az2000

Have you looked at fonts that are outline style? Look at some of the font sites. (I've used dafont.com, fontpark.net, acidfonts.com, larabiefonts.com, simplythebest.net, fontspace.com).

It's a good idea to get in the habit of putting your image on at least one layer above the background layer, and saving your original work in PDN's native file format. Use "save as" to save to other formats like .png. That way, if you need to go back and make changes, you won't have the situation you just found yourself in.

It sounds like you want to put the camo on a layer behind the image (person, car), select the image edge with a lasso, fill the image with a transparent color, and let the camo beneath it show through? Then, lasso the edge, copy and paste the selection into the background picture? (If that sounds right, you'd also want to add some feather of the selection so the edges aren't too jagged.).

If it's saved as JPEG, maybe try indexed GIF or PNG. JPEG always looks fuzzy to me when it's something with straight lines and solid colors. Like a screen shot of a desktop, or a scan of a diploma, or transcripts, vehicle registration.

BTW: Regarding the scale which applies to all three images(?), you could include a ruler in each photo. Then resize two photos to so the ruler is the same size as the other photo. Copy the the ruler from one photo and paste it in a 4th layer, positioning the ruler at the bottom of the collage. You can cut out the ruler of all the photos as part of the process of removing their backgrounds. That's just one idea that came to mind, without seeing an example from the antique site. After you do a few of these, it's not as complicated as it sounds.

Just to help untangle this for future readers: Your post appears to renew your original post which was locked by Rick due to a vague title. The second half of this new post contains my reply to your original post. It's not clear if you're asking for additional help. Or, need clarification about anything I suggested. Please pose a new question if you have one.

Look at the "layers" feature. You can create 3 layers in addition to the first layer which should be considered the background layer. Put one image in each layer. You can move each image independently by changing which layer you're working with in the layer's window. (You can hide or show layers with that window too. Useful when laying things out.). You should post an example of the scale. But, that would just go in another layer, and positioned independently just like the 3 images. That was discussed recently here:

Gradient text: Two-mountain fade with transparency Camaro fade with sepia http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=12184

There are a few tutorials for exploding planets, some beginning with images of things like cracked mud. Exploding planets (from cracked mud) - Exploding planets - Exploding earth - Explosion An image of a brick wall in this tutorial: Maybe you could figure something out. (Or, maybe someone else has ideas.).

I'm curious about one thing. The OP said: ==== I saved the .JPG image as a .BMP file then opened it in regular Paint that comes with Windows. From there I saved it as a .JPG and it now works fine with FF & IE. ==== That sounds like a Paint.Net saves .JPG differently than Windows Paint?

I'm not entirely familiar with PDN, but in my old version of Photoshop I would do something like individually select the 3 individual rectangles, apply a "feather" to the selection (which I'm a little confused about how to do in PDN because the feather feature is a plug in), than adjust the brightness/contrast of the selection. The feather'ed selection would prevent the brightness/contrast change from being abrupt at the edge. It would help it blend. (Adjusting all three boxes, bringing them all to a level of brightness/contrast that's halfway between each other would also help the blending illusion, instead of just adjusting the middle, lighter box). (This is one thing I commonly do in my old PS 6 that I haven't translated to how to do in PDN. I'm curious to find out if experienced PDN folks would agree with this approach, and how to feather a selection.).

Post an example. I might not know how. But, someone will.

Is this tutorial (blending or fading two mountain scenes into each other) close to what you'd like to do?

How does the feature you describe differ from Windows 7's native "explorer" feature? When I File->Open in PDN, I can adjust the size of the displayed thumbnail (or, choose "details" displays). It remembers this setting from one session to another. And, it has a tree view on the left. I'm using Win 7's "Classic" theme. Not the "aeroglass" them. I don't know if that may effect what I'm seeing. I've forgotten if I changed any other settings. But, I'm definitely seeing what it sounds like you describe.

You have to set the image's DPI to equal your printer's DPI. It's possible your printer's DPI isn't exact (to scientific tolerances). If you set the DPI to the printer's DPI, but don't get the exact size you expect, you may have to experiment with the image's DPI to get the printed result (size) you expect. If you're measuring it on the screen, I don't believe you can force an image to be an exact measurement. I believe different displays will display an image differently. For example, I had two laptops with the same LCD screen size. One was a low-resolution (WXGA at 1200 x 800) that would display a 1"x2" image pretty large. (I never actually measured it with a ruler.). The other was extremely high resolution (WUXGA at 1920 x 1200) and that image was much smaller (if I were to measure it with a ruler.). You'll always have variations like this because even the larger, standalone monitors will vary slightly in size while using the same resolution. (A 19", 20" and 22" monitor might all use 1920 x 1200).