re a photographer who took photos of an event, and you want to sell them to others, you can set your own pricing. dotPhoto takes their base cut, and it leaves you with the rest. This is a very innovative way to get professional photographers on board! dotPhoto would be my second choice for getting general prints done, but if I needed to get 100-plus prints, this service would be my first pick—the pricing is too good to pass up.
iMira www.imira.com Although I haven’t seen the print quality from this service, I thought it was worth mentioning in this lineup because iMira is Ulead’s creation. They’ve integrated an iMira “drop zone” into Photo Explorer, making it simple to upload your photos. iMira offers a lot of free services, including guest book, electronic greeting cards, and photo galleries you can share with others. They offer (for a fee) digital prints of your images, in sizes from 46 inches up to 1114 inches. I found their site a little confusing to use: After I uploaded a photo into my gallery, I couldn’t see a simple way to request prints of the image. The only way to get a print was to upload the image again through a different section of the Web site. TIP If you want to see how much better these digital print services are than your own printer, get a print sample of the same image from both. Using the best paper possible and the highest quality setting on your printer, print out a sample image (the more colorful and complex the better). Then upload the same image to the sites and request print samples from each one. This will give you a good benchmark for comparison.
The quality of these prints are so high that I routinely order them with frames and give them out as gifts. Digital cameras are great for capturing images and putting them onto the computer, but there’s something special about having real photographs to hang on the wall. Digital photography gives you the freedom to do more than traditional photography, and online print services can give you the quality to make your digital masterpieces worthy of hanging up in your home. PhotoImpact is the tool that ties it all together—talk about a powerful combination!
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Sharing your images with others The explosion in popularity of e-mail and the Web has enabled people to easily send images and URLs to Web pages. Digital images tend to look best when kept digital: Even the best printers have difficulty exactly recreating the screen image on paper. Besides, the Web offers many more creative avenues for posting and manipulating those images. PhotoImpact gives you a few different ways to share your creativity—digitally.
E-mailing Images Under the File > Export menu, you’ll find options for exporting your image. One of them is Send—selecting this option will trigger a dialog box (see Figure 15.13) with options for sending your image via e-mail. There are two options to choose from: Web Page or Image File. Figure 15.13 The Send Image function.
The default selection is Image file. When you select this, it will compress the image in JPEG format. Image file will give you a quality setting of around 75 and open up a new e-mail message. You can change the file name if you want by typing in a new one, but remember to leave the .jpg extension on the end of the file or it will come through as an unknown file type at the other end. Selecting Web page saves the image, creates HTML code, and bundles them together in a single compressed.exe file that is attached to a new e-mail message (see Figure 15.14). When the user receives the e-mail and double-clicks on the attachment, it will decompress itself and open in the default browser. The recipient doesn’t need to have any special software, just a Web browser. Figure 15.14 The Send Web Page function.
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This method is great for sending actual Web pages to another person. It will maintain rollovers, image maps, and every other HTML setting you’ve created. A new function added to PhotoImpact 7 under the same File > Export menu is the SVG option. SVG is short for Scaleable Vector Graphics. SVG is a relatively new format on the graphics front, and it represents a step toward graphics that can get bigger or smaller without loss of quality or increased download speeds (very similar to Macromedia Flash). To the best of my knowledge no current Web browser supports the display of SVG—I tested the exported graphic in both Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape Navigator 6.1, and neither would display the SVG graphic until I downloaded and installed the Adobe SVG Viewer (www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html). Once this was installed, I could view the SVG image in Microsoft Internet Explorer. The reality is that few, if any, of your Web site visitors or friends will download and install a special viewer just to see your image. It’s better to use more common formats for sending your file, like JPEG. SVG represents a future graphics format that may offer significant enhancements over current formats like GIF and JPEG, but until the installed base of people who can see that format radically increases, it’s best to avoid this format completely. Bravo to Ulead, however, for adding support for it in its early stages!
iMira.com Web Album Also under the File > Export menu, you’ll find the Post to iMira function. When you select this, one of two things will happen, depending on whether or not you have an iMira account.
If You Have an iMira Account… If you already have an iMira account, the iMira Image Optimizer will appear (see Figure 15.15). From here you can select the JPEG compression or GIF optimization you want. Figure 15.15 iMira Image Optimizer.
Figure 15.16 Selecting an upload location.
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After you select the compression, you’ll be presented with a window like Figure 15.16—you’ll be prompted to upload your image to a specific album, or you can create your own. If you always upload your images to the same album, you can check the Do Not Display This Again box to bypass this step each time.
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Once your image is uploaded, you click OK and will be taken to a Web page where your photos are listed (see Figure 15.17). From here you can share the album, send photos via eCards, and order prints. Figure 15.17 The photos are added to your Web account.
If You Don’t Have an iMira Account… Figure 15.18 The iMira drop spot
If you haven’t created an iMira account before, the iMira drop spot shown in figure 15.18 will pop up. Click on Create New Account on the Web. This will bring you to the iMira Web site, where you can create a new account. As an iMira member, you’ll get 20 megs of storage. This should accommodate at least forty photos depending on the resolution. Clicking on Configure Internet Access brings up a series of tabbed windows where you set your Internet connection type, username, password for iMira (if you already have an account), and size settings. Until you’ve created your account, you can ignore these settings.
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