Lee

Of all the programs I have, I forgot I have M$ Digital Imaging. While I am not fond of M$, they do a better job when I made a contact sheet afew months ago. As the photos are already resized within the contact sheet. I guess I can cut photos into individual files & try importing them one by one into my digital photo frames. Ok that is one solution. Not sure if same will work on the small graphic files I have but will try. Got some testing to do....I'll be back...

In my further testing, I found FastStone viewing pgm to do best so far as far as resizing & rotating file. I am shocked that PhotoShop4 did a poor job of this. I tested following programs: M$Paint Paint.Net FastStone

As I look at this file attachment, there is a black line around the deer that was not in original file. I did use PhotoShop to make file transparent this time.

My project is scrapbooking I am dealing with background files designed for scrapbooking, small graphic files that were created by computer & photos taken with digital camera. The photos are all .jpgs. I convert photos to .png format so I can edit them, adjust color balance etc. Crop photos to be imported into a new file/layout. Otherwise the pixels gets screwed up. As far as I know, you must "crop" photos, you can not shrink nor stretch photos as the pixels gets messed up. I took photography in high school & that is the way we did things. I am leaning on some past experiences dealing with digital photos here. Backgrounds are .jpgs. Convert to .png. Crop backgrounds as they are made to print on 12x12 sheets of paper & I am printing on 8.50x11. Import background into new file/layout. The small graphic files are in .png format & transparent. I have notice if gold or silver is in the graphic, I am losing color unless I convert file to .bmp format. .Png format can not handle the metalic colors. While in Paint.Net, I thought I was resizing each small graphic file & saving files to hard drive. I was not I found out later & this is why my .pdn files were coming out to 35 megs in file size. With M$Paint, I did find out I could resize using the Image\StretchShew command, resave the file. Then had to go back in & make file transparent again as M$Paint does not support transparent files. I am concerned that the pixels will get screwed up with this method. I did try taking snapshots of the small graphics but the pixels don't look right. Is there something else I can try to get the same effect, make smaller frame size or does it matter whether I do it through Paint.Net, resizing the small graphic in order to get great printouts? Does it matter whether I resize file thru M$Paint. save to a new file, then import into new file\layout? Or resize small graphic file thru Paint.Net after I have already imported small graphic file into my new file\layout? All the files I have done in last week, looks like I will have to redo them as they printed badly the other nite. The photos did not always look as good as the originals. I did squeeze some of them into their photo frames & I am paying a price now...going to redo all of them. I kind of knew I was not suppose to squeeze photos very much. Now I am wondering about the small graphics, photo frames etc. I am trying to use. Will leave you with afew examples.

Thanks...that is exactly what I needed to know. Convert my .jpegs to .png, edit, alter file etc, save file again in .png then convert them back into .jpg so to save on hard drive space. My work is cut out for me now.

That is what I want to talk about...jpegs. If I use Irfan's viewer & do a batch conversion to say, .png...will I loss any clarity from my original .jpeg? FastStone viewing program claims it will resave file, without losing any clarity. Is there really any way to check & compair any of this?

This works better than saving the original file thru any program? Resaving the original, put garbage in the file & distorts the file. So by taking a snapshot of screen, avoid this? FastStone will convert Jpegs with a lossless compression. I downloaded it yesterday & it looks like you can not do a batch conversion like you can with lrfan's viewer.

No but wouldn't that mean I would have to make a new file on hard drive? What is the different with shrinking it while in my new file/layout other than my .pdn file might not get as big as it has been? Does it effect the quality & dpi? As Irfan does shrink the frame size, I have thought about letting it shrink file, then copy (not save the file), paste into Paint.Net. At this time, I do not know if Paint.Net will do a better job of saving the file than Irfan. Irfan will put alittle trash in file. Jpgs are not a lossless format. I did notice you have a plugin called: Jpeg2000 that I am trying.

