Pixlr Editor

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Getting into Pixlr Photo Editor

Getting into Pixlr Photo Editor

Go to [www.Pixlr.com Pixlr.com] on your internet browser. Click on the double arrow at the bottom of the screen.

When starting at Pixlr.com you have two options for editing or creating pictures. Pixlr Editor is a full-featured photo editing suite. Pixlr Express is a streamlined editor with less features but is still useful for quick changes. Both are located at www.Pixlr.com.
When you select the Editor you’ll get four options to start with.

You can (1) create a new image from scratch, (2) open an image that is on your computer, (3) import an image using a URL you have copied, or (4) if you have an account with Pixlr you can open an image you have uploaded with them using their Library feature. To use the Library, you have to join Pixlr for free. To join, see “Sign up” under “File” in the menu bar.

1. CREATE A NEW IMAGE – When clicking on this, the New image window shown below appears. Name – Fill in the file name. When typing in the new name you have to use either the Backspace or Delete keys to remove “Untitled” from the Name block. Pixlr does not allow you to overwrite or highlight text or numbers in the blocks.
Presets – Click on the arrow to the right for preset combinations of width and height in number of pixels.
Width and Height – Click on the arrow to the right for a slider bar to increase or decrease the numbers of pixels across (width) and vertical (height). The maximum number of pixels is 4,000.
Transparent – when clicked the new image has no color. When not clicked, the default new image is white.
Using presets of less than 1,000 pixels in height and width gives you images that can easily be worked with but have less detail. Larger images in the 2,000 to 4,000 pixel range give you significantly more detail but can be difficult to work with since Pixlr is internet based and a slow connection can cause problems with the program being slow or locking up.
Click on “OK” or press “Enter” to create the new image.

2. OPEN IMAGE FROM COMPUTER – When clicking on this, the new image window shown below appears.
This is the standard window used to locate images/files on a Windows computer. Find the image you wish to edit and click on it. The number of horizontal and vertical pixels is based on what is in the orginal file. Notice the file formats that Pixlr can read. Click on the arrow to the right to see all available file formats. Click on “Open” or press “Enter”.

3. OPEN IMAGE FROM URL – When clicking on this, the Open image URL window shown below appears. (URL is the Uniform Resource Locator. More commonly known as web address) This allows you to copy an image from the internet.
For example, I did a search for “about libraries”. I selected images.
I clicked on the image when my cursor turned into a finger. It said “View source image” which I clicked on. I got this window.
I then copied the highlighted URL to the “Open image URL” window and pressed enter. The image was then loaded into PIXLR.

4. OPEN IMAGE FROM LIBRARY – In order to use the library, you need to sign up with PIXLR. When clicking on this, the Login window shown below appears.
This is pretty much your standard Login screen. The email will appear. Enter your password and you will see the following window. Click on “OK”. Select/click on the folder which has the images you wish to process. “My Pics” was selected in the example below.
You have to create a folder to put your images in.
The 3 icons on the bottom allow you to rename, delete, and create folders.
The x and “Cancel” closes the window. The double arrows to the right bottom allow to increase or decrease the size of the window.
To get access to this storage, you need to select “Sign up to pixlr”. You will get the window below.
This is pretty much a standard “Sign up” window requesting your name, email, and a password. It is free up to a certain amount of space. Then I assume Pixlr will ask if you want to buy more space or you will have to delete some images you have stored on here. I say it is most useful for saving images you are working on or images that you wish to access from more than one computer.

A few concepts

This section is for the beginner in graphics software usage mostly. It is intended to briefly present objects and attributes often used when working with computer graphics.

Unit of content permitting the separation of various part of a whole image, set up one on top of the other. Each layer represent a part of the image that can worked independently from the others.
Generally, the image with be the result of the merge of all the layers.

A mask is a surface put on a layer to mask, read to hide certain parts of the layer in norder to modify the ones that are not masked. The mask has to be applied to alter the layer qui eliminating all that is masked.

A mitigation of the outline of a form by filling certain gaps on the border of the form with milder tone of the main color.

Feathering edges

In Pixlr Editor, feathering is a property of the selection and lasso tools, comparatively to other software, notably Photoshop, where feathering is a tool in itself or a directly applicable function.

Feathering represents the level of hardness of the border of a selection. If the level of feathering is at 0, the selection border is clear cut: there is an inside and an outside of the selected area in a discontinuous manner. If the feathering level rises, the pixels on either side of the border line of the selection blend their colors progressively in respect to their distance to this line.

The level of feathering must be chosen prior to making a selection.

The threshold of tolerance represents the proximity of color for which a color change will be applied: less tolerance means only the colors very close to the target color will be changed, more tolerance means a wider range of colors will be affected. This options applies to the following tools:

• Paint bucket tool
• Color replace tool
• Red eye reduction tool

Opacity concerns the level of transparency affecting a layer or a drawing tool. When the opacity is at 100, the color will completely block out any underlying colors. At the other end, when opacity is at 0, any addition will be completely transparent.

Opacity can be applied at any time to the layer, but must be selected for drawing tools before they are used.

HSL (Hue, Saturation and Lightness), RGB (Red, Green and Blue), WEB, and IMG Color Models

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Each of these color coding system are available in the Color Selector.

Contents

Content structure of Pixlr

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Here are the basic components you will find in the Pixlr Editor web application.

At the top of the web page, where the Flash application Pixlr resides, is a menubar. It contains menus and menu items that correspond to what one would find in a regular computer application. The menu items can be accessed through keyboard shortcuts, but depending on browser options, this seems to be a variable quality.

Option bar

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Right under the menubar is the option bar, where options for different tools appear dynamically under proper context. Normally, the icon of the active tool appears in the left most section of this bar.

Under the option bar, and filling the rest of the browser page, is a grey backdrop on which different windows and palettes are available. In the right lower part of this backdrop are some Flash information pertaining to version number, frame rate and memory size.

Image windows

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Photos, pictures and images appear in resizable windows with scrollbars. These windows indicate in the left section of the horizontal scrollbar the zooming factor as a percentage. This information appears in an editable field that permit immediate zooming. To the right of this field, the actual size of the image in pixels is shown.

Other windows are actually palettes that float on top of image windows. Some can be vertically resized and most can be closed.

Dialog windows

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Special windows asking the user to complete a requested function by specifying further bits of information. This type of window requires that it be taken care or be dismissed explicitly by the user before letting other action be taken.

