SAVE PICTURE DISPLAY

COMPUTER GRAPHICS 101

 PREPARED BY 

RICHARD NELSON

May 11, 2007

WHAT ARE COMPUTER GRAPHICS

We know that computers only understand two things: zero 0 and one 1.

Therefore a computer must take a picture and break it up into little squares called pixels and then convert each little colored square into a series of zeros and ones that represent the color of that pixel and how bright the color is. When you take a photograph and put it on a scanner and convert it into a computer graphical image of the photograph that is the process that is accomplished. And accordingly, when a picture is on the monitor of a computer it is represented by a whole series of pixels. If you enlarge that picture on the monitor enough you will see the evidence of the little squares and the picture becomes what we call “edgie”.

 STARTING YOUR COMPUTER

IN THIS INSTRUCTION WHEN IS SAYS CLICK IT MEANS LEFT CLICK

It is assumed in this graphical workshop you already know how to start a computer system. However for the purpose of review what follows are refresher instructions:

 1. It is better to turn on (start) the monitor first,

2. And then turn on the console (Computer)

 But no harm will be done if you do it the other way around. (I leave my monitor on all the time, so all I have to do is to start the console).

 HOW TO DO IT

1. Turn on the monitor by firmly but briefly pressing the button on the front panel below the screen.

2. Then turn on the console (the computer) by firmly but briefly pressing the power button located about half way down on the front panel of the console.

Wait while the computer starts up, it may take quite awhile. When it has finished, you will see the desktop screen

 STORAGE DEVICES

All computers have many choices for places to store (or save) you pictures. These are all called storage devices. Storage devices can be a folder on the hard drive, a flash drive, a compact disk (CD), or a floppy disk. Floppy disks are almost obsolete. One of the most used storage areas for graphics is a folder on the hard drive called “My Pictures”. The My Pictures folder on the hard drive is called the default folder for graphics on most computers. But you can also select where you want to save (store) your pictures, like to a folder on the flash drive, or to a CD or to a floppy drive. (We will not cover saving to a floppy drive or a CD in this instruction)

 GETTING A PICTURE TO PLAY WITH

The National Gallery of Art (www.nga.gov) has a variety of pictures that can be downloaded and used to play with in this workshop. Actually any picture on the Internet can be downloaded using the instructions below including pictures that are attached to your emails. (Note it is necessary to use the www for the National Gallery of Art)

JUMPING TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

This instruction covers the two most common ways of jumping to a web site on the internet

 THE SURE FIRE WAY TO JUMP

First you must start the Internet Explorer software if it is not already running

To jump (or transfer) to the National Gallery of Art web site,

1.     Click on File,

2.     Click on Open.

3.     Type in www.nga.gov

4.     Peck the Enter key or click OK.

 JUMPING USING THE ADDRESS FIELD

This is an alternative way of jumping to the National Gallery of Art  

1. Locate the Address field near the top of your monitor screen. There is already a web address there.

 2. Put your mouse arrow on a clear part of that field and click only once. That will highlight the address that is already in the field.

 3. Without doing anything, just type in the address of the web site where you want to jump. In this case www.nga.gov

4. Now simply peck the Enter key once, and you should now jump to that web site.

DOWNLOADING A PICTURE FROM THE INTERNET

The words picture and graphics are used interchangeably in this instruction.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF DOWNLOADING PICTURES

There are several common ways of downloading a picture from the internet.

One is to save the picture to a storage device on your computer

Another is to copy the picture and then paste it to a word processing document this is covered towards the end of this instruction.

A third way is the print the picture directly from the internet. this way is covered towards the end of this instruction

DOWNLOADING AND SAVING YOUR PICTURE

 1. Find the picture you want to download and save.

 2. Put the mouse hand in the middle of the picture you want to download.

 3. Right click with the mouse.

You should get a menu. (You will always get a menu when you right click)

 4. Left click on the line that says “Save Picture As”

You will get a dialog frame called “Save Picture”.

 SELECTING THE STORAGE DEVICE

A. IF YOU ARE SAVING TO THE HARD DRIVE (C:)

1.     If you are saving to the hard drive do nothing. In this case, the computer has already chosen to save in a default folder called My Pictures

2. It is usually necessary to give the picture a different name, so remove the name and type in a new name.

3. click on the Save button in the lower right of the Save Picture display.

