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The first step is to right click on
this image and save it to your hard drive. (Right click and click on it
and click on save image as...) |
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Now open Photo Impact, browse to the image
and open it. (Click on the opening folder icon in the tool bar.) |
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Now that your image is open, click on Edit,
expand. It is marked with a one here. |
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A dialog box will open, like this.
Make sure the lock is on first, (marked with a red arrow here) and then
type 30 in the box marked left. All the boxes will fill in with the number
30. Click on the button marked OK.
(If you are planning on a solid
color frame, you can choose the color for it by right clicking on the box
next to "expand color". Choose a color that will blend in by clicking on
eydropper Since that is not what we will be doing here, I won't include
an image for this, but for future reference, a box will open with your
image in it. Your cursor will change to an eyedropper, and you can
select your color by clicking on one you would like for your frame.) |
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Anyway, let's get back to what we are doing
here. You have expanded your graphic and it should now look something like
this: (larger of course and perhaps with a different background color.
Color is unimportant at
this point.) |
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Now we are ready to select our expanded
section to fill it with our desired gradient.
Click on the selection tools outlined
in a red rectangle here. When you
click on the tool and hold the button down for a second or two, a box will
pop open with more choices listed. Click on Magic Wand Tool.
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After you change to the magic wand tool,
you will see this bar, that we call the attibute bar change to show these
tools. Check your similarity. The number here controls how many similar
colors are included when the magic wand slects pixels of a certain color.
If you get areas where the selection "bleeds" into the graphic like is
shown in the second image to the left, you need to lower this number. Experiment
to find the best setting for your graphic. |
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Now, using your magic wand, click on the
expanded area on your grapic so that it alone is selected. In this example,
I only show a small corner of what your work will look like at this point,
but you can see that the selection marquee is around both the outside of
the white area and the inside next to the graphic. The two marquees are
marked with arrows. From here on, you should leave this area selected.
This last is very important. |
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Look again at the edit menu, the third image
on this page. You will see that I have marked with a 2 the word fill...
Click on edit, then click on Fill...
A dialog box opens. Click on the gradient tab, and then click in the box
with the little gradient picture next to the words magic gradient.
I have marked it with an arrow. |
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Another box will open titled pallette ramp.
Look through the various gradient types marked with arrows in the illustration.
Click on the one I have outlined in red, which is mode 14. Under
the gradient circle, there is a button marked edit. |
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Click on it, and yet
another box will open titled Palette ramp editor. For this image
I have chosen the gradient with brown tones numbered 007. It is outlined
in blue. So click on gradient number 7, and close all three boxes
by clicking the ok button in each one |
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Your graphic is now outlined in the brown
gradient. Note that the selection marquee should still be around
it. |
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Now click on the web section of the menu
bar And then on button desgner, Any Shape. |
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In the basic tab, scroll though the
buttons shown on the bottom until you get to the one in the next
to the bottom row that I have outlined here. Click on it. |
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Click on the tab marked Bevel. Set
your options as I have mine here. I have outlined the bevel type
I chose.
This bevel will not be visible until you
use the scroll button to look at the other ones available. See arrow.
Click the ok button.
Congratulations! Your graphic is now framed.
If you wish, you can stop here and use this graphic as is, however you
wish. |
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If you want to make stationery, contintue
as follows.
Click on file, new and then in the box that
opens as a result, click on "active image"
This will set the size of your new image
the same as your image that is already open. Now erase the number
in the width box, (marked with an arrow here), and type in 1152.
Increase the height by 10 to 15 pixels. Do
not copy my height dimension in this box, because your graphic will most
likely be a different size. Whatever is there add 10 - 15 pixels
to it.
Click on ok to close the box. Right click
on the white area of the new image, and click again on paste.
This will line up your image just right
along the left side, and will be perfectly centered.
Use the arrow keys to move the image about
10 pixels over so that it is not aligned all the way over to the left.
For a framed graphic on stationery, this looks better.
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At this point, I often add a drop shadow
to the image. Right click on your selected image, and click again
on shadow. Click in the Check box to add a shadow, and click
on ok. |
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Now press the space bar to select the white
area under your image.
Press control and F key at the same time
to open the fill dialog box.
Use the eydropper tool to select the same
color as is in the background of your photo.
Click on OK. Your strip is almost ready.
Right click and merge all. |
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Now we need to optimize or shrink the size
so that your friends won't have to wait forever when downloading
their mail. I like to keep the size under 60 kbs if at all possible.
Now click on web in the menu bar and click
on Image optimizer. |
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This will open another box. In this box,
you will see your image shown in two boxes. The one on the left is
the uncompressed version, and the one on the right is the compressed version.
You will only see the background color of your strip when the box opens.
Point to and click on the image, and slide
it to the right so that you can see the image, and not just the background.
Here I have used the illustration from the
Clip art tutorial, so don't get confused.
Make sure you have jpg selected.
Use the slider to adjust the level of compression,
while noticing the differences the compession level makes in your image.
Slide it far enough back to the left until you begin to see a difference,
and then back up just enough so that you see no difference. This
will give you the most compresed image possible while your end product
is still attractive. Be aware, that if you fill your background strip
with a texture, the more textured it is, the higher the size of the end
product. While textured backgrounds can be very attractive, they
are also quite costly to the size, and should especially avoided in web
backgrounds. |