An Overview of the Pixlr Screen

An Overview of the Pixlr Screen

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< Pixlr Editor

The general layout of Pixlr is the menu bar across the top, the tools bar on the left, the Navigator, Layers, History, and advertising windows on the right. Don’t knock the advertising. It keeps the program free.
Looking at Pixlr Editor above, the menu bar (ribbon) has the selections of “File, Edit, Image, Adjustment, Filter, View, Language, Help, and Font” is across the top. To the right is “Login” and “Sign up”and resize and close file icons. By signing up, you join Pixlr for free and get some free storage and other benefits. (Look above under ”Open image from library” for more detail.) Beneath the menu bar under “File”, you see the current tool selected which is the Crop tool. It is highlighted in the upper left corner of the Tool bar to the left. Note to the right of the Crop tool in the second row, are boxes allowing you to make various adjustments to how you use the tool. To the left beneath the top two rows, is the tool bar with its various tools. The rectangle with the 6 small boxes is “Set main color”. These colors are used in brushes, pencils, and other tools.
The large window in the middle of the screen is the work space. The file name is located at the top of the work in white letters. The vertical and horizontal bars appear when the image shown is bigger the work space and allow to get to the portion of image you wish to modify. The lower left corner of the work space shows the image magnification which 100% in the example above. To the right of the magnification percent is the width and height of image in pixels. On the far right at the bottom are two arrows . These arrows can be used to change the size of the work space.
To the right are the three windows, Navigator, Layers, and History. They will be discussed below.

Menus

Menus offer the user functions to apply to the current selection, the layer, the image as a whole or the software environment.

Menus regroup items representing functions of similar nature, often requiring further information, and sometime proposing keyboard shortcuts to access them.

NOTE: Item with ellipsis

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the ellipsis (…) that follows a menu item indicates that further information is required in order to complete its function.

NOTE: Keyboard shortcuts

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Menu items that can be invoked by keyboard shortcuts specify at the right margin of the given item what keys are involved.
For example, the item “Edit/Deselect all” shows Ctrl+D as the key combination to use so that by pressing both the Ctrl key and the D key simultaneously you are in fact calling this menu item.

The Menus

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Menus/File

Basic file management menu

1. New image… Ctrl + X ==
This command will create a new image based on the options selcted in the dialog box it will open up.

• Name – Input the name of your new image, default value is “Untitled”
• Presets – Scrolldown menu offering different combination of size for the new image, in width by height. Default value, 800 X 600
• Width et Height – Text fields with value slider to select custom width and height for the image. Default value set by Presets selection.
• Transparent – Checkbox to make the initial image transparent. Default value is unchecked, which will make the initial image white.
• Cancel or OK – Buttons to cancel or accept the creation of a new image.

2. Open image… Ctrl + O ==
This command will open an image from the computer or from its local area network.

This command will use the open file dialog from the computer’s operating system.

3 Open image URL… ==
This command will open an image from the Web. The image will open as “Untitled” since it can not be saved back directly to its origin. It will thus have to be saved locally to the computer or in one of the Pixlr Editor recognized images library.
=== Open image URL … The dialog asks for the URL – Text field to input the URL of the image to open. The URL should to point to an image, with normal image extensions (*.jpg, *.png, etc) and not the HTML page on which it might appear.

• Cancel et OK – Buttons to cancel or open the image. If the URL does not direct at an image file that Pixlr Editor can handle, the dialog will close and no further without further action.

4. Open image library…
This will ask you to sign in to Pixlr or Google Photos. Once you have signed into Pixlr, you will see:

• Image list – In the right section of the dialog is a list of the images that are in the folder selected in the folder list, represented by a named thumbnail. The images can be renamed or deleted, opened directly, which closes the dialog window, or opened in the background in order to open more than one image at the time.
• Image information – Under the Image list is an information section. When an image is selected, its name,its type, its size in pixels and its size in KB in shown in this section. There are also two buttons in the section, the first to rename the selected image, the second one to delete it.
• Cancel et Open – Buttons to cancel or open the image. The Open button only becomes visible when an image is selected.

5. Save… Ctrl + S ==
This command will save the active image on your computer or in the Pixlr library if you are signed in. You will see in the box:

• Thumbnail – The central section of the dialog will present a thumbnail of the active image about to be saved.
• Save options – In the right section of the dialog, different options are presented with the size in KB of the active image (located just above the OK button).
  • Name: – Text field to set the name of the image file.
  • Format: – A scrolldown list to select the image format in which to save the image.
  • Quality – If the selected format is JPEG, a slider will appear to enable to select the quality/compression ratio that is preferred for the saved image.
  • File Size– Expressed in kilobytes above the OK and Cancel buttons.
• Cancel et OK – Buttons to cancel or save the image.

6. Print
This command permits to print the active image.

This command will use the print dialog from the computer’s operating system.

7. Close Ctrl + W ==
This command closes the active image. If changes have been made to the image, a warning dialog appears.

8. Login
This menu item is visible only if the user is not already connected to is Pixlr account. It enables the user to log in.

Login dialog

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• E-mail: – Text field to insert the user’s e-mail address.
• Password: – Text field to insert the user’s password.
• Remember me – Checkbox to be be automatically connected at our next visits.
• Sign up to pixlr – Link to the Sign up dialog, also accessible by the Sign up menu (see below).
• Lost password – Link to the Lost password dialog.
  • Lost password dialog
    • Text field to insert the e-mail at which to receive a new password for the Pixlr account.
• Cancel et OK – Buttons to cancel or login into the account9.

9. Sign up
This menu item is visible only if the user is not already connected to is Pixlr account. It enables the user to create a Pixlr account.

Sign up dialog

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• Name: – Text field to the user name.
• E-mail: – Text field to insert the user’s e-mail address.
• Password: – Text field to insert the user’s chosen password.
• Repeat password: – Text field to confirm the user’s chosen password.
• Cancel et OK – Buttons to cancel or create the account.

10. Logout
This menu item is visible only if the user is connected to is Pixlr account. It enables the user to disconnect from is Pixlr account.

11. Exit Ctrl + Q==
This command closes Pixlr editor and takes the user back to the Pixlr’s main page.

Menus/Edit

EDIT Basic content edition functions menu.

Undo – reverses your previous action. You can also do this with History window.

Redo – repeats what you last did.

Cut – moves a selection to separate layer. When you click on Cut, the selection becomes white. When you click on Paste to selection appears elsewhere in the photo in a separate layer .

Copy – of a selected area creates a duplicate in a separate area.

Clear – eliminates all content from a selection. If nothing is selected, all of the image will turn white.

Paste – will take a cut or copied selection put it in a new layer. Layers are explained below on page ??. Using the Move tool, you can move the selection you pasted to where you wish.

Free transform – changes the shape of the whole image or a selection, i.e., size, height, width, rotation, etc. When clicking on Free transform 8 small blue squares appear on the image corners and midway between the cursors. These are called “handles”. Using your mouse, you click on these handles keeping the mouse button depressed, you can increase the height and/width of the image. Placing your cursor close to the handles at each corner, the cursor arrow will turn into a circular arrow. Click keeping the mouse button depressed, you can rotate the image as you wish. Be sure to press “Enter” to finalize the Free Transform.

Free distort – allows you to stretch or shrink an image using 4 handles as shown to the left. The image does not have to retain it’s rectangular shape. Note the portion of the image outside the white box, i.e. canvas will not appear when you press “Enter” to finalize the Free Transform.

Select all – Selects everything in the image. Any changes you make will apply to the whole image.

Deselect all – makes all selections disappear. Adjustments now apply to the whole image.

