{"id":804,"date":"2007-08-16T01:09:41","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T01:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amibroker.org\/userkb\/2007\/08\/04\/capturing-images-using-microsoft-paint\/"},"modified":"2007-09-10T01:47:32","modified_gmt":"2007-09-10T01:47:32","slug":"capturing-images-using-microsoft-paint-v3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amibroker.org\/editable_userkb\/2007\/08\/16\/capturing-images-using-microsoft-paint-v3\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing Images Using Microsoft Paint (v3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

DRAFT <\/font><\/p>\n

OBJECTIVE<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

 The objective of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to use Microsoft Paint<\/em> to capture screen images suitable for insertion into Users’ Knowledge Base<\/em> (UKB) posts.<\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paint<\/em> is a simple drawing and image editing tool that is generic to all versions of Microsoft Windows<\/em>. It can be used to capture, and edit, screen images for use in UKB posts. The program can be opened from the operating system Start > All Programs > Accessories<\/em> path. The program is limited in features but ‘professional’ level publishing skills are not essential for publishing to the UKB. Content is considered more important than the format! It is recommended for occasional authors, especially if a post only contains a few images, or for those who prefer not to have to buy screen capture software.<\/p>\n

For additional information on Paint refer to: Paint (Software) from Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

Paint supports BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG file-types. For a comparison of the suitability of each type, for web  publishing, refer to: GIFF, JPEG or PNG<\/a><\/p>\n

SPECIFICATIONS<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This tutorial was written using Microsoft XPHome<\/em>, Word 2002<\/em> and Paint V5.1<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CAPTURING IMAGES<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Preparation<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Paint is opened the canvas (the white square in the Editing Window<\/em>) will be the size of the last image that was used before the program was closed. The canvas needs to be smaller than the image pasted into the Editing Window<\/em> or the image, when saved, will include the excess white space. As a time saver the default canvas size can be reset before each session.<\/p>\n

Note: a small canvas will auto-size to a larger image but not vice-versa.<\/p>\n

To set the canvas size:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Open Paint<\/em> and hover the mouse pointer over the bottom right corner of the canvas until a moving pointer appears.<\/p>\n

Figure 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PIC003\" <\/p>\n

2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the moving pointer to resize the canvas to a very small area.<\/p>\n

Figure 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PIC004\" <\/p>\n

3) Close paint and click on No<\/strong> when asked to Save changes to untitled?<\/em><\/p>\n

Figure 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PIC006\" <\/p>\n

4) Open Paint<\/em> again and the canvas will now be small (this will also be the default size for new canvasses for the session).<\/p>\n

Sizing screen-shots:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once an image is captured it will lose clarity if it is resized. Since the images are going to be inserted into a standard web-page, minus the width of the sidebar, (the width at the top of a UKB page is approximately equivalent to a letter size document in a word processor) it is better to keep them to less than around 6 inches, or 600 pixels (authors will need to experiment with this as pixelation varies from machine to machine). This rules out any chance of using clear full-size screen-shots in a standard post. One way to get around this is to alter the story line to avoid having to use full screen-shots. Another is to minimize and\/or resize the window when taking large screen shots. <\/p>\n

Note: this alters the proportion of the contents of the window so using this method is always a compromise between clarity and a faithful reproduction of what the user will see on their screen when they follow the instructions.<\/p>\n

At other times, there is just no way around it and the show must go on, ‘grainy’ image or not. However, since the details contained in an image are often critical to UKB posts, full screen shots can be attached without resizing, provided they are not included in the first page (images that are larger than the available space will run off the page and overwrite the UKB sidebar if they are inserted at the top of the post). This makes for very large images, which will not view correctly in all web modes, but readers can easily find ways to view the full image and see the detail.<\/p>\n

Note: As a UKB ‘page’ is scrolled downwards, the sidebar moves off the screen and the width available for publishing increases, so larger images can be inserted into a post after the first page.  This is not the case for all web views e.g. when reading RSS feeds in I.E. v7 the sidebar is a permanent fixture, and it does not scroll off the page, which makes for a different page width in the reader compared to the ‘online’ view (in this case, images are trimmed, from the right, to fit into the available space.<\/p>\n

A handy trick for sizing the images before capture is to open them in a second window, over the top of a Word<\/em> document in Print Layout<\/em>, and use the ruler in Word<\/em> to align the image to the width of the document ( as a rule of thumb the image needs to be able to fit into a Word<\/em> page without resizing).<\/p>\n

To estimate image size:<\/strong><\/p>\n