Editing Pics

[evesham]

Anybody reccommend a good program for cropping and resizing pics without losing quality?

ive tries PSP, Photosuite and IPhoto plus but they all seem to lose quality easily.

TIA any help wud be useful

[Drunken Sniper]

I use PhotoShop. Works GREAT if you do it PROPERLY. Sometimes when going too much smaller though you will get a little bit of a blur added to the pics. That can be taken care of by Sharpen Edges option though.

[nycov]

i use ACDSee...i can crop with no loss and resize with hardly any noticible loss

of course...you will see the difference, but the posted pic will seem as the original...


and i moved this here..lol

[SumDumGuy]

My icon is a large part of a 1280 X 1024 original. I used Photoshop to crop, reduce and sharpen. As nycov mentions ACDSee is excellent as well.

[Candidographer]

I suggest you use, Adobe Photoshop CS2, why? You can do a lot of photo enhancing, cropping, resizing without lossing your image quality, adjusting the color balance, x-ray effects and a whole lot more. In Photoshop you can do things that you can’t even imagine it’s possible. It would just need a little time to master those tricks and when you do, call yourself a God.

For further questions just keep me posted and I will try to answer them for you.

Keep me posted of your progress....

If you need more help, you can always find me here.

“Those who are different change the world, those who are the same keep it that way”

[Candidographer]

With image-editing software you can create cool graphics for your web site, fix photographs, or work with scanned images. Image editing software is easier to use than it used to be as more companies have noticed that with the prevalence of digital cameras, a lot of non-artists need image editing software too.

Even with easier software, you can still make a big mess when you work with images. So before you attempt your next great photo retouching project, it helps to know something about how image editing works. A little common sense goes a long way when dealing with image files. If you consider what you are going to use the file for and think about who will view your files and where, you can avoid cluttering your hard disk with loads of gigantic and unwieldy files.

Understand Resolution
When you work with images, you need to understand the term resolution. You run across this term in relation to your monitor, scanner, printer, and the image itself. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi) and indicates how many dots (or pixels) are in one lineal inch. Most monitors display 72-96 dpi and laser printers range from 300-1200 dpi. Image setters print at 1270-2540 dpi. The higher the dpi, the more detail there is and the sharper the image appears.

When you create an image in an image editing program, you need to consider where the image will be viewed. If it will be printed on an image setter, the resolution needs to be higher than if you are going to put it on your web site. And vice versa.

If you don't plan to do anything with that cool photo of your cat, except put it on your website, scan Fluffy at 72 or 96 dpi. Image files get very large very quickly, so resist the temptation to scan photographs at high resolutions. Just because your scanner or digital camera can support high resolutions, doesn't mean you should create images at the highest resolution possible.

More is not better in this case because the higher the resolution, the larger the file size. If you plan to print your image at a commercial print shop, talk to the printer and find out what resolution they need before you hand over the image files.

When you create images, wasted pixels mean wasted space on your hard disk. It's best to know the final dimensions of the image you plan to use and then scan the image at the correct size. When you resize an image, the software either adds or deletes pixels. When you decrease the number of pixels to make an image smaller, the software has to delete information from the image.

Obviously this process of resizing can have an effect on your image. What's less obvious is that making an image larger also affects the image. When you increase the number of pixels the software adds information about the new pixels based on color values of neighboring pixels. So basically the software has to "make up" this new information, and the results can be hideous. In general, in terms of image quality, it is better to make a large picture smaller than to make a small picture larger.

Understand File Formats
When you start using image editing software, you will be confronted with a dizzying array of file formats in the Save As dialog box. Not everyone uses the same image editing software, so saving your art in one of the standard formats makes it easier to share files with others. The format you select depends on what you want to do with the file.

Tagged Image Format (TIF) has been popular among artists for years. If you are going to print your image or share it with someone using a Macintosh, TIF is a good choice. This format uses a "lossless" form of compression, which means it reduces the file size without sacrificing image quality.
If you plan to put your files on the Internet, GIF and JPG are the formats supported by most Internet browsers. However, they compress images differently, so the choice between GIF and JPG depends on the type of image you are saving. The GIF format can display a maximum of 256 colors, so it is best used for line drawings, clip art, and other images with large blocks of solid colors. GIF files also are used for animations and support transparency, so a Web pages' background shows through when the image is displayed in a browser.

Unlike GIF, the JPG format can display more than 256 colors. So it's most often used for photographs and scanned pictures or images with color gradients. Unlike TIF or GIF, JPG uses a "lossy" form of compression, which means it discards information when the picture is resaved. Unlike GIF, the JPG format does not support animation or transparency. When you save a picture as a JPG file, the transparent parts of the image are converted to a solid color.

Learn About Color
When you create an image, you also need to think about how many colors it will use and which color model you should use. If the image is going to be printed using four-color process printing technology, be sure that the image mode is set to CMYK. Conversely, if you are going to use your image on the Internet, the image should be set to the RGB color model or a web-safe palette, so you can select browser-safe colors. Browser-safe colors are one of the 216 common colors that are shared across browsers, operating systems, and computer platforms. The 216 colors are combinations of RGB values 0, 51, 102, 153, 205, and 255. Many people have put color palettes on the Web that give you the RGB values for browser-safe colors.
Additionally, in many programs commands may be grayed out depending on which color model you are using and/or how many colors are being displayed (called the color depth). For example, in Paint Shop Pro your image must have a 24-bit color depth (16 million colors) before you can apply many of the programs effects and functions. You can make the commands available by increasing the color depth of your image. However, remember that the more colors an image has, the larger the file size will be.


For further questions just keep me posted and I will try to answer them for you.

Keep me posted of your progress....

If you need more help, you can always find me here.