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This tutorial is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the program, or a substitute for reading the other sections of the manual. Its main purpose is to give you a feel for how easy the program is to use, and how powerful it is. Throughout the tutorial there are references to topics that are covered in greater detail elsewhere in the manual.
WinImages F/x is easy to use, but it is much more powerful than most users realize - to get the greatest benefit from the software, you must take some time with the documentation!
Once the program is running, you may wish to open (or bring its window back to the front) the WinImages F/x help file to this section, and resize both the program and help file to fit on the same screen. This way you can perform the operations and view the tutorial at the same time. In some cases you may need to use the Alt+Tab key combination to flip between WinImages F/x and its Help document.
...this will display the current settings of WinImages F/x, and will also tell you the display mode that the program suggests for your system.
Once you have reviewed the information in this dialog, click OK.
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The Sequence Controls dialog allows you to set the length of the animation/filmstrip as well as other items we'll get to later. Set the Total Frames control to 10 by entering the number in the provided text entry field. This sets the length of the animation (and the filmstrip) to 10 frames. For this tutorial we will want to turn the Save Result control off...
...after setting the animation/filmstrip length and turning the Save Results control off, press OK.
You will also want to make sure that the filmstrip is currently visible. The filmstrip is turned on by using the Show Filmstrip control in the Filmstrip pull down menu, or by clicking on the Filmstrip icon located towards the right end of the tool bar.
Filmstrip Menu |
Filmstrip button in toolbar |
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To begin, load any image using Load Image and it's MRU (Most Recently Used) subdirectories in the File menu. The image then appears in a view window. If the image is of a size that will fit in the working area, the image will be shown at a 1:1 display size. If it is larger than the working area, WinImages F/x may reduce the view size so that the entire image is visible. You can work on the image in this form, thoughy care shold be exercised due to the fact that area selections aren't as precise as they could be. This is because not all image pixels are visible and selections no longer overlay the image on a pixel for pixel basis.
Load an Image |
Example View Resizing Locations |
You can resize the image view at any time by simply grabbing any edge or corner of the view with the mouse and dragging. When you resize the view, WinImages F/x will always rescale the image display (this does not change the image resolution). This means that when you resize a view, you are changing the magnification of the image by an arbitrary amount equal to the change in view size.
You can also resize the view in a number of ways using the menu that is available at the upper left hand corner of the view, or by using the keys shown in parenthesis in the menu while a view is the active window.
You should take a moment to try both resizing by the edges and the view menu before continuing.
Using the magnify tool (available at the upper right of the main WinImages F/x window), you can click on a view to enlarge (left side of the tool) or reduce (right side of the tool).
You can also drag out a rectangle and WinImages F/x will resize the view to contain the area you selected, a very powerful and useful way to look closely at image information. When you have a magnified view of a portion of an image, you can resize that view arbitrarily also, as shown in the samples below:
Dragging out an area to magnify |
Image View that results |
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Another example of resolution independence is the area selections themselves. When you create an ellipse on one image, WinImages F/x remembers the details of the ellipse as a relative position in the view, and a size relative to the view. This allows you to click the redo tool, and click on an image that is a completely different resolution, and the area selection will be in the same relative size and position.
One immediate benefit of this is you can make a reduced resolution version of an image, try out some effects which will generate more quickly on the lower resolution image, and when you get the effect you want, just click redo in the area toolbox and then click on the full-size image. The effect will appear in the same relative position and size, using proportionally more pixels and generating with more detail.
WinImages F/x's resolution independence means that in many ways, it works differently than other applications you may be familiar with. However, there are many benefits to this display technology that make learning some new working methods well worth anyone's time. We're sure that once you're familiar with WinImages F/x's view handling, other software will feel considerably less flexible.
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Basic Tutorial continues on next page...
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WinImages F/x Manual Version 7, Revision 5, Level B |