I now know why my .pdn files were so big. The files I was importing were not really resized by Paint.Net. While I usually use Irfan for this application I thought Paint.Net would do a better job. Tried PhotoShop & Paint.Net still showed frame size was huge. I had to shrink photo while in my new layout/file. For Cropping, I have tried JPegCrop, freebie, & even cropping photos were too big. I have used Paint.Net to crop but size frame size was too big. While cropping does make a smaller frame size, it is still too big. Sounds like I need to resize first with Irfan & then crop. Is this correct? Your resizer does not work. I found PhotoShop had the same problem? I have photos from a digital camera. File sizes & frame sizes are huge. I am printing on 8.50 x 11" paper. The photos need to be 2x3" approx. While I resized thru Paint.Net, I noticed when I imported the files, it showed the frame size to be 18" wide x something. Much larger than 4x5" etc. I like the ruler in Paint.Net as I thought it was telling me I was shrinking frame size without loosing clarity. As a general rule, I don't stretch graphics but have been know to if it is only alittle bit. Other things I try is sharpen, unsharpen, soften...I play around with what Paint.Net offers in plugins to get the effect I want. I deal with scrapbooking & 1 background file can be 10 megs in file size. Frame size is 3600x3600. While I know the higher the dpi, the better the print. At times I wonder, if I am having to shrink things all the time, if it is really necessary to have such big files on hard drive. I am not real sure about this resizing stuff since we seem to be getting into & have been into since Window95, bigger files sizes & frame sizes. Is there any general rules I can go by in order to get good quality graphic files & printouts?

Ok guys....I don't understand dpi & pixels & what files I have to keep. Many different softwares handle things differently. I am learning at this time the ins & out of Paint.Net. I found out if I use my original background file & not import it into a new layout, it prints better quality. Good thing as I am saving myself alittle extra work the way I was doing things. Thanks anyway for the help. I know it was a hard question to answer.

I have some background files. I notice when I print, the pattern that I see in the original background file on the monitor does NOT show in the print out. The background just looks all of one color....beige In this file the: DPI: 150 Pixels: 1800x1800 or 12x12" I went into P.Net setup my new page to 300 dpi. Page size: 11x13" (3300X3900) then imported the background till it filled the whole page. I know not to stretch grafix. I set my printer to print at high resolution. Paper size: 8.50x11" The printed background just looks of a solid beige. You can not see the pattern in background in the print out. I just printed the original background file without any grafix, photos added to file & I can see the texture in print out. Why would it hurt to import a background into a bigger layout/page size would make that much of a difference in quality of the print out? Am I going wrong in that I did not convert background to 300 dpi before importing it into a new file/layout? Does the dpi of both new file I create in P.Net & what I import, must be same dpi in order to get good print? I will attach a sample of original background file & dpi of this file is/was 150. I am confused..........

Thanks...I am familiar with his plugins as Irfan's Graphic Viewer also includes his plugin for his viewer. Thanks...I am learning about the plugin & downloaded a lot the other nite. Now it is time for me to get back to work. However, I will be back! from time to time. The short time I have been here, less than a week, I have enjoyed reading your forums.

To Mike.Ryan52 I take it this "Dents" is a pgm from another author & has nothing to do with plugin for Paint.Net? I can not find "Dents" in the plugin section here.

To sabrown100 Interesting, use a brush to do wordart. I would like to see that. I will try anything at least once. For wordart I use OpenOffice.

I just want to thank the author(s) of Paint.Net who saved me from myself. I was going to go out & buy a program just for my scrapbooking needs. As of today, I finally figured out how to manipulate your software for my needs. For this, I posted a tutorial of how to for anyone who has trouble putting a photo behind a template. By playing with the software, I finally figured out how to do things. Where as software specifically designed for this application, works different, I was able to change my way of thinking & make Paint.Net work for me. Thank you again programers (Rick in particular) for making Paint.NET.

Thanks...I will do & get back to you if it works.

Yesterday, I created a graphic file & entered my text in file. I did this using Paint.Net. As the text read: Smokey I wanted to slant the letters or give some kind of effect. Smokey was the name of cat. I am working on a scrapbook for a friend & want it to look nice when I get around to printing my files I am in the process of creating right now. I would like to find a plugin that gives the effect the wordart is smoking but don't know what to try for this one. I am presently downloading some plugins I think I can use. I plan on playing with them in order to know what I have & if I can use plugins for my personal project. If you know of any plugin that will give me a effect of the text smoking....please do let me know.

