Part III: Adding Sparkle to Your Site in Java

Maker PDF-417 2d barcode in Java Part III: Adding Sparkle to Your Site

What if you want part of a picture but not all of it Get out the scissors it s croppin time You can cut out any rectangular section you want, and, as you ll probably do this a lot, you ll be happy to hear how easy it is Open the image you want to crop in IrfanView, and then follow these steps: 1 Place your mouse pointer at one corner of the area you want to crop and click 2 While holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse pointer to the opposite corner of your area As you do so, a guide box shows you the currently selected area (See Figure 7-10)

3 When you have the area you want selected, release the mouse button 4 Choose Edit Crop Selection from the menu Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Y

Just like a picture hanging on a wall, an image on your Web site can sometimes look better if it s repositioned A slight turn to the right, perhaps, or maybe even a complete inversion for a shocking effect Graphically, I m talking about rotation and flips There are two kinds of rotation in IrfanView Simple rotation is always by 90 degrees Four of these in a row returns the image to its original state Custom rotation allows you to specify an exact number of your choice instead To do a simple rotation, just choose Image from the menu, and then click Rotate Right or Rotate Left For a custom rotation, do this instead: 1 Choose Image Custom/Fine Rotation from the menu The Rotate by Angle dialog box appears 2 In the dialog box shown in Figure 7-11, enter the degree (up to two decimal points) of rotation Use a minus sign (-) for leftward rotation

3 The dialog box displays the original image on the left and the altered one on the right If you aren t satisfied with the results of your rotation, repeat Step 2 until the altered image suits your needs 4 Click the OK button Flipping an image is done in pretty much the same way as a simple rotation choose Image Vertical Flip or Image Horizontal Flip from the menu but it isn t the same thing as rotating an image 180 degrees Remember that a flip is a mirror image instead of a turned one

Color adjustments include a range of possibilities The most basic are color reduction (for example, making a 256-color image into a 16-color one) or greyscale conversion The more complex include setting the proportions of red, green, and blue and monkeying with the contrast and brightness Gamma correction is a highfalutin term for fixing an image that s too light or dark You ll often find this situation when viewing an image on a PC that was done on a Mac To do a simple color reduction with IrfanView, follow these steps: 1 Choose Image Decrease Color Depth from the menu The Decrease Color Depth dialog box appears 2 In the dialog box shown in Figure 7-12, select one of the radio buttons to select a standard color depth If you select the Custom radio button, be sure to enter another number of colors into the Custom text box

3 Click the OK button Greyscale conversion is even easier Just choose Image Convert to Greyscale from the menu

Although they re a bit more involved, IrfanView wraps the most complex color adjustments in an easy-to-use package with lots of options Load up an image and give it a go: 1 Choose Image Enhance Colors from the menu 2 In the Enhance Colors dialog box (see Figure 7-13), drag the sliders or type values into the text boxes As you do so, the reference image on the right shows the changes you re making; the original image isn t affected by your experimentation, so feel free to play around with all the settings You can, at any time, click the Set Default Values button to put everything back to normal 3 If the reference image isn t large enough for you, click the Apply to Original button