MSPaint Gurus... if there is such a thing :)

[Smazz]

Ok, I know this is the most basic of programs but it is all I really need for what I am doing.

 

I run some charity events through out the year and with this I usually have to come up with some simple graphic for announcements invites etc.

 

So I basically just find jpeg on the net that serves the purpose and add text as per required.

 

What I have found is, when I zoom in on areas of the finished product, there are very small pixels of of different colors floating around the image. I thought maybe I sloppily put these in or copied them from somewhere so I meticulously go in to delete them as best I can without screwing up my finished graphic.  I'll save the file and move on.

 

Well, what happens is next time I open the file I notice these things are there again (not in exactly the same spot). I realize every time I clean it up and save it, they will appear in misc areas again, every time.

 

So my question is "WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?"

 

As I mentioned, I know this is a basic MS program but except for this problem, its all I really need.

 

Any one have insight?

 

Thanks

[lessthaniv]

No idea about the pixel issue, Smazz.

 

But if you're stuck you can have a look at the Microsoft Word Templates for invitations.

You just download the template into the appropriate MS Office Program (ex; Word 2007) and away you go.

 

Very easy,

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=invitations

 

 

[Smazz]

No idea about the pixel issue, Smazz.

 

But if you're stuck you can have a look at the Microsoft Word Templates for invitations.

You just download the template into the appropriate MS Office Program (ex; Word 2007) and away you go.

 

Very easy,

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=invitations

 

Thankyou LessthanIV,

 

I will take a look there also.

 

I am surprised how much stuff MS actually delivers for the simple user (me :D).

 

 

Thanks

[elltel]

are you saving it in a low resolution jpg or gif? sometimes to compact the image you get issues like this. save as BMP.

[Smazz]

are you saving it in a low resolution jpg or gif? sometimes to compact the image you get issues like this. save as BMP.

 

Ok I will try saving them in BMP.

 

see if that makes a difference.

 

thanks

 

 

[leftcoast]

When you save the file in JPEG (JPG) format, it compresses the image, which creates visual "artifacts" like those little pixels you see. Saving it as in BMP or PNG format will prevent the noticeable compression, but will also result in a much larger file size (which you may or may not care about).

 

The JPG artifacts should not be too noticeable, though, unless you are scaling the image up much larger than its original size (or zooming in on it a lot).

[rkbabang]

I'm not sure if MS Paint gives you the option, but you can usually set the compression level when saving as JPG.  If so set it higher or as others have said just save as BMP.   

 

What I usually do when I want to create something simple like this is use MS Word (or even the free OpenOffice.org).

 

You can insert a photo, right click on it and under "wrap text" select "in front of text" or "behind text" then you can move it to any where you want on the page and you can resize it to any size you want.  Next in the "Insert" menu click on "Shapes" then "text Box"  You can then draw a text box anywhere on the page to put text into and reshape it or move it wherever you want.  When you have it just right, right-click on it, hit format shape, then line style and set it to no line.  This will make the box around the text invisible.

 

To me MS Word is easier to use and print from than MS Paint, but then again I don't think I've even opened up MS Paint to do anything since I was running Windows 3.11 for workgroups on my 25MHz 386.  It is possible that Paint isn't as bad of a program now as I remember it to be.

[Smazz]

I'm not sure if MS Paint gives you the option, but you can usually set the compression level when saving as JPG.  If so set it higher or as others have said just save as BMP.   

 

What I usually do when I want to create something simple like this is use MS Word (or even the free OpenOffice.org).

 

You can insert a photo, right click on it and under "wrap text" select "in front of text" or "behind text" then you can move it to any where you want on the page and you can resize it to any size you want.  Next in the "Insert" menu click on "Shapes" then "text Box"  You can then draw a text box anywhere on the page to put text into and reshape it or move it wherever you want.  When you have it just right, right-click on it, hit format shape, then line style and set it to no line.  This will make the box around the text invisible.

