posted
We all want to make graphics available to others at LegionWorld, whether from the published comics, or fan art, or personal events. And to do so in ways that show them off to their best advantage, without distorting or dragging out others' Web experience.
This thread is for tips and locations to store files for hot-link display in LW messages, find and use software for manipulating your images, and share ideas on how to best display graphics so as to have them come across quickly and effectively.
Many of the best such software is absolutely free on the Net, or is very-low-cost shareware! You won't find it easily, though, unless you know about it. Share your finds and your advice here!
Edited for a more permanent thread ... For file storage information, see 23 September 2004 below
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The current thread about the DC Webpage offering a chance to "Create Your Own Super Hero" brought up a frequent concern: Just how do you easily capture results of such efforts on your screen, and save them to files?
It's not difficult, and fortunately, you have free tools at hand if you're a Windows user -- both from your Windows setup itself and from an excellent, free "Swiss Army graphics" program.
In Windows itself, you can use MS Paint. It's installed under Programs | Accessories in your Start menu. To make a screen capture, first run this program, and then minimize it to the Taskbar.
When you have the Webpage or program window visible that you want to capture, make sure that it is the active window, with the title bar highlighted. Then do Alt - PrintScrn. (Print Screen is usually to the immediate right of your F1-to-F12 keys.)
The active window will be copied to the Windows Clipboard in memory. Then maximize your Paint window, and choose Paste from the Edit menu. You may get a query asking if you want to expand the size of the bitmap to accommodate what you want to Paste -- say Yes.
Then you can modify, recolor, crop, or otherwise edit the captured window, as a bitmap, before saving it to a .BMP file.
Another way to do captures and edit them, within a single program, is to download the freeware IrfanView utility. It's one of the most versatile and easiest to use graphics tools ever created, and is simplicity itself to install.
Once you have IrfanView running, you can just enter the letter C to initiate a screen capture. You can have IrfanView take in the current desktop, the active window, or just the client area (omitting the frame and title bar) of the active window. All windows currently running are listed for making a choice.
IrfanView then lets you manipulate what's in its own "clipboard," to crop, cut, shrink, expand, adjust colors, flip, rotate, or any of dozens of other actions. You can copy any part of it to the Windows Clipboard, to use by pasting it into other programs. And you can save your results in any of a dozen graphics formats, from the familiar .JPG, .GIF, and .BMP to much less common types.
You also can pull up any file from your computer and do the same manipulations. In any directory/folder that has graphics files, you can quickly step through viewing the files one by one with the spacebar and backspace keys. You can view graphics full-screen by toggling to that mode with the enter key.
IrfanView can also play .WAV and other non-visuals. It's fully configurable as to what formats will be "IrfanView files."
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If you have new storage locations, other tools to recommend, or questions about how to manipulate graphics, please add your own notes below!
[ September 23, 2004, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: GoldenGreyEagle ]
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Thanks for the info Grey. I can never remember the name for IrfanView and don't use Paint at all. My tool of choice if Paint Shop Pro but its far from being free.
From: Utah | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Funny, I was just popping by to take a break from learning to use my free copy of Photoshop Elements 2.
There's an excellent freeware image editor out called Pixia. It's got a ton of features and personally I think it's more intuitive from a painter/colourer's perspective than photoshop.
For anyone who's planning to spend some money on image software, I recomend checking out Wacom's graphics tablets first. They come in a range of prices, starting at around $100.00US, and have some pretty good software. (That's how I got Photoshop Elements.)
-------------------- arachne3003.deviantart.com Current Obsession: Birds of Prey/Secret Six
From: Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Another free image manip program, that I use a lot, is the GIMP. The scattered components of the Windows version can be found here, but if you just want to use it, you'd be best going here to download the installable package.
posted
Grey, I'm going to de-headline this since no one's posted in it for the time being. (I'm considering of de-headlining the Ongoing Tag Thread too, I think).
Feel free to re-headline it if you want . I wasn't sure if anyone still wanted this up top is all.
And it is a cool thing to try out, I reccomend it to everyone else!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Cobes, I decided to re-headline this and make it a bit more general, since I intended this to be a semi-permanent reference post. It needs to be easily findable, even though weeks may go by without new additions. I hope we'll keep getting tips every so often.
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One newer tag among the LW.net posting tools allows for the Website to do some of the resizing for you and make photos and artworks more manageable, without your having to manipulate them.
The THUMB tag does all of these actions at once for you: ~ Creates a 200-pixel-wide version of your image. ~ Displays it so as to not distort the column widths on the Webpage. ~ Automatically allows clicking on it to go to the full-sized version, shown in a new browser window.
(Once again, the image has to be stored at a separate Web location that allows remote linking, such as Graffiti.net or your ISP's personal Web space.)
You just use the THUMB tag in the same way as the IMG tag -- or use the button for it on the full thread-reply screen.
Here's an example. Clicking on the thumbnail below -- created by LW.net, I didn't have to do it -- gets you the larger version, 435 x 504, of Karl Bang's "Blue Angel" in a new window.
The code is (without spaces around THUMB): [ THUMB ]your-image-URL-goes-here[ /THUMB ]
[ February 17, 2004, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Greybird ]
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Sounds good to me Grey! Cool stuff! I'll have some fun with that when I get the chance !
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Greybird: The THUMB tag does all of these actions at once for you: ~ Creates a 200-pixel-wide version of your image.