Invert selection – selects all areas not previously selected. Areas previously selected are no longer selected. Note to the right, the inverted selection of the box is now black and white (desaturated).

Select pixels – does a “Select all”.

Define brush –

Menus/Image

Image size – gives you the window to the right. To change image width or height, you can click on the arrow, and use a slider bar to make the change or you can click on the number you wish to change. If you click on the number, either width or height, the numbers you enter do not overwrite. You have to use the delete or backspace keys to make room for changes. By checking “Constrain proportions” you keep the relative width and height the same. If you change the width, the height automatically changes and vice versa. That is the image does not become wider or thinner than the original. By unchecking “Constrain proportions” you will have to make change both width and height manually and the image becomes wider or thinner than the original, i.e., distorted.

Canvas size – used to change the size of the image background. Think of the canvas as the paper the image is projected upon. If the size of the paper is increased, you can add margins to the image. If the size of the canvas is decreased, the overall size of the image is decreased. Selecting Canvas size brings up the window shown to the right. The Width and Height work the same as with Image size. The 9 squares next to Anchor determine where the canvas added or decreased. Using the center square will center the image on the canvas. The result of changing making the canvas larger than the image is below.

Rotate canvas 180 –makes the image upside down.

Rotate canvas 90 CW – turns the image on its right side.

Rotate canvas 90 CCW – turns the image on its left side.

Flip canvas vertical – makes an upside down mirror image.

Flip canvas horizontal – makes a mirror image.

Crop – deletes all areas of the image not selected.

 

Menus/Layer

– enable you combine multiple images by putting each image in a specific layer and then merging the layers into one layer. You also use layers to copy a portion or all of your image to a separate layer. Then you can make changes to the copy preserving your original in a separate layer. Below shows the parts of the main menu and window dealing with layers. When you open an image, it will always have a “Background” layer as shown in the “Layers” window below.

New layer – gives you a blank layer. You can write, draw, and otherwise change this layer without changing the Background layer underneath it. The new layer appears as Layer 1 in the Layers window above. Note the Paper icon with the corner turned up will also allow you to add a new layer.

Duplicate layer – gives you a copy of the selected layer. The selected area is highlighted in blue as shown above. To select a different layer, click on the layer bar in the Layers window as shown above.

Delete layer – deletes the selected layer. (You cannot delete the Background layer. The padlock to the right indicates the layer is locked which limits what you can do with it.) Note the trashcan icon in the Layers window will also delete the active image.

Open image as layer – enables you to combine images from your computer. Selecting Open image as a layer brings up the Windows Open window from which you select a photo to add to your Pixlr workspace.

Open URL as layer – enables you to combine images from the Internet. Selecting Open URL brings up the Open image URL window where you copy in a URL. See pages ??? for more details.

Open from library as layer – enables you to combine images from files saved in Pixlr. Selecting Open URL brings up the Image library window if you have signed into your Pixlr account otherwise it brings up the Login window.

Merge down – combines two layers into one. The layer on top will cover the layer below.

Merge visible – combines all layers that are visible, i.e. have the visible check mark or padlock showing to the right in Layers window. Layers that do not have the check mark will not be merged.

Flatten image – combines all layers visible or not. The result is a single layer.

Move layer up – allows you to rearrange your layers by moving the selected layer above the layer on top of it. This will not work with the Background layer since it is locked.

Move layer down – allows you to rearrange your layers by moving the selected layer beneath the layer below it. This will not work with the Background layer since it is locked.

Layer styles – give you access to Drop shadow, Inner shadow, Bevel, Outer glow, Inner glow effects upon the objects in the layer.
Rastersize layer – converts a text layer into an image layer, i.e. the content is made up of pixels. Text layers cannot be edited same way as image layers. Rastersizing the layer allows the layer to be treated the same as an image layer but you lose text editing and formatting capabilities.

Add layer mask – Masks allow you to make changes to a portion of a layer that you have modified. Here is how you add and use masks.
1. Add a duplicate layer.
2. Make changes to the layer. For example, change the saturation and brightness of an image. The whole image will be affected but I focused on the area I wished to improve.
3. Select “Add Layer Mask”. Note the image now appears unchanged.
4. Select the Brush tool with the color set to black. Adjust the brush to the settings you wish, i.e., opacity, size, type, etc.
5. Brush over the areas of the image you wish to change, i.e., appear as in the modified layer.
6. Apply the layer mask. This will save your changes to the layer and remove the mask.

Delete layer mask – takes away the mask and returns the view to the modified layer.

Apply layer mask – apply layer mask combines the mask and the modified layer making your spot adjustments.

Rotate layer 180 – makes the layer image upside down without affecting other layers.

Rotate layer 90 CW – turns the image on its right side.

Rotate layer 90 CCW – turns the image on its left side.

Flip layer vertical – makes an upside down mirror image.

Flip layer horizontal – makes a mirror image upside down.

Images with layers can be saved but if they are saved with the layers intact, they are saved in a format unique to Pixlr. You can’t use files with a PIXLR format with other programs that I am aware of.

Menus/Adjustment

ADJUSTMENTS – change your photos in several different ways. Adjustments are normally applied to the whole photo/layer or selected areas.

Brightness & Contrast – are used to lighten or darken and/or enhance differences in between dark and light portions. Brightness adjustments can lighten or darken the image. Contrast brings the differences in portions of a photo. Adjustments are made using slider bars.

Hue & Saturation – makes 4 kinds of adjustments to the image; Hue, Saturation, Lightness, and Colorize by the use of 3 slider bars and a check box for Colorize.

1. Increasing the saturation by moving the slider to the right, increases the intensity of the color. Notice how much greener the leaves are as well as the flower. A slight decrease to the lightness also improved the image. Moving the saturation slider to the left, desaturates the image and turns it black and white if you go all the way to the left.
2. The Lightness slider operates the same way as the Brightness slider as discussed above.
3. The Hue slider gives the photo a tint across a whole spectrum of colors. To find out exactly which tint you wish to add to your image move the Hue slider bar left or right until you get your desired effect.
4. Checking the Colorize block turns the image to one color. The color is adjusted using the Hue and Saturation sliders.

Color balance – adjusts the amount of red, green, and blue in photos. The color in digital photos is created in much the same as a television using the primary colors of red, green, and blue. Color balance can be used to reduce and/or take away tints from photos. This can useful with indoor images that have poor white balance. Note below where the blue tint to the photo was reduced by a color balance adjustment.

Color vibrance – increases saturation in areas less strong. Note below how the leaves look greener in the red daisy shown below using just the color vibrance adjustment. The vibrance adjustment is more subtle and can be useful when using the Hue and Saturation adjustment.