 

To me MS Word is easier to use and print from than MS Paint, but then again I don't think I've even opened up MS Paint to do anything since I was running Windows 3.11 for workgroups on my 25MHz 386.  It is possible that Paint isn't as bad of a program now as I remember it to be.

 

RKB you are correct on that as I have used both Word and Excel for this need because they have different/additional options that can be used. Ive never used that wrap text in Word though but I like the idea and will have to try it.

I have used WORDART for different shapes of text and then copied them into my Paint file but the text comes out all.. how to describe??.. not crisp/clean or distorted after copied.

 

I cant remember how PAINT was back in the day (I too was on a 386 AND A 286! :o haha..)

but I did view see some youtube vids on PAINT functions recently and there are quite a few things that can be done which are not really evident to the casual user.

[rkbabang]

I'm not sure if MS Paint gives you the option, but you can usually set the compression level when saving as JPG.  If so set it higher or as others have said just save as BMP.   

 

What I usually do when I want to create something simple like this is use MS Word (or even the free OpenOffice.org).

 

You can insert a photo, right click on it and under "wrap text" select "in front of text" or "behind text" then you can move it to any where you want on the page and you can resize it to any size you want.  Next in the "Insert" menu click on "Shapes" then "text Box"  You can then draw a text box anywhere on the page to put text into and reshape it or move it wherever you want.  When you have it just right, right-click on it, hit format shape, then line style and set it to no line.  This will make the box around the text invisible.

 

To me MS Word is easier to use and print from than MS Paint, but then again I don't think I've even opened up MS Paint to do anything since I was running Windows 3.11 for workgroups on my 25MHz 386.  It is possible that Paint isn't as bad of a program now as I remember it to be.

 

RKB you are correct on that as I have used both Word and Excel for this need because they have different/additional options that can be used. Ive never used that wrap text in Word though but I like the idea and will have to try it.

I have used WORDART for different shapes of text and then copied them into my Paint file but the text comes out all.. how to describe??.. not crisp/clean or distorted after copied.

 

I cant remember how PAINT was back in the day (I too was on a 386 AND A 286! :o haha..)

but I did view see some youtube vids on PAINT functions recently and there are quite a few things that can be done which are not really evident to the casual user.

 

I just went to my windows machine and started up Paint.  One thing I noticed is that when you hit File->Properties.  The resolution is 96dpi.  That could be the cause of the pixelation when you drop wordart into it.  I couldn't figure out quickly how to change the resolution so maybe there is no way.  If that is the case you are working with 96dpi which will definitely look low quality both on the screen and in print if you have a lot of fine detail in your image. 

 

I never had a 286.  I went from my Commodore 64 to my 80386SX25 in about 1989 or so. About a year later I bought the 387 Math-co processor for it so it could handle floating point instructions.  That was nice machine at the time.  Of course, I kept it for a long time after it ceased being a nice fast machine.  I never got a 486 (I was in college and couldn't afford it) I didn't upgrade it until I graduated in 1996 and could afford to buy a Pentium motherboard, CPU, and some memory for it.  I ran Windows 3.11 until I upgraded to Windows 98 SE in 1999 or so.

Of course I was using Linux (installed on a separate harddrive) more than windows back then anyway, same as now.

 

--Eric

 

[Smazz]

 

Eric,

I was able to produce the results you were describing however I had go through a slightly different method because it seems my toolbars/functions are a bit diffferent than yours so maybe I am using a different version of Word.  I had done some graphics similar to what you described except for the "Text in front - Text behind" etc. I will play around with this a bit more but it would be good if i could have the same functionality so to speak as Paint WITH the higher resolution of word.

 

The one thing that may hold me back on this method is when i am working with the actual pic - sometimes delete parts of it, add other parts etc. I would have to do that in paint and then transfer over to Word.

 

Thanks for your Help Eric and the rest.

[leftcoast]

I'm not sure if MS Paint gives you the option, but you can usually set the compression level when saving as JPG.  If so set it higher or as others have said just save as BMP.   

