11/10/22

Nick Bikoff

Have you ever wanted to photo edit? Has there been times where you want to make an impression online but don’t know where to start, or how? Are you sick of using Canva? Pixlr E is a professional photo editor that can have you editing very soon. “What’s the catch?” you may be asking yourself. The truth is, there is no catch. Here are the essentials for Pixlr E, and how to use it.

How to get there:

There are two ways you can get to Pixlr E. The first way is the simplest.

Clicking this will open a file selector, but only for images classified as .png’s, .jpg’s, .jpeg’s, and .webp’s. Select an image, and then click Open. The other thing you can do is click the gray or black button that’s labeled, “Create New”. Clicking this will open a lot of options. It can be overwhelming, but the top bar can narrow it down.

Recommended are the options that are most often used, Photo is if you are editing a regular photo. Social is editing things for apps like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Web is for web pages. Print is printing things on pieces of paper(8x11 is a standard piece of paper), and Video is for videos, but there are better ways to video edit. Once you make a selection of a category, click on an option, then name the option in the right column. Selecting something will auto-set the height and width, so there’s no reason to fix that. Turning on the background will allow you to select background colors, then, when you’re ready, click create. Once you do one of those things, you are at a different page. The easiest tools to use are Arrange, Marquee Select, Lasso Select, Wand Select, and Crop. Watch the video linked below for the tutorials for these tools:

Some harder-to-use tools:

Some tools are harder to use than others. I’d say that the tools that are a bit harder to use are the tools that don’t exactly do much, unless you're really digging in. I’d say that some of these tools are Heal, Cutout/Mask, Liquify, and Clone. Heal heals the image, which I show you, Cutout/Mask is hard to explain, but easier to show, Liquify is easy to show, and Clone is self explanatory. Watch the video linked below for a tutorial for how to use these tools:

Overlooked tools:

Overlooked tools are tools that don’t get much attention, and aren’t exactly that fun. Overlooked tools include Blur/Sharpen/Smudge, Sponge/Color, and Dodge/Burn, among others. Blur/Sharpen/Smudge does exactly what the name suggests, Sponge/Color absorbs or gives color, and Dodge/Burn is hard to explain. The tutorials for these objects and two others are linked here:

Drawing tools

The drawing tools are what a lot of people want to get to as quickly as possible. Drawing tools are tools that give you the ability to draw. Most of the drawing tools are listed here:

• Pen

• Draw

• Color Replace

• Fill

• Eraser

• Gradient

• Shape

• Picker

• Frame/Image Holder

All of these are pretty self explanatory, but here is the tutorial on how to use all of these:

Miscellaneous tools:

Miscellaneous tools are tools that do things, are often used, and are near the bottom. Miscellaneous tools are Text Box, Zoom, and Hand Pan. You don’t really end up clicking on Zoom often, though, because you have a scroll wheel or reverse pinching the screen(spreading your fingers apart, so not pinching). Hand Pan is an already selected feature if you’re on the Arrange tool, so really, you only need to actually select the Text Box tool. For tutorials on these tools, watch the video linked below:

One tip:

You might have seen a bar on the right side of the editor. The three subsections of this bar are Navigate, Layer, and History. You may have been like me, and decided to delete all three of these bars. DO NOT DO THAT. I can not stress this enough. There have been many times where I need this bar. Please, don’t do it. Although, if you did, there is still hope. Simply open an image, click “View”, then click on “Restore All Panels”. It should pull up the bars again. Watch this video for a really quick tutorial on how to get the bars back:

One design:

Time for what this has been leading up toward, a design. I’m going to explain the steps in order to make a ripped paper aesthetic, all of the steps into making it. It’ll be easier just to use a video tutorial, again. Video linked below:

Contributor Bio

Nick Bikoff is a 6th grader at Edgewood Junior High School. He does taekwondo and is a green-yellow belt, and is about to become a green belt. He enjoys the potatoes at China Star Buffet. He also plays the saxophone and read all summer about embouchure and fingerings. He wants to play piano, but currently does not own one. He also knows a little bit of guitar.