Levels – adjust the strength of overall light and in the red, green, and blue color channels. Color channel adjustments may sometimes restore color to older or yellowed photos like the Color Balance adjustment. Most images can use a Levels adjustment. It is the adjustment that I use the most. In the Levels adjustment window, you will see a Histogram. A Histogram is a graphical representation of how light is distributed in an image. Pixlr shows a separate curve for the combined RGB in black), as well as the Red, Green, and blue channels.
Using Levels in the RGB channel, you can adjust the overall light distribution which is useful to lighten dark areas and darken light areas of your image. Under the histogram, you will see three sliders for dark, medium and light. Moving the sliders to right darkens the image and sliding to left lightens image. You can also adjust the separate color channels; red, green, and blue to adjust the colors in a photo.

Curves – perform adjustments similar to levels with more control using a line showing various levels of light, or red, green, or blue light channels. With curves, you click at point on the line in the box and move that point on the line to adjust light levels. You can select multiple points on the line to adjust various light levels on the photo.

Exposure – will make the photo lighter or darker according to how you move the slider.

Auto levels – adjusts levels automatically with varied success.

Invert – makes the image into a photo negative. This is same as a photo negative in a film camera. You can use this to restore images of scanned photo negatives.

Sepia – changes a photo to look like it is an aged black and white photo that has turned brown.

Solarize – makes the dark areas light and light area dark.

Desaturate – turns the photo into black and white.

Old photo – gives the effect an old black and white photo with some fading on the borders.

Cross process –

Threshold –

Posterize –

Color

Menus/Filter

Filters allow you to apply special effects to images and selections.

Sample image to illustrate Pixlr Photo Editor

FILTERS modify images and selections in various ways giving you access to various ways. The sample image to the left will be modified by all the available filters in Pixlr Editor Filter Menu to give you a feel for what filters can do. Some filters have settings. The settings used will be annotated for your information. I used the default setting for most filters but changed changed settings where I thought it would better illustrate the filter’s properties The sample to the left is 750 x 1000 pixels (px). The effect of filters may be more or less depending on the resolution of the image you are using the filter on.

Blur Filter Example

Blur filter – This has no settings available. As you see at this resolution, the effect was minimal.

Box blur filter

Box Blur filter – The setting is Amount 10. As you can see, this is a much stronger blur and can be adjusted to your needs.

Gausian blur filter

Gaussian blur filter – The setting is Amount 50. As you can see, this is a much stronger blur and can be adjusted to your needs.

Sharpen filter

Sharpen Filter – will increase the detail in the photo. They sharpen the edges and detail of objects in the photo. Results may be limited depending on the original image. There are no settings for this filter

Unsharp Mask filter

Unsharp mask – will increase the detail in the photo. They sharpen the edges and detail of objects in the photo. Results may be limited depending on the original image. The settings for this photo are Amount 50, Radius 2, and Threshold 15.

Denoise filter

Denoise – This filter will reduce the amount of dust showing and other noise in the photo. There are no settings.

Noise filter

Noise – will make the image much like a newspaper photo with lots of dots. The amount of noise is adjustable. The settings are Amount 100 and Monochromatic is checked. Monochromatic is either checked on unchecked.

Diffuse filter

Diffuse filter – This filter makes the photo more diffuse. Check the example to see how it affects the photo. The setting is Amount 5.

Scanlines filter

Scanlines – This filter will generate fine lines, either horizontally, or vertically in the photo. The settings Amount 40 and Horizontal which is unchecked.

Halftone filter

Halftone – This generates dots that become larger as you go from the center to the edges. The settings are Point size 10 and Multiplier 10.

Pixelate filter

Pixelate – This filter scatters pixels (small rectangles) throughout the photo randomly. The setting is Cell size 5.

Pointinize filter

Pointinize – Adds a screen like grid to the photo. Settings drop down includes Squares, Large circles, Small circles, and Dots which was selected.

Waterswirl

Water swirl – distorts the photo much like looking through water. Settings are Amount, 10 and Size 100.

Polar coordinates filter

Polar coordinates – distort the photo in a circular fashion. Settings drop down includes Rectangular to polar (selected), Polar to rectangular, and Invert in circle.

Kaleidoscope filter

Kaleidoscope – transforms the photo into that similar to looking through a kaleidoscope. Settings include Size 50, Horizontal 50, and Vertical 50.

Tilt shift filter

Tilt shift – This filter blurs the top and bottom portions of the photo while keeping the center band clear. The settings include Focus size 35, Focus location 80, and Saturate.

Vignette filter

Viginette – surrounds the photo with the selected color. The settings are Size 80 and Color box Red (default is black). The color box is amended using the color picker.

Pastels filter

Pastels – changes the photo to make it appear as if it was painted. The settings are Size 2 (default 1), and Inverse checked (default not checked).

Glamour glow filter

Glamour glow – adds a glow to the lighter areas of the photo. There are no settings for this filter.

Mimic HDR filter

Mimic HDR – reduces the contrast between dark and light areas of the photo. It mimics high dynamic range (HDR) photo which lightens dark areas and darkens light through multiple exposures at different light settings. There are no settings.

Hope filter

Hope – This filter converts the lighter areas to shades of red and the dark areas to something like a muddy blue. There are no settings.

Art poster filter

Art poster – This filter has a similar effect to Hope filter but you have settings to affect the amount and the color. There is also an Inverse box which when checked turns colors blacks to white and vice versa. The settings used are Amount 80, Color 85, and Inverse is not checked. These were not default settings.

Heat map filter

Heat map – This filter shows areas of brightness as shades of orange and darker areas in shades of green and black. The setting is Amount 50.

Tritone filter

Tri tone – This filter as the name suggests converts the photo to use only 3 colors in various shades as shown in the Color blocks in the settings. The 3 color boxes shown any of which you can modify by clicking on them and using the color selector. The default colors are used in this example.

Night vision filter

Night vision – This filter turns the photo to shades of green as if you were viewing it through a night vision scope at night. The settings are Gain 50 which increases the brightness and Noise 50 which increases the amount of grain shown.

Emboss filter

Emboss – This filter gives the photo a stamped look. There are no settings.

Engrave filter

Engrave – This filter’s effect is similar to that of the Emboss filter. There are no settings.

Find edges filter

Find edges – This filter turns the photo black for the most part and shows the edges of objects in white.

These photos are just samples to give you a start in getting the effects you desire in photos. I encourage you to try these filters on photos or even portions of photos. The blur filter are useful in blurring backgrounds of items you wish to highlight.

Menus/View

VIEW

Zoom in – makes the view on the screen larger with no effect on the image.

Zoom out – makes the view on the screen smaller with no effect on the image.

Actual pixels

Show all

Navigator – closes or opens the corresponding window to the right.

Layers – closes or opens the corresponding window to the right.

History – closes or opens the corresponding window to the right.

Tool options

Full screen mode increases the viewing space on your screen. It puts the toolbar at the bottom into auto hide mode.

Reset palette location

Menus/Language

Dynamic environment translation menu referring to the various languages in which Pixlr Editor can be viewed.

Menu items represent the language in its own language on the left hand side and its translation in english on the right hand side.

Menus/Help

HELP

Help and “Contact” – both link you to http://pixlr.com/blog/support/ which sends you to PIXLR “Support/Frequently Asked Questions”.

