posted August 14, 2007 09:35 PM         

re:
** .. How did you personalize that? Been looking for someway to do that with the birthday wishes. .. **

posted August 14, 2007 10:30 PM         

I appreciate you taking the trouble to let me know the procedure.

posted August 19, 2007 08:54 PM         

whatever pixel editing programme is used .. just about all are based around 'photoshop' ..
however not all label 'layers' as that .. "Painter' for example use a system called 'floaters'
and handles text in a slightly different way .. but the 'basics' are the same ..

type in the letters .. copy part of the 'clowns' image .. and insert (paste) into the text outline ..

all img editing programmes will have the following in common ..
an aray of 'selection' tools ..
the ability to copy / paste data to and from the copy/paste buffer ..
the ability to add text type ..
the abilitity to adjust the color content ..
the ability to 'feather' a selection ..

the following is also possible to do without a 'layers' system ..
it just needs a bit more pre-planning and thought on 'how to' ..

'editing' in an image editor is similar to editing in a text editor ..
one 'highlites' or 'selects' areas for editing purposes ..
( just as one drags a cursor over a bunch of text to highlite it for editing )
in an img editor .. one drags or uses in some fashion a 'selection' tool ..
'selections' are normally highlited by what looks like 'marching ants'
around the selection border ..

'modifier' keys are also important ..
e.g holding down the 'shift' key whilst dragging with the rectangle selection tool ..
will result in the rectangle being drawn as a square .. ( in photoshop )

there is no substitute for following a few tutorials ..
and refering to the reference/help data that comes with the programme ..
or dedicated sites on the internet ..

btw note : preparing docs for printing is another ball-game all together ..

for photoshop tutorials .. ths site is excellent ..
~ http://www.myjanee.com/index.html ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. clowns and type pages ..
how that file was made .. in adobe photoshop vs.3
( current marketed version is vs.7 )

these pages are best veiwed at a monitor resolution of 832 by 624 pixels
( not sure how the img. text might look at higher resolutions )
( 832 by 624 is what i'm using here on a 17" screen )

1 .. editing the background color ..
~ ( edit. 22 sept. file off server ) ~

2 .. inserting and coloring the text ..
~ ( edit. 22 sept. file off server ) ~

3 .. about 'feathering' selections and saving the file as a .jpg for web use ..
~ ( edit. 22 sept. file off server ) ~

ps. .. if you want to keep the pages .. download them to your computer ..
and put All the files in the same folder ( no sub-folders ) ..
they should then work in local mode ( i.e. off your computer )
i'll leave them on the server for a week/ten days maybe more ...
but at somestage will have to clean up the server space ..
i can always reload them up to the server if necessary ..
there's 3.3 meg in total for those three pages ..

posted August 20, 2007 12:25 PM         

I will play around with this. I am a hands on learner. I learn best by doing and all the info you gave me gives me a very good head start. I will follow your instructions as I do it.

Zala is helping me with the program too. Between the two of you I should eventually get good at this graphics stuff.

You and Zala are great!! Thanks so much to both of you.

posted August 21, 2007 10:35 AM         

thought i'd go google for the history behind the software

.. from 'computer arts' ..
~ http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/the_history_of_photoshop ~

note the toolbox in that pic .. looks like probably version minus 1 .. ;-)))
how it's changed !
i didn't know about the 'star wars' connection ..