Editing Problem~Paint~

Forums: Web Design, Paint, Computer Editing, Website Construction
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I've been putting together a website for my employer even though my computer skills at this point are equal to those of a five year old. What I've been doing is primitive but effective. (Also cheap, I work cheap.)

I have two problems:

I have a set of JPEG files on my work computer which are essentially photos taken of the firm's catalog pages.
I open a page, adjust it's position on the screen, do a Print/Screen capture.
(The pages show as many as four products per page. I need them one at a time.)
I open Paint and edit the visual for the information/pictures I want, save that as a .jpeg and then upload it to the website editing um, website.

That's fine, except then I have to find some way of covering the Chinese with an English translation. (Most of the masking has to been done on the technical pages showing rotation speeds, amps/volts/watts and the like.)
I have been unable to devise a simple way of re-making the data bars with the appropriate numbers. (Inserting a TEXT BOX works sorta...some of them shift for some unknown reason.) How can I create Text that I can save as a .jpeg?

Is there a better editor to use than Paint?
Maybe Picasa? If I could figure out how to get the JPEG file into Picasa.

~
Problem Two is that the PAINT I have at home, is an older version. Is there anyway to upgrade it or should I just be looking for an editor I can put (cheaply) on both my office and home computers??

Here's the website : http://www.dunliusa.com/Fans---Blowers.html

Yes. I know. It's a mess, but it's better than what we had.

Joe(how did I get selected for this part of the job?)Nation

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Type: Question • Score: 4 • Views: 2,432 • Replies: 8

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@Joe Nation,

I just talked to a graphic designer friend of mine and he says the best photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop but it’s not cheap and not easy to use for a novice like myself. I have it on my home computer but all I can do with it is crop and size, learned how to do some editing as well but if I really wanted to learn the program I’d have to take some courses.

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@Joe Nation,

Gimp. But it's a somewhat steep learning curve, although I don't think for what you're trying to do.

Essentially, what I think you're trying to do is more graphic-related than HTML-related. What you are doing is, you want to cover one text box with a different, better one.

In Gimp, you can make a text box and just slap it wherever you want. Font choices are okay but you can load up more. I can't, honestly, recall how I did that but I think it was accomplished by adding font files to a particular folder where other font files were (I just search under whatever the hell the extension was for font files). But I digress.

Anyway, here's the first one -

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/jespah301/puzzle-pieces1.jpg

Here's the second -

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/jespah301/puzzle-pieces2.jpg

All I did was cover a gold text box (lower right; I know it's hard to see but I went quick and dirty) with a lilac one.

It is not a fantastic program - it is an okay one. But it is free.

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@Joe Nation,

Quote:

That's fine, except then I have to find some way of covering the Chinese with an English translation. (Most of the masking has to been done on the technical pages showing rotation speeds, amps/volts/watts and the like.)

I'd recommend saving two different .jpeg files in paint. One would just be the catalog picture without words, one would be the picture with words, and this double file method is so you have a back up picture to work with even if you mess up the picture with words. In paint, under the toolbar, when you are typing your words, there are two other boxes, one for white back ground and one for transparent background. Toggle with it to see which one suits you.

Quote:

Problem Two is that the PAINT I have at home, is an older version. Is there anyway to upgrade it or should I just be looking for an editor I can put (cheaply) on both my office and home computers??

I'd recommend Gimp since it has more features than paint and Picasa. I use it often, and I consider it to be a full-out, steroid version of Paint. It has a learning curve (a steep one at that but not as bad as photoshop) but it's free. Adding text to an image is easy with Gimp or Paint.
With gimp, you won't have trouble with the words shifting because in gimp it creates a new layer, so you manipulate the text without crummy effects on the original picture. For layers though you'll have to work with .png files (easy file formatting by opening the picture in gimp and saving it as .png) and then after you're done working with it, you can save the file as a .jpeg (again just saving the picture you're working on as a .jpeg file). With Gimp, organization is key, or you'll have a massive headache at the end of the day.

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@Joe Nation,

Seconding GIMP for a cheap entry into image editing.

http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/The_Basics/

(Fonts are global, just use the "Fonts" applet in control panel if you're on a Windows PC.)

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okay....Gimp it is.

I'll try it this weekend and let you know.

Thanks everyone.

Joe(everybody gets a Selected Answer!)Nation

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@Joe Nation,

I suggest reading through some of the tutorials.

Image editing has a whole bunch of terminology now, that can be confusing to someone new to it.

1 Reply

Ha, 3 votes for Gimp! Smile

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@DrewDad,

Thanks, Drew...
I'm about to get started.

I'm learning the basics.

Joe(let's see....is a crop some sort of vegetable?)Nation

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Editing Problem~Paint~

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