Menus/Font

FONTS

Free Fonts – Takes you to the following link: https://thehungryjpeg.com/freebies/ Free Graphic Design Resources & Downloads

Premium Fonts – Takes you to the following link: https://thehungryjpeg.com/fonts/ Buy and Download Fonts.

Font Bundles – Takes you to the following link: https://thehungryjpeg.com/bundles/ Graphic Design Bundles

How to use your own fonts – Takes you to the following link: http://pixlr.com/blog/how-to-use-your-own-fonts-on-pixlr-editor/ How To Use Your Own Fonts On Pixlr Editor

Menus/Freebies

FREEBIES

Free images, vectors, footage and audio – takes you to the following link: https://www.123rf.com/freedownload.php 123RF Free Downloads

Free backgrounds – takes you to the following link: https://www.stockunlimited.com/vector-image/?word=background&source=search&category=all&orientation=&filetype=&color=&sortby=3 STOCK UNLIMITED Background Stock Photos And Vectors

Menus/Free Tool

Free Tool – takes you to the following link: https://vectr.com/ Vectr Free Vector Graphics Software
Vectr is a free graphics software used to create vector graphics easily and intuitively. It’s a simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool to bring your designs into reality. Vector images are based on mathematical formulas as opposed to pixel based images of jpeg files. Vector graphics do not lose resolution when modified. They are often used for simpler images like logos.

Windows

Image window

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Each image is displayed in its own window.

Many different images can be opened at the same time, but only the front most window is active and can be affected by user commands.

A window containing an image has a title bar which indicates the name of the file that provided the image shown in it. If the image as not been saved to file yet, the title bar will display an “Untitled” notice.

The tools palette is the main place for the user to choose the tool he wishes to use to work on areas of the image. This window is subdivided into 5 subsections, separated by thin shadowed lines. These sections are briefly described in the following paragraphs, starting from the one at the top of the window.

There are five selection tools. With these tools, parts of the image can rendered active.

In this section are drawing tools, capable of adding lines and basic geometric objects to the image.

These tools enable the modification of pixels already in the image.

Various tools.

Tool to select colors.

This window lets the user move on the image, zoom the image and gives information on the cursor position on the active image and the size of the active selection.

Image thumbnail

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The Navigator window displays a thumbnail of the active image. On the thumbnail is a red rectangle representing the window containing the image, of which it takes the shape. The size and position of this red rectangle depends on characteristics of the image, the image window, of the scrollbars position and the chosen zoom level.
The red rectangle can be repositioned in the thumbnail is order to display another part of the image in the main image window. Conversely, position changes in the main window by scrollbars or the hand tool, changes in the zooming level alter the size or position of the red rectangle.

Size information

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On the right side of the window are two information blocks

• X and Y represent the position of the mouse within the image, in pixels.
• W and H represent the size of the active selection, in pixels.

Zoom modifiers

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Two tools are displayed at the bottom of the window, a slider that can be positioned at the chosen zooming percentage. On either side of the slider are buttons to change the zoom level by increments, zooming out on the left side, and zooming in on the right side.
At the right of this slider iis a editable text field where the zoom level percentage is displayed.
The minimal zoom level is 5% and the maximum zooming level is 800%

The Layers window is the main tool to work with the layers that constitute the image.

Layer stack

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Most of this window area is concerned with showing the ordered stack of layers, where the bottom layer is the at the complete back of the image, and conversely the layer at the top is the one in the front most part of the image.

Layer line

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• Layer thumbnail

Each layer is represented by a thumbnail of that layer, which shows only what is painted on it.

• Layer Mask

It is possible to add a mask to a layer to hide certain parts of the layer. The mask appears just to the right of the thumbnail. The brush tool is used to unmask, the eraser tool to mask.

• Layer name

Each layer has a name that can be edited by double-clicking it. By default the first layer is named Background and others will have a numbered name: Layer 1, Layer 2 and so on.

• Layer visibility

At the right is a checkbox to permit showing and hiding of a given layer in the main image window.

Layer button bar

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At the bottom of the window is a bar with five buttons. From left to right they are

• Toggle layer settings

Toggle on and off the two available settings The values reflect those of the selected layer.

• • Opacity setting

It shows or hide an opacity slider for the selected layer, with a editable text box to type in specific values between 0 and 100.

• • Mode setting

It sets the layer in a given blend mode through pull-down menu choices.

• Add layer mask

Adds a layer mask to the selected layer.

• Layer styles

  This button pops up a dialog window with five different styles to apply to the selected layer. Each style as its own set of options. Styles can be combined for more complex results.

  • Drop shadow
  • Inner shadow
  • Bevel
  • Outer glow
  • Inner glow
• New Layer

Adds a new empty layer above the selected one and changes the selection to the new layer.

• Delete layer

Deletes the selected layer and selects the layer just below it if there is one, else it selects the one just above it. If there is only one layer remaining, then it does not delete the layer.

Layer contextual menu

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A context menu appears when right-clicking a layer line. Most of items available in this contextual menu are also in the Layer menu in the menu bar, refer there for further explanantion. Some items are specific to the contextual menu and are explained here.

• Duplicate layer
• Delete layer
• Merge down
• Merge visible
• Flatten image
• Rasterize layer
• Layer styles
• Copy layer style

Copies the layer style or styles if more than one is applied with all their properties in order to set another layer’s style.

• Paste layer style

Sets the layer style to the one previously copied from another layer.

• Clear layer style

Forgets all styling information for the layer.

• Add layer mask
• Delete layer mask
• Apply layer mask

This palette shows up to 16 last actions that where taken in the current image window. There is only one History palette but its content change dynamically as you activate different image windows.
With the History, it is possible to backtrack to any of the last 16 action previously done. Backtracking to a previous action and making a new action at this point will erase the actions that followed the one we backtracked to.

The first section at the top of the Tools palette contains five tools called Selection tools. Each tool has its own options bar located just below the main menu bar, which has the tool icon and options available for the chosen tool. The Marquee, Lasso, and Wand tools can all be used to make and modify selections. Selections are identified by moving dashes along the edge of the selection. Selections may be modified using Marquee, Lasso, and Wand tools with the Shift and Control keys depressed. Use the Shift key with the tool to add to the selection. The tool icon will show a small plus sign when the Shift key is in use. Use the Control key with the tool to delete from the selection. The tool icon will show a small minus sign when the Control key is in use. When an area is selected, it is the only area of the image that can be modified using the various main menu options and tools available.

1. Crop tool C

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(is the first icon in the left hand corner of the window. It looks like to opposed L’s.) To use, drag the cross icon across the area you wish to retain. When releasing the left button, you will have a nine square grid which you can expand or contract by dragging one of the blue corner squares in or out. You can also move the whole selection by dragging it where you wish it to appear. The pointer will then look like an arrow with small crossed arrows the right, the same as the move tool icon. When you press enter, all areas of the image not selected will be deleted.

