Making Works of Art and Fun from Scanned Photos Chapter 15 Copyright 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. How To… ■ Locate and use project templates in your image-editing program ■ Create a project without a template ■ Add artistic frames and borders to your photos ■ Add text, captions, and word balloons to photos ■ Design greeting cards ■ Make your own photographic calendar ■ Produce fake magazines and gag IDs ■ Make bookmarks, t-shirts, and refrigerator magnets This chapter takes you well beyond simply using your scanner to copy images. You learn how to turn scanned images into artistic, fun, and useful objects. You can try your hand at designing greeting cards, calendars, gag items, and clothing. All you need to create the projects illustrated in this chapter are a scanner, image-editing software, and your own imagination. Creating Useful Objects from Templates Templates allow you to incorporate the capabilities of professional graphic artists and designers into your work, improving and personalizing a project with your own unique photos. The template is a ready-made format for a particular project. The purpose of a template is to save you time and give you the benefit of professional expertise in designing the initial layout of your project. Templates are designed to allow you to import scanned photos of your choosing easily. You can create the projects discussed in this book using any image- editing program. PhotoSuite and PhotoDeluxe are used as examples, but tips and instructions are provided to allow you to accomplish the same results with other image-editing programs. Many of the projects in this and the next chapter are created with templates. If your software doesn’t offer a template for a project shown in this chapter, use the illustrations for ideas to create your own project layout. 260 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. How Templates Make Finished Projects Easier Say you want to create a personalized greeting card or a calendar with pictures of your family. How do you get started? First, don’t reinvent the wheel. For popular projects such as these, it’s a safe bet that millions of people want to use their scanned images in the same way. The designers of image-editing software such as PhotoSuite and PhotoDeluxe recognize this, and have included templates with their programs to help users easily accomplish popular projects. The software manufacturers employ skilled graphic artists and designers to come up with appealing and effective layouts. Don’t Be Afraid to Modify a Template Don’t worry that using a template will stifle your creativity. Most image-editing programs allow you to customize the standard templates quite a bit. Consider a template, like the one shown in Figure 15-1 (from PhotoSuite), as merely a starting point, not a cookie cutter, for your end result. FIGURE 15-1 A sample PhotoSuite template for a family-tree project CHAPTER 15: Making Works of Art and Fun from Scanned Photos 261 15 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Your personal enthusiasm and creativity are the ultimate determining factor as to how the finished project looks. For example, you can add or delete text on the template, add props, and vary the location of imported photos. Projects You Can Create with Templates PhotoSuite currently includes the largest selection of templates of any image-editing software. At a retail price of around $50 as of the writing of this book, it might be a good investment for the templates alone. Most other image-editing programs contain templates, although usually a considerably smaller selection. Before embarking on a project you’ve envisioned, check the Help menu in your image-editing software to see what templates are available within that particular program. Templates might be available in your image-editing software for a number of projects you can print and distribute. Projects discussed in this chapter and Chapter 16 include: Greeting cards Almost all image-editing programs include templates for greeting cards. These templates allow you to import your own photos and to include personal messages. Frames and borders Adding a decorative border to a photo, especially one that looks like an actual frame, gives it a finished look. Calendars Photo calendars make great gifts for family, friends, and business clients at a fraction of the cost charged by professional printers. Family trees These templates (see Figure 15-1) offer a great way to organize and display photos. Family trees reproduced on nice paper or laminated make terrific keepsakes for family reunions. PhotoSuite 4 includes four different family- tree templates, into which you simply drag and drop scanned images you’ve saved on your computer or a disk. Stationery and note paper Image-editing software makes it economical to include photographic images in your stationery and note paper. What better way to make a statement? These projects are discussed in Chapter 16. Signs Having a party? A yard sale? Announce the event visually. Chapter 16 tells you how to create signs using scanned images. 262 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Fake magazine covers, sports cards, and gag IDs It used to be that these kinds of items had to be specially produced. Now you can have fun doing them on your own, using the templates that come with PhotoSuite 4. Business cards and brochures Whether your business is a corporate conglom- erate or an enterprise you operate out of a spare bedroom, image-editing software, quality paper, and a good printer allow you to produce items that convey the image you’re looking for. Chapter 16 introduces you to these projects. Name and gift tags Even if you’re all thumbs when it comes to wrapping, cute photographic gift tags make a clever statement. Chapter 16 tells you how to make them. How to Locate and Use Templates Templates are obviously very desirable features to have in your image-editing software. The more of them you have to work with, the better. To see if your image-editing program offers a template for a particular project, search the Help database using a descriptive name for the project. For example, try “calendar” or “family tree.” If you search the PhotoSuite Help database using the word “template,” you can view a list of all the available types of project templates included with the program. Photoshop comes with a dozen or so templates for greeting cards, frames, and calendars, but it’s PhotoSuite 4 that’s the undefeated champion when it comes to providing templates. PhotoSuite comes with an entire extra CD filled with templates, props, and fake backgrounds— literally hundreds of templates. Creating Your Own Project Template Creating your own template requires saving a completed project to a file, and using that project as a starting point the next time you begin a similar one. This option works if you don’t have a template in your image-editing program for a particular project, or you don’t like the ones the manufacturer has included. You can create a template simply by saving a completed project in a digital file format, such as JPEG, that allows you to modify it in the future. For example, suppose CHAPTER 15: Making Works of Art and Fun from Scanned Photos 263 15 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . created with templates. If your software doesn’t offer a template for a project shown in this chapter, use the illustrations for ideas to create your own project layout. 260 How to Do Everything with. visually. Chapter 16 tells you how to create signs using scanned images. 262 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Fake. designers to come up with appealing and effective layouts. Don’t Be Afraid to Modify a Template Don’t worry that using a template will stifle your creativity. Most image-editing programs allow you to