 

What I usually do when I want to create something simple like this is use MS Word (or even the free OpenOffice.org).

 

You can insert a photo, right click on it and under "wrap text" select "in front of text" or "behind text" then you can move it to any where you want on the page and you can resize it to any size you want.  Next in the "Insert" menu click on "Shapes" then "text Box"  You can then draw a text box anywhere on the page to put text into and reshape it or move it wherever you want.  When you have it just right, right-click on it, hit format shape, then line style and set it to no line.  This will make the box around the text invisible.

 

To me MS Word is easier to use and print from than MS Paint, but then again I don't think I've even opened up MS Paint to do anything since I was running Windows 3.11 for workgroups on my 25MHz 386.  It is possible that Paint isn't as bad of a program now as I remember it to be.

 

RKB you are correct on that as I have used both Word and Excel for this need because they have different/additional options that can be used. Ive never used that wrap text in Word though but I like the idea and will have to try it.

I have used WORDART for different shapes of text and then copied them into my Paint file but the text comes out all.. how to describe??.. not crisp/clean or distorted after copied.

 

I cant remember how PAINT was back in the day (I too was on a 386 AND A 286! :o haha..)

but I did view see some youtube vids on PAINT functions recently and there are quite a few things that can be done which are not really evident to the casual user.

 

If you have PowerPoint installed on your PC, I'd suggest you use that instead. It's much easier to manipulate and combine text and graphics together in PowerPoint. That's basically what it was designed for.

[rkbabang]

 

Eric,

I was able to produce the results you were describing however I had go through a slightly different method because it seems my toolbars/functions are a bit diffferent than yours so maybe I am using a different version of Word.  I had done some graphics similar to what you described except for the "Text in front - Text behind" etc. I will play around with this a bit more but it would be good if i could have the same functionality so to speak as Paint WITH the higher resolution of word.

 

The one thing that may hold me back on this method is when i am working with the actual pic - sometimes delete parts of it, add other parts etc. I would have to do that in paint and then transfer over to Word.

 

Thanks for your Help Eric and the rest.

 

 

If you need to edit a picture and don't want to shell out multiple hundreds of $s for photoshop.  Try installing GIMP, I've been using it for years on both windows and linux and it is infinitely more powerful than Paint.

Once you learn how to use it, very quick to open up a picture and make your edits, then save it and import into another program like word.  And it's free.

 

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

 

 

[Smazz]

 

Eric,

I was able to produce the results you were describing however I had go through a slightly different method because it seems my toolbars/functions are a bit diffferent than yours so maybe I am using a different version of Word.  I had done some graphics similar to what you described except for the "Text in front - Text behind" etc. I will play around with this a bit more but it would be good if i could have the same functionality so to speak as Paint WITH the higher resolution of word.

 

The one thing that may hold me back on this method is when i am working with the actual pic - sometimes delete parts of it, add other parts etc. I would have to do that in paint and then transfer over to Word.

 

Thanks for your Help Eric and the rest.

 

 

If you need to edit a picture and don't want to shell out multiple hundreds of $s for photoshop.  Try installing GIMP, I've been using it for years on both windows and linux and it is infinitely more powerful than Paint.

Once you learn how to use it, very quick to open up a picture and make your edits, then save it and import into another program like word.  And it's free.

 

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Actually, for a little while I have been playing around with Inkscape, which from what I hear is very similar to GIMP - somepeople like Inkscape, some like GIMP.  I would like to play aound more with it because I have had to generate Vector files of the graphics a few times and Ive been told you can do this with these programs. The other thing that has held me back from using it more is it (Inkscape) seems to be a Memory Hog!!, for me anyway. Everything just gets really bogged down.

Not sure if all graphics programs would be the same or is just because it is a free ware program or maybe just my comp.

 

I should look at setting up GIMP also - at least I'll know some one else who is using it if i have questions ;)