4. Your picture is now saved in the My Pictures folder on My Documents

 B. IF YOU ARE SAVING TO A FLASH DRIVE

It will be necessary to change to your flash drive in the Save In box in the top of the Save As frame. To accomplish this do as follows:

1.     Click on the little down arrow at the end of the “Save In” box,

2.     Then click on the REMOVABLE (E:), (F:), OR (G:).

You should now see the removable disk (E:), (F:), or (G:) in the Save In box

3.     If you are saving to a folder on the flash drive, open the folder, by clicking on the folder name, and then click on the Open button in the lower right corner of the frame.

4.     If you want to create a new folder, click on the Create a Folder icon, now without doing anything type in a name for the new folder.

5.     Click out in the white area of the screen. That will create a new folder.

6.     SEE BELOW FOR MORE DETAILED INFO ON CREATING A NEW FOLDER

C. GIVING YOUR PICTURE A NAME

There will be a suggested name for the file in the “File Name” box. You will usually have to change it to something that better describes the picture. This can be done by dragging over the existing name with the mouse and typing in a new name.

 BEFORE YOU CLICK ON “SAVE”, NOTE WHAT IT SAYS IN THE “SAVE AS TYPE” BOX,

(SEE BELOW “COMMON COMPUTER GRAPHICS PROTOCOLS YOU SHOULD KNOW”)

 Now left click the “Save” box. The picture is now saved to the storage device whichever one you have chosen.

 NOTE: YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT CERTAIN TYPES OF PICTURES (GRAPHICS) SUCH AS JPEG OR GIF CAN BE EASILY SENT USING EMAIL. BMP ARE GOOD FOR WEB PAGES.

COMMON COMPUTER GRAPHICS PROTOCOLS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Jpeg (jpg) = Joint Photographic Expert Group

Gif = Graphics Interchange Format

Bitmap (bmp) = BitMap

Tiff (tif) = Tagged Image File Format

And several others that we talk about in our Graphics Workshop

Jpegs and Gifs are best used for email because they are the most efficient.

Most digital cameras take pictures in jpeg

 CREATING A NEW FOLDER

To create a new folder either on your flash drive or hard drive, do as follows:

·        Find a little icon on the same line as the Save In box. When you put you mouse arrow on it, it says “Create New Folder”

·        Left click on that icon, you will be given a dialog frame to type in a name for the folder. THE FOLDER WILL HAVE A TEMPRARY NAME “NEW FOLDER”. Now just type in a new name.

·        Then peck the Enter key on the keyboard. That will establish the new folder.

 USING THE PAINT PROGRAM IN WINDOWS

Simple editing of a picture can be done using the PAINT program found in Accessories. It is a basic computer graphics software package that is always included free in the Windows programs.

To open Paint from the Start button:

1.     Click on the Master Start button on the lower left of your screen,

2.     Then slide your mouse up to “All Programs” DO NOT CLICK. A new menu will pop out of the side.

3.     Slide up to Accessories and another menu will pop out to the side. . AGAIN DO NOT CLICK YET. A new menu will pop out at the side.

4.     Slide over to the Accessories menu, find Paint and left click. That will open the Paint program.

USING PAINT TO OPEN A PICTURE THAT YOU HAVE SAVED

1.     Once you have opened the Paint program, click on File on the Menu bar and

2.     Click on Open.

3.     Go to the folder or floppy where you saved the graphics and click on its icon. This can be done by clicking on the little down arrow at the end of “Look In” box.

4.     Click on the folder or floppy where you saved your picture. Unfortunately the Open frame sometimes comes up in the Bitmap format.

5.     So it is necessary to go down to the end of the “Files of Type” box and click on the little down arrow, which will give you more options.

6.     The option you will want to choose is “All Files”, and that will give you access to all the files on the folder or floppy. (Note: you can skip 4 thru 6 in most cases)

7.     Now click on the Icon of the picture you want to work on. That will highlight it.

8.     Then click on the Open button.

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF OPENING PAINT

Go to your Desktop and open My Documents

Open the folder where you saved the picture

Right Click in the picture you want to open, that will give you a menu

Left Click in Edit that will start the Paint program with your picture in it ready for you to work on it.

ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE WAY OF OPENING PAINT

Go to your Desktop and open My Documents

Open the folder where you saved the picture

Find the picture and click on it

Go up to the Menu bar and click on File, then go down and put your mouse arrow on Open With. A new menu will pop out.

Go over to that menu and click on Paint – your picture will not be opened in the Paint program ready for you to work on.

USING PAINT TO RESIZE YOUR GRAPHICS

1.     Click on Image on the Menu bar,

2.     Click on Stretch/Skew.

You will be presented with a screen where in the upper half you can change the horizontal and vertical size by typing in new numbers.