Actually, it doesn't. What it ACTUALLY does is squash the full-size image down, with commensurately high download times. If you can resize it in something like Photoshop, and upload the shrunken version yourself, linking to the fullsize image it'd be mucho better.
To link in this way: [url=FULL-SIZE-IMAGE-URL][img]THUMBNAIL-URL[/img][/url]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Right the the option still loads the original image regardless of it's size. Then it shows a resized version that one can click on to see the full size one.
It's intended to not distort the MB page, not to alter the original file in any way.
[ February 18, 2004, 06:12 AM: Message edited by: Nightcrawler ]
From: San Diego, CA | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Nightcrawler: Right the the option still loads the original image regardless of it's size. Then it shows a resized version that one can click on to see the full size one.
Is that not what I said?
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Well, yes, SoM, THUMB does indeed download the full image. Time isn't really saved, apart from the full-size image being readily available if you do click on it -- it appears immediately in a new window. Having the 200-pixel-wide thumbnail does, though, make for a far better viewing experience by not distorting the Webpage.
Still, download time for a full image is rarely a problem. I've seen many who create huge-in-pixel-size JPEGs, from not knowing the best settings for their scanners, that nonetheless are relatively small in file size. Unless someone's trying to link a bitmap of some kind, the time for loading an unshrunk image rarely amounts to much, in my experience. Many unshrunk images, in one thread page, that can be a different story.
It's a bit of a challenge already for some folks to manipulate their images, on top of storing them at an external location. THUMB is designed to save them many steps. If you can shrink it yourself, it might save a few seconds of loading, but unless you're doing this for, say, a gallery of 12 images posted at once, why not save a few steps?
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
The brilliant and still entirely free IrfanView utility has had continuing updates, including to nearly all of its plug-in capabilities. It's up to version 3.91, with the latest update made just this past weekend.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Finding a place to store your files is needed, and has to come first, in order to display them in messages here at LW.net. To do so, you need a storage location that permits hot-linking.
This means that a link posted in a message here can call up and display the graphic on the LegionWorld page directly, without having to click on the image to open it in a separate window. (Unless it uses THUMB, to display a thumbnail image here. See above.)
Many sources of free or ad-supported Web sites don't allow hot-linking, such as Tripod, Angelfire, FortuneCity, or GeoCities. It does add to the strain on their servers.
Some members of LW.net have generously offered space to others. If you'd rather have space that you control fully, three choices that do allow hot-linking are readily available and widely used by many here, and all have no additional or marginal cost:
~ Your Internet provider's offer of Web space. Most full-service ISPs offer some amount of space for personal use, anywhere from 5 MB to 20 MB or more. This can be per user or per "mailbox" name. EarthLink, for example, offers 10 MB for each of up to 8 mailbox names, which must be activated separately.
With all such services (that I've seen), you can hot-link to images stored in your own Web space. Some dial-up Net providers, such as NetZero, are economy choices that don't include any such space.
~ MyWebpage at Netscape ... This service offers 20 MB of space that you can use and subdivide as you choose. You can store and hotlink freely, but any Web pages run out of this location will bear Netscape logos and ad banners. You'll need to log in to your Web files directory at least once every month to keep the space.
MyWebpage is separate from the netscape.com Internet dial-up service, which offers no Web space by itself. Anyone with that service, AOL/Netscape Instant Messenger, America Online, or CompuServe can get a "Screen Name" (usually your earlier log-in name) to use this Web space. You also get a 5 MB netscape.net e-mail account.
~ Graffiti.net ... This service offers a 100 MB e-mail account and 20 MB of Web hosting and storage space, both quick to respond and intuitive to use.
Sign up for an account and click on "Web Hosting" to find out how to set up folders and upload files. You need to log in to your account every 60 days to keep your mail and uploaded files.
Other such hot-linking-permitting services exist, and you're invited to share addresses here.
(I realized, after Gary referred others to this thread, that information on hot-linking-allowed sites has been somewhat scattered.)
[ October 08, 2004, 01:11 AM: Message edited by: Greybird ]
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
TinyPic is another service I just ran across, which is free for handling the occasional few pictures that you just want to include temporarily in a message.
This service allows quick and easy uploading of a picture from a folder on your computer, or from a URL of a page on the Web. JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, and BMPs are allowed, up to 250 KB (anything bigger will be resized down).
All pictures get a short URL that's easy to handle. For example, http://tinypic.com/ozjaw links to one of me.
It can be used as a hot-link. You can insert the short URL within [ IMG ] and [ /IMG ] tags (omit the spaces) to display it in a LegionWorld posting.
Pictures are deleted at TinyPic after 30 days of having registered no "hits," but pulling up any LW.net or other Webpage displaying such a photo constitutes a "hit." You can re-upload them if they do get deleted.
For an occasional illustration of a post of yours, this free service is probably the easiest hosting solution for a picture, as you don't need to set up any personal account. (They do log IP addresses, though, so anything with nudity or otherwise "offensive" can be traced.)
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Edit: IrfanView does not have spyware or viruses. Please see the precautions about all downloaded software posted on the next page!
Well, I downloaded IrfanView only to find to my horror that now my computer is infested with spyware. No thanks.
Did you *have* to recommend a download that comes full of scumware, Greybird? I am now not happy, to put it mildly. I *do not* like getting my computer infected with this crap.
-------------------- Fire in the disco! Fire in the Taco Bell! Fire in the disco! Fire in the gates of hell!!
From: England | Registered: Jun 2004
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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. I wasn't sure if anyone still wanted this up top is all.
