Choosing an Imaging Program that's right for You!

Photoshop Elements v.2
Jasc's Paint Shop Pro v. 7.1
Ulead's PhotoImpact v.7

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Opera makes a mess of this page.)

I strongly suggest that you read this article first: Using Images in FrontPage You'll find material about the above mentioned programs there, as well. Although Jasc and Ulead have updated their programs much of this material is still valid. I will rewrite this article soon.

It is possible for you to download trial versions of all three of these programs. If you don't have one of them yet, I suggest that you give them all a try. You don't have to buy the full version of Photoshop for $$$$ unless you are in the print business! All three of these programs offer a great deal if you are a photographer and want to add your photos to a web site. They each have many capabilities for creating web graphics. Which one you choose will probably depend upon your personal 'style'. There again, you'll have to try them out! There are many other resources at the end of the page 2. I'll give you quite a few links and even mention programs such as Macromedia's Fireworks, Irfanview, Ulead's Photo Explorer, NetStudio etc. too. What I really want to do in this tutorial is to introduce you to the various program interfaces and make some suggestions that may help you get started if you're a 'newbie'. As with my other tutorials, there are a lot of screen shots for you to look at ... just click on the thumbnails within the article. Often there is text in the larger versions which is not present in the thumbnail, so be sure look at them. As we look at each program I'll point out how the menus work and generally what they offer. If you can't find things easily in a program it doesn't matter how good it is. I won't spent any time here introducing you to the web graphics capabilites ... you'll have to explore those on your own with each of the trial versions. See if what they generate fits your "style"!

Paint Shop Pro v. 7.04 (the Anniversary Version)
I admit that this is my own program of choice. Here is the opening screen along with the Toolbar selection dialog box. The main tool pallette on the left is greyed out here only because no image has been opened. You can see what all the available toolbars are.
Here is my very favorite feature in Paint Shop Pro: a custom Photo Toolbar with all the tools I need to work quickly and easily with photographs. These are below the standard toolbar, and are, from left to right: Acquire, Finish a crop, Resize, Histogram adjustment, Adjust Brightness/Contrast, Auto-enhance Contrast, Auto Color Balance, Auto-enhance saturation, Clarify, Un-sharp mask, Promote background, Canvas size, Promote selection, Posterize, Drop shadow, Merge Layers, Save and Save as. You won't initially want to include this many.

Click for larger size.

Now we're ready to work on an image. It has been scanned in or opened from a folder of images. Begin by cropping, resizing, using the histogram adjustment dialog box etc. and finally Save as with its optimizing capabilities.
See Using Images in FrontPage for more suggestions.
Here's an example of PSP's browse feature. The image will open if you double-click on it.
Your preferences for each of these can be found at File> Preferences.
Here's just one example of the various effects that you can choose for working with a photograph. These are the finest in the business, I believe.

Paint shop Pro has many capabilities for making web graphics. You'll need to explore this on your own - - I use other programs for making web graphics, using PSP primarily for working with photos! This screen shot is of the subjects covered in their HELP files. There's a fine book that comes with the program and here's a book for learning web graphics (but I do not recommend it for working with photographs): Paint Shop Pro Web Graphics by Lori Davis and Andy Shafran.

Photoshop Elements v.2
As I said earlier, you don't need the expensive version of Photoshop v.7. Adobe has developed Photoshop Elements v.2 for those of us who like this interface and the chioces the program offers. This is the opening screen. Notice the tabbed area on the far right side near the top.
Photoshop Elements also has the necessary browse feature.
This is their Enhance menu box. Notice Quick Fix.
I've opened Quick Fix. Look carefully and you'll see that there are many adjustment capabilities with before and after thumbnails to view.
You could begin with the Image dropdown menu.
This is an example of the possible filter choices. It's good fun to experiment with these.
Menu possibilities include How to, Filters, Effects, Layer Styles, Undo History, Layers and Hints. This shows some of the the Layers Styles' possibilities.
An excellent User Guide comes with this program. And Lynda.com has developed A Learning CD which will step you through everthing. http://www.lynda.com/products/videos/elemcd/ Take a look at the Table of Contents for other aspects of this program that I have not mentioned.

Ulead's PhotoImpact v.7
This is another fine program for working with images and it is especially good, I think, for certain types of web graphics. The opening screen is a bit of "too much" but you can get used to it fairly quickly. Various toolbars have been chosen.
 .... now with an open photograph, the Standard Toolbar, Attribute toolbar and the Tools Panels open.
Open the larger image just above while you read this: The Standard toolbar, above, from left to right: New Image, New Web Page, Open, Save, Print, Print Multiple, Print Preview, Preview in Browser, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Scanner (with choices), Digital Camera (with choices), Post-processing Wizard, Color Enhancer, Color Balance, Brightness and contrast, Highlight-Midtone-Shadow, Frame and Shadow, Start/Stop (screen) Capture, Layout, Percentage, the Ulead Home page and finally HELP. Whew, I find that too much to look at all the time! Right below that list are the choices you can make for any of the tools that you have selected .... which is a good feature!
There's a big, thick Official guide and the CD has sample image files from the book. It is well written and includes many chapters and screen shots for all the other areas that I haven't mentioned: Create Web Components and Pages.

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