Naturally if you have your own graphics applications and know how to use them, you can ignore this section entirely. The applications discussed in this section are widely used, safe and free to use.
- Windows Paint – Just need to crop, resize or add arrows to something, it works fine for that.
- GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program – It has a geeky name, but it is is an amazingly powerful yet easy to use graphics application.
Download and Install
Download Here – Then install as you would any normal application.
Open or Paste Image
To start, open a file or paste in a graphic
- From a File – Open from the menu using File Open, or by dropping a file if there are no files open. Note: If there is a file open, dropping a file will import the file into the open image as a new layer.
- From the Clipboard – Use Shift+Ctrl+V to create a new graphic in a new tab, even if a graphic is currently open.
Saving and Exporting
GIMP has stuff like layers that are not saved in standard graphic. Saving the file will resulit in a file with the .xcf extension. Use export is used to save as a jpg or png file.
- Saving the File – From the menu, use File – Save or Save As as expected.
If the purpose was to crop / size a graphic, saving may not be needed. Just export the file and do not bother saving a useless duplicate. - Export as web graphic – From the menu, use File – Export or Export As. Be sure to enter the file extension you desire to save as, such as png or jpg.
You may be prompted with addition options when you export, generally using the selected options is fine. That said, there are options to help make smaller graphics for web use.
GIMP ToolsYou only need a few
Here are the primary tools used for web graphic creation and updates.
The move tool is used to move stuff around.
The rectangle select tool is often used to select an area to crop or copy to clipboard.
The magic wand is used to select something on a clean background. It detects the edges.
The crop tool is one way to crop, see section on how to crop for more info.
The resize tool is one way to resize content, see section on resizing content for more info.
The fill tool is used to fill an area with a color.
The text tool is used to add text to a graphic.
The color picker tool is used to grab a color from a picture.
This section provides details on how to crop, resize and change the canvas size on a graphic.
Crop – The process of selecting part of a graphic and saving as a new graphic.
- Use the select tool to select the area to crop.
- From the menu, select Image – Crop to Selection from the menu.
There is also a crop tool that works pretty well, but this is a nice easy method to crop without using the crop tool.
Video – How To Crop
Resize – Taking a lager graphic and sizing it smaller. If you size a graphic larger, details are lost and it generally looks fuzzy – do sparingly and not much.
- From the menu – select Image – Scale
- Normally you do not want to skew the graphic and make it look funny, so maintain aspect ratio using the link icon. Be sure the link is closed, then update the heigh or the width – the the other value will change automatically to keep the same aspect ratio.
- Click the Scale button to update the image size.
Video – How To Resize
Canvas Size – When you want images that are the same aspect ratio, canvas size can help size the graphic without skewing the image. Often a graphic is cropped, resized and the canvas size changed as well.
- With the graphic open, select Image – Canvas Size.
- In the menu, change the width and height to the desired image size.
- Use the Center button or move the graphic where desired in the preview area to the right.
- Click the Resize button to complete the operation.
Video – Change Canvas Size
About Windows Paint
Windows has a simple app that allows for cropping, resizing, adding arrows and boxes to graphics. It isn’t has fancy, but does the job normally.
Tip: Use GIMP to resize large graphics smaller because paint can make for a fuzzier end result.
Adding Boxes and Arrows
Putting boxes around items that need to be noticed and/or adding arrows is easier in Paint as GIMP doesn’t have any built in features for this. Gimp allows for importing arrow / other graphics and moving them around better than Paint, but simply adding some boxes and arrows is much simpler in Paint.
To add boxes or arrows, select them from the toolbox and use them as expected.
Cropping
Cropping is very easy in paint, use the Selection tool to select and then use the Crop button to crop the image to the selection.
Resizing
Gimp is much better for resizing, but Paint can be used for a quick crop and/or resize.
Click the Resize and Skew button, a dialog with easy to understand options will appear, use as expected.
