'Art of Picturing', tips for noobs

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Theseus
I'm still not in love with the re-sizing in PS... any tips to make CivIII text more legible?

There is not much you can do about that. One thing that may help is sharpening the original image (Filter-->Sharpen) once or twice before resizing.

Oh, and something else, before you "Save for web", make sure to twiddle with the compression settings so your filesize will be as small as possible.

And finally, it isn't necessary to flatten the layers before exporting to jpg. If you don't it will be easier if you ever decide to edit your original image.

[TheArsenal]

Delete. Responded to wrong thread

[Konquest02]

Originally posted by Hueij
And finally, it isn't necessary to flatten the layers before exporting to jpg. If you don't it will be easier if you ever decide to edit your original image.

It isn't necessary, bur you will have to save the image as a copy of your photoshop file...

--Kon--

[Theseus]

Kon, your screenshots using PS seem to come out somewhat better than mine, especially the text... what am I missing?

[FrustratedPoet]

Is there an option to "Maintain aspect ratios" or something similar when you resize? If there is you'll need that turned on.

[FrustratedPoet]

Theseus: If you have Windows XP you can turn on ClearType to get clearer text on your monitor. This might help the screenshots be a bit more readable.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/...pe/default.htm

Is it possible for you to post a "before" and "after" comparison of you re-sizing efforts? It might be possible to work out what the problem is from them.

[Konquest02]

Theseus: Try to adjust your compression level while saving your file in .jpg. A larger "quality number" (typically from 7-11) will make your image much clearer, but also heavier.

You can try running an unsharp mask on your image after resizing (Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask...). Fiddle with the settings and get a clearer image. I have not done it on those screenshots but it does make a huge difference.

--Kon--

[Theseus]

Thanks guys... I'll play around with those settings when I next do screenshots.

[Torkkeli]

Re: A quick guide to Photoshop (Part I)

Originally posted by Konquest02
When you capture a screenshot, you press the PrntScrn (or whatever it is) on your keyboard. Your image then goes in your clipboard.

When you open Photoshop, click on File/New... and the screen captured below will pop up. Select a resolution of 1024x768, which is the resolution Civ uses.

Then hit Ctrl-V or Edit/Paste to paste the image on your screenshot.

I belive PS automatically gives you the resolution equal to the image in the clipboard.
So no need to modify it.

And remember if you are using greater than 1024x768 resolution you can have Civ to use it too with keepres=1 in your civ.ini (or what ever it is called) file.

[Theseus]

I can't seem to figure out how to get a new picture into the clipboard... I thought Windows just over-writes what's there?

And when I purge within PS, I can't get anything into the clipboard at all.

I've been closing PS after each shot, which is a huge PITA... any ideas?

[FrustratedPoet]

/edit: For some reason I actually can't get this to work in my copy of Photoshop. However, it works perfectly in Paint Shop Pro.

Originally posted by Theseus
I can't seem to figure out how to get a new picture into the clipboard... I thought Windows just over-writes what's there?

And when I purge within PS, I can't get anything into the clipboard at all.

I've been closing PS after each shot, which is a huge PITA... any ideas?

Step 1: Load your graphics program (PS)
Step 2: Load Civ
Step 3: Press Print Screen (or "Prnt Scrn") when you have the desired image on the screen.
Step 4: Press Alt+Tab to switch from Civ to PS (if you don't have much RAM this might take a while ... or crash your PC)
Step 5: Paste (Ctrl+V) image into PS.
Step 6: Alt+Tab back into Civ
Step 7: Goto Step 3

Yes, when you press Print Screen Windows will overwrite what's already on the clipboard. If for some strange reason this isn't happening then you are beyond the limits of my skill.

Don't close PS ... you really shouldn't need to.

(I'm writing this while drunk ... I hope it makes sense and that it helps you)

[FrustratedPoet]

You might also want to try the free trial of HyperSnap (http://www.hyperionics.com/), which should let you take screenshots without mucking around with Alt-tabbing and Photoshop.

Also, Paint Shop Pro has a "screen capture" option, wherby you can configure it so that after pressing an assigned hotkey it automatically copies and pastes the current screen image into PSP. I would hope that Photoshop has a similar feature (it bloody should do, but I have no personal experience of it).

[FrustratedPoet]

Hmmm ... after just experimenting with my *cough*acquired*cough* copy of Photoshop my official opinion is that "it's weird and I don't understand it".

I can't get my copy of PS to work with the Print Screen key at all. I expect you are having a simialr problem. My suggestion = use something else.

Or .... use MS Paint to copy the image from the clipboard and then save it as a BMP. If you open the BMP in Photoshop you should be able to manipulate it in such a way as to make it suitable for posting (ie. cropping/resizing it and saving as a JPG).

[Rhothaerill]

I'm certainly no computer graphics wiz, but I've never had any problem with Photoshop. I'd add step 4.5 to FP's post though. Click 'New' for each screenshot you want to paste into the program. And step 5.5 - Go to image/image size to resize the drawing to a maximum of 800x600 for 'Poly posts.

Hey this will be a good thing to boil down for a link on the possible AU page.

[FrustratedPoet]

Hey this will be a good thing to boil down for a link on the possible AU page.

Agreed. It's a very common problem that people have. If we intend to encourage new AU recruits to post AARs and DARs they need to know how to do screenshots properly.