The Crop tool option bar from left to right is Crop icon, Constraint, Width, and Height. The Constraint drop down arrow allows 3 options: 1. No restriction – which places no limits on the area selected as long as it is rectangular. 2. Aspect ratio – which limits area selected to that specified in the Width and Height boxes. It defaults to a 1 to 1 ratio which is a square. 3. Output size – which limits the number of pixels that can be selected.

2. Move tool V

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(is on the first row and looks like an arrow with small crossed arrows the right.) To use the Move tool, you must first have an area selected. You can use the Move tool to relocate the selection anywhere on the image. If you only have one layer, the area underneath what you move will appear white after you have moved the selection.

The Move tool option bar has no additional options.

3. Marquee tool M

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(is on the second row and looks like a dashed square with extra dashes to the lower right.) It defaults to the rectangular marquee tool where you select a rectangular area by dragging the pointer, a cross diagonally from left to right and down.

The Marquee tool option bar from left to right is Marquee tool icon, Rectangular Marquee, Elliptical Marquee, Constraint, Width, Height, Feather, and Anti-alias. The Rectangular Marquee which is the default selects a rectangular area as shown above. The Elliptical Marquee selects an elliptical area by dragging the pointer, (a cross with the elliptical icon to the right), diagonally from left to right. The Constraint drop down arrow allows 3 options: 1. No restriction – which places no limits on the area selected as long as it is rectangular. 2. Aspect ratio – which limits area selected to that specified in the Width and Height boxes. It defaults to a 1 to 1 ratio which is a square with rectangular marquee or a circle if you use the elliptical marquee. 3. Output size – which limits the number of pixels that can be selected. If output size is selected, you merely click where you wish rectangle or ellipse to appear. Feather allows you to change the edge of the selection from sharp to graduated over a range of pixels. Feather helps to blend the selection in with the surrounding area of the image. Anti-alias is checked or unchecked. Anti-alias is used to reduce image noise in the selection.

4. Lasso tool L

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(is on the second row to the right and looks like a lariat.) The Lasso tool pointer is the lasso icon and allows you to free hand a selection. Be sure to keep the mouse button depressed until you have closed you selection, i.e., it is located near where you began.

The Lasso tool option bar from left to right is Lasso tool icon, Freehand lasso tool which is the default, Polygonal lasso tool, Feather, and Anti-alias. The Freehand lasso tool is the default and is used as described above. It is particularly useful in modifying previous selections no matter what selection tool was initially used. Use the control and shift keys to refine your selection. If you should inadvertently lose the selection, click on the appropriate line of the History window to return to your previous step. The Polygonal lasso tool uses a connect the points method to create a selection. Click on the first point of the area you wish to select. Then click on the next point you wish to connect. Note, the straight line coming from the first point to the second point. Click on the next point and so on until you wish to complete the selection by clicking on the original point. You have to click right on the first point to complete the selection. Feather allows you to change the edge of the selection from sharp to graduated over a range of pixels. Feather helps to blend the selection in with the surrounding area of the image. Anti-alias is checked or unchecked. Anti-alias is used to reduce image noise in the selection.

5. Wand tool W

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(is on the third row and looks like a magic wand.) The wand tool will automatically select similar areas that you click the wand on.

The Wand tool option bar from left to right is Wand tool icon, Tolerance, Anti-Alias, Contiguous. The Tolerance option allows you to define how selective your automatic selection will be. The higher the number the more that is selected. It has a drop down arrow for a slider bar to make your selection. Anti-alias is checked or unchecked. Anti-alias is used to reduce image noise in the selection. The Contiguous option when checked will allow you to select all adjacent areas to the point clicked on with similar light according the tolerance that was set. If Contiguous is not checked, it will select all areas within the image that meet selected tolerances of the point selected, i.e., clicked on. Using the Wand tool can be useful in making initial selections that can later be modified, i.e. cleaned up using the Lasso tool with shift and ctrl keys.

The second section of the Tools palette contains the eight tools shown below. Each tool has its own options bar located just below the main menu bar, which has the tool icon and options available for the chosen tool.

1. Pencil tool J

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The Pencil tool icon looks like a pencil and is on the fourth row to the left side of the Tools window. It is used to draw lines on the image. The cursor will appear as a plus sign, “+”. You can start with a new image and make your own drawings or draw lines on existing images. The line color may be changed using the Set main color window or the Color picker tool.

The Pencil tool options bar from left to right is the Pencil tool icon, Size, Type, Type Description, Opacity, and Amount. All selections have to drop down arrows. Type gives you a choice of 6 types; Plain, Sketchy, Trail, Shaded Sticky, and Ink. Go into Pixlr and test each to type to see that line which you need. The Type Description will appear next to Type in the options bar. Size allows you to change the with of the lines from 1 to 10. Opacity gives you the ability to pick the opacity of the line from 0 to 100 percent, e.g. from unseen to black.

2. Brush tool B

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The Brush tool icon looks like an artist’s paintbrush and is on the fourth row to the right side of the Tools window. It is used as an artist would use a paintbrush to paint an image. The creation of works of digital art would be best done with a pen tablet. Minor touch-ups to images may be done using a mouse. A large variety of brushes and colors are available. Colors are selected using the “Set Main Color” option, (the large rectangle toward the bottom of the Tools bar) or the Colorpicker tool. (It looks like an eyedropper.)

The Brush tool option bar from left to right is the Brush tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop-down arrow; Opacity with a drop-down arrow; and Hard tip, Scatter, and Diffuse, each of which may be selected to affect the brush strokes. Click on the drop-down arrow under the brush size will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number that can be modified instead of using the slider below. Opacity increases the intensity of the brush strokes, i.e., using 100 for a black brush stroke will show as black, using 50 will make the brush stroke gray, and using 0 will make the brush stroke invisible. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to keystrokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse, not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes.

3. Eraser tool E

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The Eraser tool icon looks like a pencil eraser and is on the fifth row to left side of Tools window. It allows you to delete all or a portion of the image content using a brush type point. The Eraser tool is often used to erase a portion of an image to reveal and/or blend image content in the layer below.

The Eraser tool option bar from left to right is the Eraser tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; and Opacity with drop down arrow. Click on the drop down arrow under the brush size will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Opacity increases the amount erased. A high opacity, i.e. 100 eliminates all the image brushed. Using lower opacities allows you to blend images in different layers.

4. Paint bucket tool G

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The Paint bucket tool icon looks like a paint bucket with paint spilling out and is on the fifth row to right side of Tools window. It replaces any portion of an image that is clicked with the pointer, a Paint bucket icon according to the specified tolerance.

The Paint Bucket tool option bar from left to right is the Paint bucket tool icon; Opacity with drop down arrow and amount; Tolerance with a drop down arrow and amount; Anti-alias, Contiguous, and All layers. Opacity increases the amount painted. A high opacity, i.e. 100 replaces the area clicked on with the selected color. Using lower opacities blends the selected color with the area clicked on. Tolerance is used to define how much of area clicked on will be painted. Lower tolerances narrow the area painted. A high tolerance could paint all of the image. Anti-alias is checked or unchecked. Anti-alias is used to reduce image noise in the selection. If Contiguous is selected, i.e. checked, only areas touching the area clicked on will be painted. If Contiguous is not selected, all areas of the image within the specified tolerance will be painted. If All layers is checked, then all layers will be painted simultaneously. If All layers is not selected, only current layer will be painted.