Ryan, are you still out there? I need a plugin for wordart. This is where you make text any shape you want, curving it into a circle etc. I see a command for twisting the text but not one to make it in a half circle or even in a circle. This is a feature I would like to use in Paint.Net.

That majic wand command really worked. Thanks for that tip. I notice it does about as well as Irfan's graphic viewer pgm. It puts alittle garbage in the file. I am sort of getting to like Paint.Net. Was very disappointed with it in last few days. You just have to know how to get around the problems. I am working with rather big files & Paint.Net does not seem to beable to handle it. However I have found ways around the problems.

Thanks for that quick reply. I found the newer version. Followed instructions as to where to install it but without further instructions, I did not know what to do. Thanks again, I will try your suggestion. This is something I could use & am abit late trying it out.

A year ago I download a plugin I saw here to called: transparency.dll. It did not come with instructions on where to put it nor how to use it for newbies. I figured it must go into sub-folder called: Effects. Just a lucky guess...well maybe. I just took a .jpg converted it into .png. Could have used .gif format. Opened file up in Paint.Net & saw I did have a new command within Paint.Net under effect. Clicked on command & it looks like it is trying to make the whole picture transparent. It does not look like it knows what areas I want it to be transparent. Did I install this file in the wrong place? How does it know what areas I want to be transparent if I don't have a command for that? Is there a update to this file? Where did I get the file in the first place? From the forum? Where are your plugins?

Both files I created in last 2 days are huge in file size....35 megs each. Two files, two pages. Not so sure your board can take that big of a upload. As I am on dialup where I am as there is no fast internet service here, it would take more than a day to upload files. Paint.Net did not freeze up on me that much unless I wanted to move a layer. More layers, the slower it got I found. One page only has about 10 layers. I imported 3-4 layers then saved in .png format not .pdn (altho I can recreate the .pdn). Then with the .png & as there was nothing but one layer & no history (remember reading afew years ago, there was a problem with history) I imported afew more layers, saved in .png & repeated my process until I got almost all of it done. Entering text thru Paint.Net did not work so I created a separate file using Paint.Net with my text in file, used Irfan's graphic viewer to make background transparent. Opened my original .png file, imported the text graphic file that was transparent & put text where I wanted. I worked around all the problems, my way. May not be the correct way but I had too many problems with Paint.Net. Nothing I could not handle, figure out or work around. Them layers are a problem. I remember in old Dos days....well that is another story. Saving in .pdn format was a problem once but only once. I realize the layers were the problem, sucking up my ram & I have plenty on my system. Shut down system for several minutes, 10, just to clear all memory problems. Had to start over several times with my layout but got wiser the more things happened & saved every change I made as a different file name. At this time, my finished product, printable .png file is 12-13 megs each. DPI is 300. Frame size: 3300 x 4000 I will upload a sample of the layout however I doubt you guys will like it. It did take me two days to get it done. It was a challenge. Paint.Net acted as tho I was importing .bmp files. Very heavy, very slow. Details guys, you want details? I will give you details, details, details....... Who know, somebody might learn something here.

David, what about a good digital camera at close up range?

I know what she wants. Import the two files into a new page. Increase your screen so you can see what your doing. Line the 2 files up so they will match & look as one, side by side. Save file in .png or .gif format. Now open your .png or gif file up. Use eraser icon to erase unwanted background you want to be transparent. Save again in .png or .gif format. Waalaa... your images are as one file with a transparent background. Example: If your background is say all white, no pattern to in the background, you can use Irfan viewer as he has a feature to make background transparent. However you will still need to edit the file. Best to merge files into one file. Try Irfan's graphic viewer. He is every were. The key is to saving file in either .gif .or .png format. These are the only 2 common formats that support tranparency's with the exception's PhotoShop (.psd) that I know of. Hope this helps....

Your welcome & thanks for the compliment....;-)