In this lesson you will learn the following basic skills in image editing:
Cropping
Resizing
Adding text onto the image
Adjusting brightness and contrast
Perform this exercise as a group, where the Content Management students from the same regional center together perform and learn the steps below.
You have learned to post news about your regional center in Lesson 4. A news item is more interesting and conveys more information if accompanied by a photograph or chart. Go back to the news item that you posted in the Regional News page. Select an appropriate photograph or chart you can insert in the news item. The image must be well-focused and show good resolution or sharp outlines, otherwise it will be too hazy or blurred in case you will need to reduce its size later. Select an image that is not too dark or too bright, or which have parts that are very dark and other parts that are very bright.
Perform the following exercises using the image file. The simplest and most intuitive application to use by beginners for cropping, resizing and adding text onto an image file is Paint which is part of an MS Office suite. For adjusting brightness and contrast, the free software Paint.net is an easy-to-learn application to use. It is also based on, and therefore it is very similar to, Paint.
Cropping
Look for the image file name in the File Explorer window. Right-click on the image file name, then click Open With and select Paint. The image will appear in the Paint screen.
If the image is too small or too large for the screen, you can select the Zoom In or Zoom Out in the View tab.
In the Home tab, click Select. The cursor now becomes a selection tool.
Left-click-and-hold the cursor on the point on the image where you want the new upper left point of the cropped picture to be, then while still holding the left-click button, drag your mouse (a dashed selection rectangle will appear) and release the left-click at another po,int on the image you want the new lower right point of the cropped picture to be. The dashed selection rectangle shows the extent of the cropped image.
Note that you can undo any immediate past command by pressing Ctrl-Z.
If you wish to set a different selection rectangle, repeat the step above.
Once you are satisfied with the selection rectangle, click Crop. The picture is now cropped but you have not yet saved it.
Go to the File tab and click Save As, and type the new file name "image name - cropped" where "image name" is the name of the original image file. In this way you preserve the latter in case you change your mind and you want to crop it differently.
Resizing
In the Home tab, click Resize. A dialog box will appear.
It is suggested that you resize by Percentage and make sure the Maintain Aspect Ratio remains checked.
For website pictures, resolution should be much lower than for document pictures. A website picture of size 50 KB looks almost as good as one of size 5 MB. If you wish to reduce the size, type a number less than 100 in either the Horizontal or Vertical box. Click OK. You have resized the image but you have not yet saved it.
Go to the File tab and click Save As, and type the new file name "image name - resized" where "image name" is the name of the original image file. In this way you preserve the latter in case you change your mind and you want to resize it differently.
Check the new size by going to the File tab, clicking Properties and checking what is the Size on Disc.
If you are not satisfied with the new size, you can undo the resize step by pressing Ctrl-Z. It is recommended that any image be only about 50 KB in size.
Adding Text onto the Image
Click the letter A in the Home tab and create a selection rectangle where you want the text to be placed.
A Text tab will appear which allows you to select the font type, font size, font color, etc. Make your font selections and type the text on the selection rectangle.
When you are done, click outside the selection rectangle to get out of the Text mode. You have added text onto your image, but you have not saved it yet.
If you wish to change or erase what you entered, just press Ctrl-Z and repeat the above steps.
Adjusting Brightness and Contrast
You must first download and install Paint.net. Click HERE to go to the dotPDN website, download Paint.net and follow the instructions for installing this free application.
Look for the image file name in the File Explorer window. Right-click on the image file name, then click Open With and select Paint.net. The image will appear in the Paint.net screen.
If the image is too small or too large for the screen, you can zoom in or out using Ctrl-+(plus) or Ctrl--(minus).
To adjust brightness and/or contrast, click Adjustment and select Brightness/Contrast in the drop-down menu. A control box will appear.
Adjust brightness by sliding the Brightness pointer or by entering a positive or negative number in the Brightness box. You can immediately see the result of your adjustment on the image.
Do the same for Contrast.
When you are satisfied, click OK. You have adjusted brightness and contrast, but you still need to save your new image.
Go to the File tab and click Save As, and type the new file name "image name - adjusted" where "image name" is the name of the original image file. In this way you preserve the latter in case you change your mind and you want to adjust it differently.
After you are done with the above exercises, insert your image file in the regional news that you had earlier created.