I need some help from the technical savvy woodturners here.
I have been asked to write some articles about woodturning, and I am including photos (these would be taken by me) to help illustrate the discussion points. Several of the photos need something like a red arrow drawn on them to point exactly where the reader/viewer should be focused. Others may be a technical drawing created on the computer. I've seen several photos just like that posted here, by many of you.
If you are using Microsoft Windows operating system, this includes a simple application "Paint". Open a JPG or other supported image format. There are icons for different common shapes like arrows. Easy to fill.
I use an image editing application called Draw Plus by Serif.
If you get stuck, send me an email with the pictures and instructions and I will add the arrows for you.
As mentioned, many programs do that. I prefer Photoshop which has many advantages, not the least for me being I have used it for decades! (I worked for years doing graphic arts related to my 3D modeling, animation, video, etc.)
Many programs will let you draw on the image, but many rasterize what you draw, changing the base image. (like drawing with a sharpie on a paper photo) If you want to change or adjust the text or arrows you have to undo or start over.
For annotations like you mentioned, a program like Photoshop that stores overlays and things in layers is so useful. A layer like a transparent sheet that you lay over top the image. You can tint, draw, paint, or otherwise modify the layer without changing the image underneath. Text is kept in a modifiable form so you can edit and change spelling, size, fonts and such as often as you want.
You can add many layers on the top that do all kinds of things, like vignette, adjust color/contrast, add text and arrows and circles and boxes. Each layer is independent and can be moved, rotated, stretched, etc. Each layer can be turned on or off as needed. You can keep many different annotations together in one file then save various combinations as separate JPGs or other image types.
Photoshop also has powerful image editing tools. I don't know about today, but all the time I was working it was the program of choice by graphics and photo professionals (along with Illustrator for drawing)
The full version of Photoshop is obscenely expensive, but Photoshop Elements is an affordable version with all the features most humans will ever use.
Any other program that uses layers should also work about the same but I don't know which does.
Thank you gentlemen!! I have Microsoft Paint (just never used it so wasn't aware of it's purpose). And I also have Photoshop Elements to process my digital images, so I guess I get to 'play' on my computer.
I have Photoshop Elements. I use it to edit all of my pictures.
I find it very good for cropping, colour balance, sharpening, levels, contrast. I have not tried adding text or shapes.
I looked today but was not able to find an arrow shape, so if you find out how to add or make an arrow, please post the steps. I found circles, triangle, lines, but no arrow.
Here is the line tool, etc., for Photoshop Elements 11.
At the lower left of the screen, find the shapes tool and click on it.
A panel will open that contains the line tool, which looks like a line.
Click on the line tool to make it appear in the tool box.
Clicking on the line tool in the tool box will open a panel where you can choose the properties of the line and the arrowhead. The line width in pixels sets the width of the line, naturally, and also the proportional size of the arrowhead.
Note also that you can select whether the arrowhead will appear at the end or at the beginning of the line you draw. Or, you can select no arrowhead to just draw a line. You get to pick your color as well.
After drawing the line/arrow, you can move it around as you wish using the move tool. (You can also rotate it, but that is more involved. It's simpler just to hit Undo and draw another.)
The line/arrow will be input by way of a "layer." Before you can save the image as a jpeg, you must "flatten the image." That is, click on "Layer" at the top of the screen and at the bottom of the drop-down menu, click "Flatten Image."
If you have Elements you are set. Take a few minutes and learn how to use Layers if you haven't done so. (There are zillions of instructions on the web.)
Some people are intimidated at first by Layers but they are really simple. Just open your photo, add a new layer (it will be transparent), and do all your drawing on the layer. I might make a new layer for each element I added for flexibility, but you can easily select individual isolated things on any layer to move, rotate, erase, etc. Before modifying an existing layer, select it in the Layer Palette.
If you use the text tool it will automatically create a new layer. Layer Effects can change the color of any text, line, or arrow you draw, outline, add drop shadows, etc. For example, draw your arrow in black then use layer effects to try different colors to see what looks best. Outlines are especially useful when annotating photos to provide contrast with the underlying picture.
Save the file as a PSD to preserve the layers for next time, then save again as a JPG or other flat file to upload, insert into a document, etc.
(Sorry if you already know this. Someone else might be interested.)
Oh, one real nice feature for preparing photos for forums like this is "File/Save for Web". It can force an image to a specified maximum file size to meet upload constraints, such as the 100k max for WoodCentral. This fiddles with the image compression so it can degrade the image slightly, but it is independent of image size so you can still post a large photo. (The control to specify a file size is kind of hidden - it's a little arrow at the right.)
Do you actually have to specifically flatten the file in Elements before saving as a JPG? Photoshop does this automatically as part of the JPG save. (Use Save As) A quick look with Google seems to indicate it works the same way in Elements.
I haven't flattened an image in decades - if I save as JPG then don't need to keep the layers for future use I just close the window and click No when it wants to save a PSD.
>check with the editor before putting to much effort into modifying images.
>They usually like an image that the author has not fiddled with :-)
FWIW, I take what editors "like" with a grain of salt. We have dealt with so many magazine and other editors who really didn't know much about images.
Here is one big clue: if they ask for 300 dpi images they are clueless - they are just repeating a mantra they learned in school or from someone else without understanding their own business.
I always made my images exactly how I wanted so they looked the way I wanted them, then saved them in whatever file format they asked for. I've had them say "No jpgs, the quality is too low" so I just saved my JPG as a TIFF and they were happy. The TIFF quality was identical but the file size was huge.
One recent journel cover was a cropped photo I took with my cell phone! I knew editors who would get a migraine or have a heart attack just thinking of that. (This editor, as usual, wanted a 300 dpi photo.)
The occasion was a film crew shooting a documentary on llamas at the Pearson Pond LLama Ranch in Georgia:
For many years, I've been using a program that does everything you need (except maybe 3D technical drawings, which require something like SketchUp). It is called Canvas, and is by ACD Systems. They have recently resurrected the version for the iMac, Canvas Draw, for $80. I don't know what the Windoze version costs. The professional version, which will also render KML (geographic) data sets is several hundred dollars, but still a lot less than PhotoShop and Illustrator. Canvas does photo manipulation, painting, vector graphics, multiple layers, dimensions, text editing, page layout and formatting, text wrap and flow over multiple pages, text flow around objects, bezier curves, etc. It will flow text to a curved line and allow you to modify the shapes of individual characters. I have used it to annotate and otherwise manipulate photos, to make technical drawings for designing furniture, to convert photos of furniture to measured drawings, and to write and lay out multi-page journals. It even spell checks. It reads and writes in many different formats, including JPG, TIFF, PDF, postscript, AutoCad drawings, rtf, etc. It has management tools for pages, layers, objects, colors, patterns, line treatments, measurement units, arrowheads, and component libraries. It does measurements in metric, inches, inches and feet, engineering units and fractions.
It reads and writes in many different formats, including JPG, TIFF, PDF, postscript, AutoCad drawings, rtf, etc. It has management tools for pages, layers, objects, colors, patterns, line treatments, measurement units, arrowheads, and component libraries. It does measurements in metric, inches, inches and feet, engineering units and fractions.
