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ImageReady is a good choice for photo editing
Preparing Navigation Bars
The ImageReady slice tool allows you to use a single graphic for your navigation bar instead of creating separate images for each link. First, create a single graphic of the many buttons you wish to use. You can use ImageReady to slice this graphic up into buttons and automatically generate HTML to lay it all out. Open the file you wish to prepare and select the Slice Tool.
Notice the ImageReady toolbar is almost exactly the same as the Photoshop toolbar. If you're familiar with Photoshop you should be fairly prepared for ImageReady. The Slice Tool is indicated by the red arrow. Make sure you have the Slice Tool and not the Slice Select Tool. Both can be seen by clicking and holding on the icon.
Use the Slice Tool to outline the areas of the image that you'd like to separate. ImageReady will help by connecting your lines together for you (you can override this by using Ctrl+drag). Our example sliced navigation bar looks like this:
Notice that there are 4 different areas outlined in this example. Attach links to the graphics by locating the Slice palette (make it appear by selecting Window / Show Slice). Switch to the Slice Select Tool and click on different slices. Notice that the thumbnail on the Slice palette shows the entire slice. Select the area of the graphic that will be your first link (on the example above, the happy face is selected). Then enter the location it will link to after URL. If you want the link to open in a new window, select _blank after Target.
Do this for all other buttons you want links for. When you're ready to save your layout, first switch from Show Original Image to Show Optimized Image.
Paint Shop Pro (photo editor): Rotating the Image
If the image is upside-down or sideways, rotate it to the correct orientation. To do this, go to the Image menu and select either Flip, Mirror, or Rotate and then the appropriate orientation.
Adobe Photoshop Elements (1): good photo editor for you
Price: $99 ($69 upgrade, educational licensing available)
Product Information from Adobe
30-Day Free Trial
Photoshop Elements is essentially a scaled down version of Adobe Photoshop (Elements implies basic features). This program has the same range of functionality as Paint Shop Pro. It also comes with tools for creating animations and slices. Some additional features of Photoshop Elements include:
specialized support for photographs
automated contact sheets, picture packages and Web photo galleries
many filters and effects (more than Paint Shop Pro)
Which graphics program is best?
Which graphics program is best depends on your budget and image editing needs. Microsoft Picture Manager or Microsoft Photo Editor may already be installed as part of Microsoft Office, and each provides the tools needed for basic manipulation of Web images. PaintShopPro provides a good selection of powerful features at a reasonable cost, and is relatively easy to use. Photoshop Elements provides powerful editing capabilities at an attractive price, and provides a good introduction to the full version of Photoshop- the professional's choice. A good compromise for a computer lab would be a copy of Photoshop Elements on most computers, with one or two copies of the full version of Photoshop on selected machines (e.g. the most powerful, or the one connected to a scanner). There are also other image editing programs which may be the best choice for certain users (e.g. Macromedia Fireworks for people working extensively with Dreamweaver and Flash).
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This method adds grain. It does it a little better than the grain filter.