5. Gradient tool

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The Gradient tool icon is a rectangle that turns from black to white and is on the sixth row to right side of the Tools window. It draws a line along which it creates spectrum going from light to dark depending on options selected.

The Gradient tool option bar from left to right includes:

1. Opacity with drop down arrow and amount. Opacity decreases or increases the effect of the gradient. 100 totally covers the original image.

2. Gradient allows you to select a predefined gradient and modify it using the sliders under the gradient bar shown. There are over 40 predefined gradients plus a capability to define additional gradients.

3. Type: Linear or Radial. The default is Linear. Linear gradients are gradients perpendicular to the line defined by the Gradient tool. Radial gradients are circular in shaper radiating from a radius defined by the Gradient tool.

4. Space method has a dropdown box with 3 options: Pad, Reflect, and Repeat.

5. Mode has dropdown box with 14 options: Normal, Add, Alpha, Darken, Difference, Erase, Hard light, Invert, Layer, Lighten, Multiply, Overlay, Screen, and Subtract.

6. Clone stamp tool S

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The Clone stamp tool icon looks like a rubber stamp and is on the sixth row to right side of Tools window. It is used copy from one area of an image to another with a brush like tool. It is particularly useful when fixing spots and or blemishes or to fill in blank areas of an image. To use the Clone stamp tool, you must first Ctrl click the area you wish to copy from. Then click on the spot to be amended. Drag the pointer over the area you wish to amend. The pointer appears as a circle with a plus sign in the middle. Where you are copying from appears as a circle on the image. Note, the area you are copying from changes as you drag the pointer.

The Clone stamp tool option bar from left to right is the Brush tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; Opacity with drop down arrow; Aligned; and Sample all layers options. Click on the drop down arrow under the Brush box and it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Opacity increases the intensity of each stroke of the Clone stamp, i.e., using 100 will completely replace any area you brush over. The default for Aligned is unselected, the area to be copied from start point is an absolute location which does not change until it is redefined with a Ctrl click. If Aligned is selected, the area to be copied from start the point is a relative location defined by a set width and height from the point you brush. Sample all layers is not selected as the default. It useful when a blank layer is added to the image that you want to use to make changes to the image and see the effect of your changes before and after. So when you Ctrl click to sample an area to be copied, you are copying from both layers. Otherwise, you will be copying blank space from the second layer.

7. Color replace tool

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The Color replace tool icon looks like a pencil with a small paint bucket and is on the seventh row to right side of Tools window. It is used to replace the color in an area that you brush with the tool with another color which you have selected. To use the Color replace tool, you must first select the color to use. You can use the Set main color block or the Colorpicker tool. Then brush over the area/object that you wish to change the color of.

The Color replace tool option bar from left to right is the Color replace tool icon; Brush with brush size, and drop down arrow; Tolerance with number drop down arrow; and Match target lightness. Click on the drop down arrow under the Brush box and it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Next is Tolerance with a number box. The smaller the Tolerance number the less likely the color will bleed over to adjacent areas. The larger tolerance number allows you to replace color over a large range of shades of the color you wish to replace. Match target lightness is either checked or not checked. When checked, it keeps the Color replacement tool from changing the target’s lightness.

8. Drawing tool

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The Drawing tool is on the seventh row to the right and looks like a rectangle overlaid by an oval. The Drawing tool is used to draw rectangles, ellipses, and lines using the selected color. The rectangles can be outlines or filled in with a color to be selected. The default color in all cases is black. All objects are created on the layer selected and as such are part of that layer. You may wish to create a separate layer for drawing objects to give yourself greater flexibility in using these objects and not losing the underlying image.

The Drawing tool option bar from left to right is the Drawing tool icon, Rectangle tool, Rounded rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, Line tool, Opacity with drop down, Mode with drop down, Border size with drop down, and Fill shape with color selector box. The color selector may be overlooked since it is black against and black background. The Rectangle tool draws a rectangle by dragging the cursor, a cross diagonally across the screen to create a rectangle. It could be useful in creating a border for a photo.

a. The Rectangle tool is used to draw rectangles by dragging the cross pointer diagonally. It is the default.

b. The Rounded rectangle tool is used to draw rectangles with rounded corners by dragging the cross pointer diagonally.

c. The Ellipse tool is used to draw ellipses by dragging the cross pointer diagonally.

d. Line tool is used to draw a straight line from the initial point you click on to the point to click on at the end of the line. When the Line tool is selected, the menu options Border size and Fill color are replaced with Size which allow the width of the line to be changed from 1 to 100 pixels.

e. Opacity with the drop down is how dark the shape you draw will be. It goes from 0, transparent to 100 completely opaque.

f. Mode with drop down has different effects on the objects drawn. The various modes are: Normal, Add, Alpha, Darken, Difference, Erase, Hardlight, Invert, and Layer.

g. Border with drop down gives control of the depth of the object border from 1 pixel to 100 pixels. Note: while using the Rectangle tool with a large border of 100 pixels, the corners appear rounded.

The third section of the Tools palette (called the Modification tools) holds the ten tools available to modify and tweak the image. To be sure which tool you are selecting, you need only hover your pointer (i.e. arrow) above the icon and a text box will appear naming the tool.

Blur tool

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Blur Tool R is on the eighth row to the left and looks like a tear drop. The Blur tool will blur the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign) over. It is more effective in images 1000 x 1333 pixels or lower resolution. I did not see much effect when using the Blur tool in a high resolution image (3000 x 4000 pixels).

The Blur tool option bar from left to right is Blur tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, and Strength with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount of the adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Sharpen tool

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Sharpen tool Y is on the eighth row to the right and looks like a arrow. The Sharpen tool will emphasize edges of the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign) over. The sharpening effect can be quite subtle. It will not correct blurred areas of an image.

The Sharpen tool option bar from left to right is Sharpen tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, and Strength with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount of the adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Smudge tool

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Smudge tool {{key press|U} is on the ninth row to the left and looks like a finger extending from a hand. The Sharpen tool will smear the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign).

The Smudge tool option bar from left to right is Smudge tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, and Strength with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount of the adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Sponge tool

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Sponge tool P is on the ninth row to the right and looks like a sponge. The Sponge tool will either increase or decrease the saturation of the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign).

The Sponge tool option bar from left to right is Sponge tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, Mode with Saturate/Desaturate dropdown and Strength with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Mode drop down, you can select Saturate to increase color intensity or Desaturate to decrease color intensity to the point where it is black and white. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount the adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Dodge tool

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Dodge tool O is on the tenth row to the left and looks like a microphone. The Dodge tool will decrease exposure (i.e. lighten) of the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign). The effect will vary depending on which range you select.

