Puzzletome Home Page Puzzletome
Discuss all aspects of the Puzzletome website
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Post new topic   Reply to topic
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
The Hirsute One
Hairy but harmless


Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Posts: 17307
Location: Croydon, Surrey, UK

PostPosted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 11:32 am    Post subject: Section 2: Moving images/transparency Reply with quote

Q: How do I move all or part of an image?
A: There are several ways of selecting and moving an image. You can press Ctrl+A to select the whole image, click with the left mouse button inside this area and drag it around the screen with the mouse. The screen may need to be resized first to avoid dragging the image off the available working area. You can also click "Select" and choose "Select all" from the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, you can click on "Select" in the image toolbar and 'lasso', using the mouse, the part of the image you want to move. Under "Select" you have two options - "Rectangular selection" or "Free-form selection", the first automatically drawing a rectangle around the selected area while the second allows you to draw an irregular shape to move. Using this second option you need to 'close' the selection by joining the end of the selection to the start. You can then copy or cut the selection to move it elsewhere, copy leaving the original selection in place while cut deletes the original. "Cut" and "Copy" are found on the Clipboard toolbar or by right clicking inside your selection and using the menu.
To clear a selection, click anywhere outside of the selected area or click on another toolbar icon.

Q: I get a border around selections when I try to move them so I can't get them to fit together.
A: White is the default background colour in so after cutting an image, you also cut out the border in white. When you paste the selection next to another image, this white border will become visible.
At the bottom of the drop down under "Select" on the image toolbar is "Transparent selection". If this is not ticked, the background remains visible and thus you get the white border. If it is ticked, the background colour becomes invisible and will not appear when the image is pasted or moved. The background colour is shown as "Color 2" on the Colors toolbar.

The default for this is white ("Color 1" defaults to black) and if your background is white, the white is then invisible. You can change this by clicking on "Color 2", selecting a colour from the chart and this will then become the colour that is invisible. Notice that cutting part of an image will change the cut area to your selected background colour (whatever colour is selected as "Color 2").

The first image is the result of having white as “Color 2” and as a transparent selection when moving part of an image while the second is the same but the pale yellow is now selected as “Color 2”.



Besides changing "Color 2" directly, you can also use the "Color picker" tool on the Tools toolbar. Select the "Color picker" icon and then left click on a particular colour in the image to make that the main colour ("Color 1") or right click on a colour to make that the background colour ("Color 2"). Therefore, if you have pasted an image with a uniform background colour, right click on this background with the dropper and when you move the image, the background will become invisible if "Transparent selection" is ticked.

Here are a couple of examples of "jigsaws" using . In both images you will need to increase your canvas size to have somewhere to rebuild the image. This first image is made of complete rectangles of parts of the image so it is possible, using the "Select" tool, to precisely outline each rectangle and move it around the image until you rebuild the original.



This second image is more complex. It is impossible to select each piece exactly and this is where a transparent background is required.



Again you will need to enlarge the canvas size to have somewhere to place the pieces. Either select the pale yellow background as "Color 2" using the "Color picker" before enlarging the canvas (the background will then be yellow) or enlarge it and then fill with pale yellow. Having a unifrom background throughout makes seeing what you are doing a bit easier.

Some pieces can be cut using the normal rectangular selection but others are quite close and may require you to zoom in and then use the "Free-form selection" tool to outline the piece first. Alternatively, each piece can be copied as a rectangular selection which may include bits of other pieces, and then pasted in your blank area and the extra bits erased.

Whichever method you use, the puzzle can then be rebuilt and the transparent background will allow you to connect the pieces exactly.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group