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| Corel: Seven Steps for Creating Professional-looking Cards at Home To add a more personal touch to your holiday cards this season, Corel is offering seven easy steps for creating professional-looking holiday photo cards. With Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI and Corel Snapfire Plus, you can create a truly unique holiday card to send to all your friends and family. Not only will you get to share your photos with the people you care about, you'll be able to amaze them with your creativity and thoughtfulness. To get started, open the picture you want to use in Paint Shop Pro Photo. Once your photo is open, follow these five simple steps and you'll be amazed at what you can create. Step 1: Fix Your Photo's Color and Brightness– In Paint Shop Pro Photo's Learning Center, click Adjust and then Smart Photo Fix. This automatically suggests corrections for your photo. Step 2: Create a Black and White Photo– Black and white photos make for more professional-looking cards. From the menu at the top of Paint Shop Pro Photo choose Layers >Duplicate. This is going to duplicate your Background Layer, so you can make it black and white. On your Layers palette, you'll have a new layer called Copy of Background. Make sure this layer is selected (it will be blue if it's selected). Now, in the Learning Center, click Home, then Effects, and finally Convert to Black and White. Step 3: Hand Color Your Photo– Adding a touch of color to a black and white photo is easy with Paint Shop Pro Photo. From the Tools toolbar on the left, select the Eraser tool. Start erasing the areas of your black and white photo where you want the color to shine through. For example, try erasing over a piece of clothing, such as scarves and mittens, so you can see their color. You can adjust the size of the eraser to fit your photo using the sliders in the Tool Options palette at the top of your workspace. Also if you make a mistake you can just press Ctrl + Z to undo. The next step is to merge the layers. From the menu, select Layers >Merge >Merge All (Flatten). Step 4: Add a Frame or Border– Spice the photo up before putting it on the card by adding a decorative frame or border. In the Learning Center click Home, then Text and Graphics, and finally Add Frames and Photo Edges. To choose a frame, click the arrow next to the thumbnail of the picture frame. Here you can browse through the frames and photo edges. Just click the frame you like, you can adjust it using the options on the right side of the dialog box. When you're happy with the look, click OK. Be sure to save your work before closing out of Paint Shop Pro Photo and starting the next step. To save your photo, select File >Save As and name the picture Holiday Card Photo. In the Save as type area, choose JPG JPEG. Click Save and now you're ready to open your photo in Corel Snapfire to finish your masterpiece. Step 5: Opening your photo in Corel Snapfire– Choose File >Launch Corel Snapfire. In the upper-right corner of the Snapfire window, type Holiday Card Photo in the search box. Once you start typing, Snapfire will sort through your photo collection and return photos with the name Holiday Card Photo. Once you find your photo, drag it into the Photo Tray at the bottom of the Snapfire screen. Step 6: Create a Card– It's time to get started on the card layout. To do this, click the Create button on the Task Panel on the left. In the Choose a Project area, click Greeting Card. On the Task Panel, under Create, click Select Layout. Now, under Style, you can choose a style that suits your card. Click the thumbnail in your Photo Tray and drag it onto your card. You can position the photo on your card using the Position Photos tools on the Task Panel. Click Add Text to add a holiday wish. On the Task Panel, you can add text, select the font, font size, color, and more. Play with the settings until you get the one that looks the best on your card. Step 7: Save and Share– Once you're happy with the look of your card, click the Save button at the top of the Snapfire screen. Give your holiday card a name and choose JPEG in the Save as file type area. Now you're ready to print or e-mail your card. Click the Home button at the top of the Task Panel and then click either Print or Share as E-mail. With Paint Shop Pro Photo and Snapfire it's easy to spread the holiday cheer! write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Computing News :: home page |