|
Copying Images from
a Web Site or an Email
Copying Images from a Web Site or an Email
A reader wrote to ask if I had any lighthouse "clipart" drawings. Another
said he wanted to save a cartoon attached to an email he'd received, but
didn't know how to do it.
Well, there was a time when most clipart came on a disk, or could be
purchased from commercial "art" sites. However, I have 100s of drawings,
paintings, and photos on my site, most of which were obtained by going to
Google.com, clicking Images, and
typing in a search phrase.
If you're looking for, say, a drawing of the Lincoln Memorial (rather than a
photo) try adding the term GIF to your search phrase. GIF is an image format
that is often used for Web page and email graphics. GIF is also used for
creating most of the cute animations found online and in emails.
A Web page or email image can usually be copied to your PC by
right-clicking it and choosing Save Picture As. Accept the graphic's
name — or type in a new one — click OK, and a copy will be sent to your
My Pictures folder (or you can choose any location you prefer, including
your Desktop).
Alternatively, you can right-click an image and choose Copy, whereupon you
can right-click into an open word processing page or an outbound email and
choose Paste. You can even use Edit>Paste to put the image on a "canvas"
in Windows Paint or Irfanview for subsequent editing.
If a Web page graphic won't respond to a right-click, you can still copy it
by pressing your PrtSc (Print Screen) key, opening an image-editor and
choosing Edit>Paste. Or you can right-click into an open word processing
page and choose Paste. Either action will paste in an image of everything
currently on your Desktop.
I do this all the time with Irfanview (free from www.irfanview.com) since the pasted
graphic can immediately be cropped by mouse-drawing a rectangle around it
and choosing Edit>Cut. It can then be immediately pasted back in as a new
graphic with Edit>Paste, and resized to any dimensions I prefer with
Image>Resize.
Speaking of image-editing, TV celeb Katie Couric was in the news recently
because someone criticized a photo which made her appear slimmer than she
actually is. Well, my point is that anyone with a PC can edit any digital
photo with a comprehensive image-editing program, such as Adobe PhotoShop or
Corel Paint Shop Pro.
When I started work at the Fallbrook Enterprise in the mid-1990s, I was
handed a photo of a group of Special Ed students receiving certificates. One
boy was absent that day, but was photographed later on the steps where his peers had
stood the day before.
When I suggested to Enterprise Editor Betty Johnston digitally integrating
the boy into the first photo so he would appear to be standing with the
others, she replied, "Don't you dare! What if he had been out doing
something illegal when the first shot was taken, and then tried to use the
newspaper photo as an alibi?" Both pictures were published, and I learned a
valuable lesson in photo-journalistic ethics.
Speaking of ethics, copying an image from a web page is a violation of the image
owner's copyright, unless the owner has specifically given permission to do so.
Admittedly, this is a law that is broken thousands — perhaps millions — of times every
day, and one which is not very high on a law enforcement agency's priority list.
Nonetheless, it's something a computer user should be aware of. For my part, I place
a disclaimer on my pages that display copied graphics, along with a statement that such
graphics will be removed if and when a copyright owner so requests.
|
Senior Computer Tutor
There are no fancy sign-up forms – just mention newsletter in the subject line of your email.
