'Art of Picturing', tips for noobs

AJ Corp. The FAIR · June 29, 2003, 08:40

Looking at some beautiful picturing by many AU players (Catt and others), I'm wondering how to get them so clear myself. Maybe stupid question, but tips are appreciated. I use MS Paint from Win 98, but it doesn't seem to be very useful/flexible.

Thanks in advance ?

AJ

Catt · June 29, 2003, 13:07

vmxa1 once recommended to me, and I heartily recommend to you, irfanview.

www.irfanview.com

A great little free image capture and manipulation program (much better than paint for screenshots). Just capture your screenshot, paste it into the irfanview viewer, resize to 800 x 600 (one command), and save as a jpg.

If I need to cut and paste images together into a compilation, I do so in MS Paint, cutting and pasting from irfanview images since resizing in MS Paint distorts the images considerably.

Catt

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 14:32

If you have Photoshop, use it. It's the most powerful thing around and it can do wonders to your screenshots... (especially compoilations). That is what I use all the time and I like it a lot

Rhothaerill · June 29, 2003, 16:07

I guess I haven't been using Photoshop to its full extent then. I've never done any compilations or anything fun like GF and the others do. I've just used it to create the file format for screenshots and that's all.

vmxa1 · June 29, 2003, 16:34

I recently got PS, but I have yet to figure how to use it. Just no time to play with it.

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 21:05

PS works upon the principle of layers, which are treated independently. You can edit/alter/add new layers without even touching the other ones. Once you get to know it, it's pretty powerful...

--Kon--

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 21:10

When you capture a screenshot, you press the PrntScrn (or whatever it is

) on your keyboard. Your image then goes in your clipboard.

When you open Photoshop, click on File/New... and the screen captured below will pop up. Select a resolution of 1024x768, which is the resolution Civ uses.

Then hit Ctrl-V or Edit/Paste to paste the image on your screenshot.

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 21:23

To resize the image in 800x600, go to Image/Image Size... and select a format of 800x600. The image will automatically resize. If you create a 800x600 file and then you paste your screenshot in it, the lower right part of it will be cut out, as in the example below.

In the screenshot, #1 is the crop image tool. Select it, drag the frame you want on your image then hit enter. The rest of the image will be cut out. Useful when you want to single out a detail

#2 is the type tool. Hit this, click where you want your text to appear in your image and then type. You can choose the font, size and color too.

#3 is the pencil tool. I used it to draw those amrvelous numbers.

#4 is your layer box. This of your image as a big sandwich. You're just piling things up. If you select the layer you want, and then use the move tool (#5), you can slide layers on top of each other., creating beautiful arrangements!

Don't be afraid to experiment. If you ahve done something wrong, you can go back in your history box (#6) or simply hit Ctrl-Z.

Konquest02 · June 29, 2003, 21:26

Photoshop cannot create .jpg images with layers. They have to be flattened first. To do so, go in Layer/Flatten Image. All of your layers will collapse into the background.

After doing that, you can go in File/Save As... and save your great montage.

Have fun with PS!

--Kon--

P.S. (No pun intended

) If you have any questions about this, I have followed a digital photography course based on Photoshop, so I might know the answer to your problem...

Theseus · June 29, 2003, 23:28

Is PS the best tool for full screen re-sizing? I've got all the usual suspects, plus irfanview, PS, and Corel PP.

AJ Corp. The FAIR · June 30, 2003, 06:57

Thanks for all these useful inputs. I guess Photoshop isn't for free?

AJ

FrustratedPoet · June 30, 2003, 07:37

Quote:

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR
Thanks for all these useful inputs. I guess Photoshop isn't for free?

No Photoshop isn't free - there are various illegal ways of downloading it for free, but we aren't allowed to discuss them here.

However, a free (and legal) trial version of Paint Shop Pro - which is just as good as Photoshop for Civ purposes - is available from Jasc Software: http://www.jasc.com/

Irfanview should fulfill all your needs, though, and I recommend you use it (Catt posted a link).

FrustratedPoet · June 30, 2003, 07:40

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
Is PS the best tool for full screen re-sizing?

I find the Paint Shop Pro interface more intuitive, but the answer to your question is Yes.

Konquest02 · June 30, 2003, 21:55

You can download for FREE, a great tool called The Gimp, which is basically Photoshop, running mostly for Linux. They also have a windows version which is FREE too.

Theseus · June 30, 2003, 21:59

I'm still not in love with the re-sizing in PS... any tips to make CivIII text more legible?

Hueij · July 1, 2003, 13:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
I'm still not in love with the re-sizing in PS... any tips to make CivIII text more legible?

There is not much you can do about that. One thing that may help is sharpening the original image (Filter-->Sharpen) once or twice before resizing.

Oh, and something else, before you "Save for web", make sure to twiddle with the compression settings so your filesize will be as small as possible.

And finally, it isn't necessary to flatten the layers before exporting to jpg. If you don't it will be easier if you ever decide to edit your original image.