The Dodge tool option bar from left to right is Dodge tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, Range with drop down arrow, and Exposure with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Range drop down, you can select Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights. When select Shadows and brush over an area in shadow the effect is more pronounced. The same goes for Midtones and Highlighted areas of the image. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount of the exposure adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Burn tool

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Burn tool {{key press|N} is on the tenth row to the right and looks like a hand with the fingers together ready to pick up a small object. The Burn tool will increase exposure (i.e. darken) of the area you brush over with the pointer (a circle with a plus sign). The effect will vary depending on which range you select.

The Burn tool option bar from left to right is Burn tool icon, Brush with drop down arrow, Range with drop down arrow, and Exposure with drop down arrow. When you click on the Brush drop down arrow, it will bring up a window with a variety of brush options. Note at the bottom of the window: Diameter, the brush diameter in pixels; Spacing, a large spacing makes a series of dots; and Hardness, determines how sharp the edge of the brush strokes will be. A small number makes brush strokes with a graduated density to the center of the stroke from each side. Each item shows a number which can be modified instead of using slider below. Selecting a Hard tip will make for sharp edges to the brush strokes regardless of any Hardness setting. Selecting Scatter will make brush strokes appear as scattered dots. Selecting Diffuse will make the brush strokes appear diffuse not solid. Selecting “More” will give you access to additional brushes. Using the Range drop down, you can select Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights. When select Shadows and brush over an area in shadow the effect is more pronounced. The same goes for Midtones and Highlighted areas of the image. Using the Strength’s drop down arrow you can vary the amount of the exposure adjustment from 0 no effect to 100 maximum effect.

Dodge and Burn are terms that originated when photos were developed from film and have carried over to digital photography. When photographers used to develop pictures they would mask or filter portions of light to photos for the desired effect. The more light (Burn) to the photo the darker it got and less light (Dodge), the lighter.

Red eye reduction tool

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Red eye reduction tool is on the eleventh row to the left and looks like an eye. The Red eye reduction tool will replace the red in a red eye caused by camera flash with black. To modify the effect, create a duplicate layer, make the red reduction on the duplicate layer. Then adjust the opacity of the duplicate layer to produce a brown eyed effect and merge the layers.

The Red eye tool option bar from left to right is Burn tool icon, and Tolerance with drop down arrow. Using a high tolerance increases the area of the eye affected by the red eye adjustment. A low tolerance minimizes that area which is usually preferable.

Spot heal tool

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Spot heal toolF is on the eleventh row to the right and looks like a strip bandage. The Spot heal tool will is to clear spots and other image flaws in a manner similar to the Clone tool. The difference is the Spot heal tool automatically samples the area adjacent to the spot to be removed. To use the Spot heal tool position the pointer (a circle with a plus sign in the center) over the spot and click or brush. Be aware some distortion may occur if you use a large point and there are objects close to the spot or flaw you attempting to clear/fix.

The Spot heal tool option bar from left to right is Spot heal tool icon, Size with drop down arrow, Type with Blend nearby and Generate pattern. The Size of the point goes from 10 to 200 pixels. Selecting the Blend nearby type, uses the immediately area of the spot to determine the correction. Selecting Generate pattern will work with the local texture to determine the correction.

=== Bloat tool ===Bloat tool A is on the twelfth row to the left and looks like a square with a circle inside with 4 arrows. The Bloat tool expands a portion of the photo say for example you wish to make someone’s nose bigger. To use place the pointer, a circle with a plus in the middle over the portion you wish to expand.

The Bloat tool option bar from left to right is Bloat tool icon, Size with drop down arrow, and Strength with dropdown arrow. The Size of the area affected goes from 4 to 400 pixels. Strength ranges from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum effect. Given the higher resolution on today’s cameras and the 400 pixel area limit the bloat effect may be limited.

Pinch tool

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Pinch tool KSpot heal toolF is on the twelfth row to the right and looks like a square whose sides arc inward as in being pinched. The Pinch tool has the opposite effect of the Bloat tool in that it contracts the portion of the image that is clicked on.

The Pinch tool option bar from left to right is Bloat tool icon, Size with drop down arrow, and Strength with dropdown arrow. The Size of the area affected goes from 4 to 400 pixels. Strength ranges from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum effect. Given the higher resolution on today’s cameras and the 400 pixel area limit the bloat effect may be limited.

Various Tools

Colorpicker tool

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Colorpicker tool I is on the thirteenth row to the left and looks like an eyedropper. The Colorpicker tool pointer looks like an eyedropper. Use the tip of the eyedropper to select the color you wish to activate. Your selection will become the active color shown in Set main color tile below. All actions such as brushing, or replace color will use the color selected with the Colorpicker tool.

The Color picker tool option bar from left to right is Colorpicker tool icon with the statement “This tool has no additional options”.

Type tool

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Type tool T is on the thirteenth row to the right and looks like a capital A. Click on the portion of your image that you wish to insert text. This creates a text layer. A pane will appear showing a text box where you type in your text using a text pointer that looks like I. Type in the text you wish to add and make appropriate selections to Font, Size, Style, Color, and Aligned. You can only type in the text pane not on the image itself even though the text appears on the image. The pane will also give you options on Font, Size, Style, Color, Aligned, and OK. Click on OK when done. If the pointer is outside the text pane, it will turn into a Move tool pointer allowing you to reposition the text. Note, the default color will be whatever color is in the Set color tile below. When you are done typing by clicking on OK, the text pane is closed and you can use the Move tool to move the text. If you wish to make changes to the text, make sure you have the correct text layer selected. Click on the text, make your changes, and click on OK. Text layer have different properties and other tools will have no effect on the text layer unless you merge it with another image layer.

The Type tool option bar from left to right is Type tool icon with the statement “Click to select or add text.”

Hand tool

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Hand tool H is on the fourteenth and last row to the left and looks like a glove. By dragging the pointer which also looks a glove, you can position the image in the editing window wherever you wish. The image in the editing window must be larger than the window for this tool to be effective. It has no tool bar.

Zoom tool

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Zoom tool Z is on the fourteenth and last row to the right and looks like a magnifying glass. After you have selected the Zoom tool, you click on the image and it will get larger. If you shift click on the image it will get smaller. This has the same effect as the Navigator pane.

Windows/Color settings

Color Settings

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The fifth and last section of the Tools palette allows you to set colors and holds the active colors associated to the current image. It contains a large rectangle that show the current active color and six rectangles below which can be used to hold different colors for later use. The active color is the color used by all tools the use a color such as the brush, line, draw tools, etc. The large rectangle referred to as “Set main color” when clicked on produces as palette of colors. You select the color you wish using the ring of colors which is further defined by the box within the ring or you can select your color by using the three slider bars below. You also have four options on the top HSL (the default), RGB, WEB, and IMG.

To move the selected color, just click on one of the six rectangles below. The active color, i.e. large rectangle turns white. To make a color active merely click on the desired rectangle and it will move to the active color rectangle.