manage graphics in Serif PagePlus X5

Transcription

1 How to manage graphics in Serif PagePlus X5 Serif PagePlus lets you insert pictures from a wide variety of file formats, including bitmaps, vector images, and metafiles, and in several different ways. Create or edit images in PhotoPlus or DrawPlus and import them into your document. It s advisable to prepare all graphics before starting the layout. You will find tips on the correct colour mode and resolution to use for print publications with a list of image file types at the end of this tutorial. Import graphics Open the editable *.PPP file you saved in the last activity. Click on the Import Picture button on the Drawing toolbar and navigate to a picture you want to use. Click once on the page to insert it at its default size, or click and drag out to the approximate size you need and release your mouse button. Adjust dimensions with the corner handles. Group pictures and position them using the layout grid. Drag ruler guides out as needed to align elements. Picture frames Picture frames are shaped containers rather like shaped text frames, but for graphics. Select a shape from the Import Picture flyout menu and click on the page to insert it at a default size, or click and drag your mouse to set a rough size. Resize using the handles. Insert a picture either by clicking on the Replace Picture button under the picture frame and navigating to your graphic, or by dragging and dropping a picture from the Media Bar (see below) for your publication onto the frame. Serif Europe AO3 PagePlus X5 Manage graphics 1

2 The Media Bar The Media Bar is a neat way to collect all the graphics you need for your publication in one place where they can be easily viewed and dragged onto a page. This means that you don t have to navigate constantly to different folders to find your pictures and import them one at a time. It s a good idea to create an album of your images when you begin to design your document in PagePlus, as it will save time later. Toggle the Media Bar on via the View > Studio Tabs menu. Use the small black Hide/Show arrow to reveal it, or create more workspace by rolling it out of sight. To create an album click on the New Album button, name it and click on the Add Image or Add Folder button. Navigate to the picture or folder you want to display in the album. When you select an image, you are offered a choice to save it at its native resolution or at 96dpi, which is a low resolution for screen or web. As this is a print publication, you should prepare all the images in advance and save them at a high resolution. Format graphics Inline and Detached pictures Inline pictures are incorporated with the flow of text in a text frame (to insert, select your graphic and click inside a text object), while Detached pictures float freely on the page, outside any frames (to insert, make sure that no text objects are selected on the page). Wrap text PagePlus allows text to flow around objects, including pictures. Select the object e.g. your picture, and choose Wrap Settings from the Arrange menu, or right-click on the highlighted object and select Wrap Settings from the Context menu. The Wrap Settings dialog gives you a choice of options and also lets you determine how far from the object text should flow and whether to crop the object to the wrap outline. The example publication wraps text around graphics on pages 2, 8 and 9 (see next page). Serif Europe AO3 PagePlus X5 Manage graphics 2

3 Wrapping -- Tight Page Master B background graphic Wrapping -- Edge Rotate Graphics don t have to be aligned at 90 o angles to the page. Select a graphic and click on the Rotate Tool button on the Pointer flyout menu. Use the corner handles of the picture to set it at an angle. The pictures on pages 8 and 9 of the sample publication have been rotated to add a dynamic touch to the page. Add effects While the graphic is selected you can also add special effects such as drop shadows. Click on the Filter Effects button on the Drawing toolbar, check Drop Shadow on the Effects menu, adjust settings and preview, then click OK. These effects can also be added to Artistic Text. Borders To add a border to your graphic, select it and click on the Line icon on the Swatches palette in the Studio area. Choose a colour from the same tab. Adjust the thickness or the style of the border on the Line tab. Serif Europe AO3 PagePlus X5 Manage graphics 3

4 The illustration shows a double-page spread with text wrapped around three images that have been rotated and have drop shadows added. Two of the images have white borders in imitation of printed photos. The Artistic Text heading has also been rotated and has a drop shadow to make it stand out. CMYK Colour Mode for print This is the recommended colour process for print publications and especially for offset printing using process inks. CMYK colour mode uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK (known as Key). It is known as a subtractive colour process because printing inks absorb light. When printing using this model, the more ink that is applied, the darker the colour. 100% cyan, magenta and yellow combined produce black; while white is created by not adding any ink at all. Subtractive colours subtract from white to create other colours; while the subtraction of all the maximum colour values makes black. It is advisable to edit and save graphics in CMYK colour mode in your picture-editor from the start to avoid unacceptable colour differences in your final print publication if settings have to be changed later. Use the Publication Palette CMYK mode on the Swatches tab in PagePlus for any colours you apply to text or graphics intended for print publication. Graphic file types for reference Print demands higher resolution images than screen or web: 300 dpi (dots per inch) or higher is recommended for professional output. For commercial printing ask your print shop for their recommendations: they may specify that you use only uncompressed CMYK TIFF and EPS images and you need to know that from the start..tiff stands for Tagged-Image File Format. Choose this format if you are exchanging files between different programs and computer platforms e.g. from Mac to PC. It is a bitmap image format supported by most paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications, including PagePlus. It does not compress files, so sizes are large..eps stands for Encapsulated PostScript. It is a language file format that can contain both vector and bitmap graphics. It is most commonly used for transferring files between applications and for colour separation when sending work to be commercially printed using an offset printing process. Learn more about this in Section 5. Serif Europe AO3 PagePlus X5 Manage graphics 4

5 JPEG or.jpg stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This format is often used for images with subtle tonal changes such as photographs because it supports 16 million colours. It is called a lossy format because some picture quality is lost every time you save a JPEG after editing..gif stands for Graphics Interchange Format. This format is designed to compress file size and reduce electronic transfer time on the web. It is a lossless format that is ideal for non-photographic images such as graphics with sharp edges and areas of flat colour, because it supports a maximum of only 256 colours. GIF format also supports transparency and so it eliminates the usual rectangular frame around graphics. It is the best choice for web pages and multimedia presentations. The format does not support layers: they will be merged. Web browsers also universally support GIFs. For print publications GIF format is often used for vector images (also known as draw graphics ). These graphics are resolution-independent with smaller file sizes. Compact draw images, produced with software like Serif DrawPlus, are often easier to edit and print out better than paint or bitmapped graphics. They are excellent for logos and other vector drawn graphics..bmp stands for Bitmap. BMP format does not compress, so file sizes are very large. Bitmapped pictures, also known as bitmaps or raster pictures, are built from a matrix of dots or "pixels". They may originate as digital camera photos or scanned pictures, or be created or enhanced with a "paint" program or photo editor such as Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, or Serif PhotoPlus. Metafiles are the native graphics format for Microsoft Windows and combine raster and vector information. When Windows users cut and paste images from applications such as PowerPoint or Word the result is a WMF (Windows Metafile) graphic embedded in the page. These WMF files often print with incorrect colours or with changes in line thicknesses. To avoid such problems copy the images into a picture editor like PhotoPlus first and convert them to EPS or TIFF files. Serif Europe AO3 PagePlus X5 Manage graphics 5