![]() |
Return to Don Edrington's Home Page |
![]()
Helpful PC Tips You Can Use Right Now...
|
|
How to Make a "ScreenPrint" of Something Displayed on Your Monitor (such as a Help file or an Error message) Using Your "PrtScr" KeyIf you press the PrtScr (Print Screen) key on your keyboard, everything currently displayed on your monitor is "copied" into the "invisible Windows Clipboard." You can then launch the "Windows Paint" program by going to Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint and doing Ctrl+V to "paste" it all into this program as a bitmap image. If you hold down ALT while pressing PrtScr, only the top "window" or "dialogue box" will be copied, and displayed when you "paste" it into Paint. Next, you can use Paint's "Select" tool (the dashed rectangle in the upper right corner of the Tool Bar) to outline a target area of the image and then do Ctrl+C to copy it. Now you can go to File, New, and do Ctrl+V to paste in the cropped section as a new image. Finally, go to File, Save As, and save the graphic as a JPG. The saved file will normally be sent to your "My Pictures" folder, but you can choose another folder or place it on your Desktop, if you prefer. Read about using PrtScr with Irfanview at Bottom of Page* |
How to Crop & Resize Pictures
|
How to Crop & Resize Pictures |
Now you may want to "crop" the photo, i.e. select the important area, and eliminate the extraneous background which can quickly empty your expensive inkjet cartridges. With your left mouse-button held down, use the arrow pointer to draw a box around the area you want to keep. Release the mouse-button to fix the dashed outline in place. Finally, click the toolbar scissors followed by clicking the "clipboard paste" icon to complete the cropping. Irfanview doesn't have the huge arsenal of editing tools found in programs like PhotoShop or PaintShopPro, but it does have some useful ones. If a photo is too dark or too light or needs some color correction, click on Image > Enhance Colors. Here you'll find sliding scales for increasing or decreasing Brightness and Contrast, along with scales for adding and subtracting RGB (red, green, blue) colors. You'll also see two reduced images - one to show the original coloring and one to show the changes taking place as you edit. When the photo has been cropped and/or resized the way you want it, go to File > Save As and name it - you can keep the existing name, or type a new one. In the "Save as Type" field, choose JPG for any picture you plan to email or post on a Web site. In fact, JPG has become the most popular format for snapshots and family photos. (More about the other formats later.) If, after clicking OK, you're not pleased with the end result, use Edit>Undo to revert to the original image. You'll find several other useful options under Image, such as Rotate, Flip, Sharpen, and Convert to Negative or Gray Scale. Under Image>Effects you'll find some avant-garde treatments such as Emboss, Oil Paint, and Explosion. |
If you plan on doing a lot of edits on a particular image, I'd recommend saving it as a BMP, rather than as a JPG, while you edit. Re-edits on a JPG tend to diminish resolution quality with each subsequent Save. BMPs, conversely, maintain resolution quality with multiple Saves. Save the picture as a JPG when you're sure you will do no more editing on it, and keep the BMP version on hand, just in case. If file size is a major consideration, a JPG can have its byte count adjusted with a slide bar which appears when doing File>Save As>(filename).JPG. Experiment to see how small you can make a JPG and still maintain a presentable final result. In addition to manipulating JPG options, the physical size of a picture obviously affects its final byte count. If you have trouble emailing, say, an 8x10-inch image, how about reducing it to 4x6 - or something in between? Use cropping and/or resizing to get the size and aspect ratio you want. As for printing, if you're using a "photo printer" dedicated to outputting standard sizes such as 3x5 or 4x6, crop and resize before you print. Otherwise you can waste a lot of ink printing out acres of, say, the grass and sky which surround a tiny subject in the middle of the picture. Using Irfanview with a Scanner Irfanview also works beautifully with desktop scanners. Use File > Select Twain Source to make your PC communicate with your scanner, and File > Acquire to do the scanning. *Using Your "PrintScreen" Key with IrfanviewTo capture something seen on your Desktop, press PrtScr (the PrintScreen key), followed by opening Irfanview and clicking the Paste Icon. Crop and Save As, to preserve the image, along with using any of the editing steps explained above. |
Top of Page Return to Don Edrington's Home Page |
|