For example if you want to enlarge you picture by 50% type in 150 in both the horizontal and veridical spaces and then click “OK”

If you want to reduce the size of your picture by 25%, type 75 in both the horizontal and vertical space and click “OK”

The Paint software is very limited compared to some graphics packages but within its limits it is very useful.

 CROPPING GRAPHICS USING PAINT

Open the paint program like so: Click on Start> slid to Programs >slide to Accessories> slide to Paint and click. (If Accessories does not appear, it is necessary to expand the Programs menu by clicking on the double down arrows at the bottom of the Program menu. That will enlarge the Program menu).

On the Paint program open, the graphics that you want to crop

1.     Click on the dotted rectangle just below Edit on the Menu bar.

2.     Starting in the upper left of the graphics you want to crop, drag from upper left to lower right and you will see a dotted box around the part of the graphics you want to crop. If you mess up click, and start over.

 3.     Now go to Edit on the Menu bar and click on Copy. That will put just the cropped part of the graphics in the Clipboard of RAM.

PUTTING YOUR CROPPED PICTURE ON ANOTHER COPY OF PAINT

1 Open a second copy of the Paint program as above.

2 Once in Paint go up to the Menu bar and click on Edit.

3 Come down and click on Paste.

The cropped graphics will appear on the screen. If you like at this point, you can save the cropped picture.

ADDING A PICTURE TO WORD WORD-PROCESSING

To do this you must have copied the graphics image to your Clipboard as above,

1. Open MS Word.

2. Peck the Enter Key three times to get the cursor down a little.

3. Go up to Edit on the Menu bar and click,

4. click on Paste

I a few seconds the graphics picture will appear on your Word processing. You can add other graphics or text any place on the Screen where the Cursor is.

 If you want to add more pictures to your word processing screen repeat the whole process using another picture. .

 WARNING!

You should be aware that if you change the type of graphics protocol from the original, it could change the quality of the output, also the size of the graphics in bits. Changing the quality will change the printer output. Also changing the protocol and the bits could change how long it takes to send on email and to download the picture at the receiving end. Bitmap protocols take a lot of space and time to transmit on the Internet. Also every time you save a jpeg file with a new name it causes some deterioration.

 COPING A PICTURE FROM THE INTERNET

It is easy to copy a picture from the Internet as follows:

1. Right click on the picture. You will get a menu. (You will always get a menu when you right click)

2. On that menu left click on Copy

That will put a copy of that picture on your clipboard ready to paste.

With the graphics image still on your Clipboard,

3. Open MS Word.

4. Peck the Enter Key three times to get the cursor down a little.

5. Go up to Edit on the Menu bar and click,

6. Click on Paste

In a few seconds the graphics picture will appear on your Word processing. You can add text any place on the Screen where the Cursor is. Or you can add other graphics to what you already have.

CHECKING OUT YOUR GRAPHICS ON YOUR DISK USING “MY COMPUTER”

Click on the Start button and then click on the “My computer

 Find the storage device where you saved your picture, and open it by left clicking on it and then pecking the Enter Key. If you saved it to a folder on this device, again left click on the folder and then peck the Enter key. You should now see the identification of the file where your picture is saved.

PRINTING A PICTURE FROM THE INTERNET

It is easy to print a picture from the Internet as follows:

1. Right click on the picture. You will get a menu. (You will always get a menu when you right click)

2. On that menu left click on Print Picture

That will send the picture to your printer

In a few seconds the graphics picture will be printing.

+++++

DOING A PRINT SCREEN

There are several ways to do a print screen depending on what computer you are using. You might have to try more than one to get the results you want.

 USING THE ALT KEY AND PRINT/SCRN KEY TOGETHRE

(NOTE: THE PRINT/SCRN KEY IS USUALLY IN THE UPPER RIGHT OF YOUR MAIN KEYBOARD)

Have the page you want to screen print on your screen. Hold down the Alt key and while still holding it down peck the Print Scrn key. This will put a copy of the screen on the clipboard. Now open the appropriate software package (usually word processing software) to paste the screen print to. This will usually be your word processing program. And from here you can change it or save it or print it out.

 ANOTHER WAY TO SCREEN PRINT USING THE SHIFT KEY

Have the page you want to screen print on your screen. Hold down the shift key and while still holding it down peck the Print Scrn key. This will put a copy of the screen on the clipboard. Now open the appropriate software package (usually word processing software) to paste the screen print to. And from here you can change it or save it or print it out.

 YET ANOTHER WAY IS TO JUST PECK THE Print Scrn key and see what happens. This sometimes works.

 

FILED IN COMPUTER GRAPHICS FOLDER