TheArsenal · July 1, 2003, 13:31

Delete. Responded to wrong thread

Konquest02 · July 1, 2003, 20:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Hueij
And finally, it isn't necessary to flatten the layers before exporting to jpg. If you don't it will be easier if you ever decide to edit your original image.

It isn't necessary, bur you will have to save the image as a copy of your photoshop file...

--Kon--

Theseus · July 2, 2003, 22:29

Kon, your screenshots using PS seem to come out somewhat better than mine, especially the text... what am I missing?

FrustratedPoet · July 3, 2003, 04:24

Is there an option to "Maintain aspect ratios" or something similar when you resize? If there is you'll need that turned on.

FrustratedPoet · July 3, 2003, 07:56

Theseus: If you have Windows XP you can turn on ClearType to get clearer text on your monitor. This might help the screenshots be a bit more readable.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/...pe/default.htm

Is it possible for you to post a "before" and "after" comparison of you re-sizing efforts? It might be possible to work out what the problem is from them.

Konquest02 · July 3, 2003, 16:41

Theseus: Try to adjust your compression level while saving your file in .jpg. A larger "quality number" (typically from 7-11) will make your image much clearer, but also heavier.

You can try running an unsharp mask on your image after resizing (Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask...). Fiddle with the settings and get a clearer image. I have not done it on those screenshots but it does make a huge difference.

--Kon--

Theseus · July 3, 2003, 18:07

Thanks guys... I'll play around with those settings when I next do screenshots.

Torkkeli · July 10, 2003, 05:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Konquest02
When you capture a screenshot, you press the PrntScrn (or whatever it is

) on your keyboard. Your image then goes in your clipboard.

When you open Photoshop, click on File/New... and the screen captured below will pop up. Select a resolution of 1024x768, which is the resolution Civ uses.

Then hit Ctrl-V or Edit/Paste to paste the image on your screenshot.

I belive PS automatically gives you the resolution equal to the image in the clipboard.
So no need to modify it.

And remember if you are using greater than 1024x768 resolution you can have Civ to use it too with keepres=1 in your civ.ini (or what ever it is called) file.

Theseus · July 12, 2003, 17:34

I can't seem to figure out how to get a new picture into the clipboard... I thought Windows just over-writes what's there?

And when I purge within PS, I can't get anything into the clipboard at all.

I've been closing PS after each shot, which is a huge PITA... any ideas?

FrustratedPoet · July 12, 2003, 18:07

/edit: For some reason I actually can't get this to work in my copy of Photoshop. However, it works perfectly in Paint Shop Pro.

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
I can't seem to figure out how to get a new picture into the clipboard... I thought Windows just over-writes what's there?

And when I purge within PS, I can't get anything into the clipboard at all.

I've been closing PS after each shot, which is a huge PITA... any ideas?

Step 1: Load your graphics program (PS)
Step 2: Load Civ
Step 3: Press Print Screen (or "Prnt Scrn") when you have the desired image on the screen.
Step 4: Press Alt+Tab to switch from Civ to PS (if you don't have much RAM this might take a while ... or crash your PC)
Step 5: Paste (Ctrl+V) image into PS.
Step 6: Alt+Tab back into Civ
Step 7: Goto Step 3

Yes, when you press Print Screen Windows will overwrite what's already on the clipboard. If for some strange reason this isn't happening then you are beyond the limits of my skill.

Don't close PS ... you really shouldn't need to.

(I'm writing this while drunk ... I hope it makes sense and that it helps you)

FrustratedPoet · July 12, 2003, 18:12

You might also want to try the free trial of HyperSnap (http://www.hyperionics.com/), which should let you take screenshots without mucking around with Alt-tabbing and Photoshop.

Also, Paint Shop Pro has a "screen capture" option, wherby you can configure it so that after pressing an assigned hotkey it automatically copies and pastes the current screen image into PSP. I would hope that Photoshop has a similar feature (it bloody should do, but I have no personal experience of it).

FrustratedPoet · July 12, 2003, 18:20

Hmmm ... after just experimenting with my *cough*acquired*cough* copy of Photoshop my official opinion is that "it's weird and I don't understand it".

I can't get my copy of PS to work with the Print Screen key at all. I expect you are having a simialr problem. My suggestion = use something else.

Or .... use MS Paint to copy the image from the clipboard and then save it as a BMP. If you open the BMP in Photoshop you should be able to manipulate it in such a way as to make it suitable for posting (ie. cropping/resizing it and saving as a JPG).

Rhothaerill · July 12, 2003, 18:25

I'm certainly no computer graphics wiz, but I've never had any problem with Photoshop. I'd add step 4.5 to FP's post though. Click 'New' for each screenshot you want to paste into the program. And step 5.5 - Go to image/image size to resize the drawing to a maximum of 800x600 for 'Poly posts.

Hey this will be a good thing to boil down for a link on the possible AU page.

FrustratedPoet · July 12, 2003, 18:28

Quote:

Hey this will be a good thing to boil down for a link on the possible AU page.

Agreed. It's a very common problem that people have. If we intend to encourage new AU recruits to post AARs and DARs they need to know how to do screenshots properly.