Drawing Packages 1 Image management and Drawing packages This is a segment of the draft version of a large syllabus. I need your feedback to improve it. There is a voice recorder capture your suggestions during the presentation. Graham Seibert Copyright 2006

Drawing Packages 2 Objectives Describe how computers manage graphic data Demonstrate Word’s graphics management facilities Introduce software packages that handle –Vector Graphics and –Bitmaps Describe considerations in moving images among software packages

Drawing Packages 3 Toolbars in Word The Drawing Toolbar: View→Toolbars →Drawing The Picture Toolbar –View→Toolbars →Picture –Most useful for cropping, wrapping and rotation –Some ability to manage picture qualities such as contrast, color and brightness: Better to do those in a photo package

Drawing Packages 4 Word and Excel Built-in Drawing Capabilities Limited: box, oval, line and arrow, with –Color, line, width, fill, shadow & transparency Stacked with pictures, text and each other In Word, these (and only these) can be organized on a “drawing canvas” Sophisticated graphics need to be created in another package, then imported

Drawing Packages 5 Graphic representation formats Bitmap –A pattern of dots –Each dot color individually established by scan –Compression techniques take advantage of similarities among dots. Vector Graphics –Mathematical representation of graphic forms –Colors chosen from palette Word supports both in primitive ways

Drawing Packages 6 Images in Word Layers of nesting –The text itself, then –Drawing Canvases, which are optional, –Then: Pictures Text Boxes Drawing Objects Word can control stacking

Drawing Packages 7 Vector Graphics Formats and Packages Common vector formats include: AI (Adobe Illustrator) CDR (CorelDRAW) CMX (Corel Exchange) CGM Computer Graphics Metafile DXF AutoCAD WMF Windows Metafile vector formatsvector formats Popular vector drawing programs are: Corel Draw Adobe Illustrator Macromedia Freehand Xara X vector drawing programsvector drawing programs

Drawing Packages 8 Typical things you can do with Vector Graphics Packages Create almost any shape Fit text to paths and boxes Modify imported graphics Implement transparency and 3-D effects Add smooth freehand drawing objects See Through

Drawing Packages 9 Vector Graphics cut-and-paste Try straight cut-and-paste. If it doesn’t work, In Windows, try “Windows Metafile” which is usually a good choice for paste-special When all else fails, as it sometimes will, export the image from the source package as a bitmap (jpg, gif, bmp etc.) and import – Simpleminded enough to usually work –Picture resolutions take tweaking –Takes a lot of time and storage space

Drawing Packages 10 Transparency Text can have a background color Exports to a GIF format give you the option of a transparent background Images you import are usually rectangular, and come with a background Drawing objects and imported graphics can be transparent Pictures in header/footer are treated like watermarks: semi-transparent or not

Drawing Packages 11 Bitmap Formats and Packages Common bitmap formats include: BMP PICT (Macintosh) GIF PCX JPEG, JPG TIFF PNG PSD (Adobe Photoshop) Popular bitmap editing programs are: Microsoft Paint Adobe Photoshop Corel Photo-Paint Jasc Paint Shop Pro Ulead PhotoImpact

Drawing Packages 12 Typical things you can do with bitmap packages (Photo editors) Resize, crop, and skew an image Adjust brightness, contrast, color balance Do color transformation, convert to black and white, and replace colors Touchup: fix red-eye, air brush, erase wrinkles …. And much more, as your student hackers will tell you

Drawing Packages 13 Lost in translation: Transferring bitmap images among packages The alternatives –Cut-and-paste the image –Use Edit→Paste→Special to choose the conversion type –Save the image as a bitmap picture, and load it as an image Screwy things that happen in translation –Size and resolution get changed –Translators make images fuzzy –Parts of images get rearranged –Type fonts get changed Approaches to take –Try the Edit→Paste→Special approach because it is easy –Saving pictures as jpg bitmaps, then import them

Drawing Packages 14 Embedded Objects With OLE, or Object Linking and Embedding, Word preserves the link to the software that created an object –The original graphic features are preserved –Clicking invokes the original software to edit the object –The downside? It is slow and prone to crashing Otherwise, the target package converts the object to one of its own formats

Drawing Packages 15 Moving Images around in Word By default, Word puts pictures, text boxes and tables in line with text, left-justified You can change wrapping: Square, Tight, In Front or Behind Each object is given an anchor to show where it belongs in the text Word moves your objects as the text shifts – often not where you want them!

Drawing Packages 16 Strategies for outsmarting Word when it comes to placing objects Put images and tables into drawing canvases. It keeps them visible –Word’s older technique, giving anchors to objects, tends to get them jumbled –Sometimes requires a text box within a canvas Wait until the text is complete before worrying about final placement Working through the document top to bottom, –Move each image to the appropriate page –Arrange text flow around the image

Drawing Packages 17 Conclusion Word supports levels of graphics that can vastly improve written communication Word support of graphics, though powerful, is not always intuitive An author should know the limits of Word graphics and what is possible to achieve in Excel, photo editing and vector graphics packages