Touching Up a Picture

In this section, you will learn how to use the Gobe Productive Image Processing plug-ins to modify and retouch high-quality images.  The image processing environment is unique in that it does not use the ToolBar or FormatBar. 

This section contains the following exercises:

Launch Gobe Productive and Begin a New Image Processing Document

  • Run Gobe Productive.
NOTE:  Unlike the other tools in Gobe Productive, the Image Processing tool is intended for working with existing image files.  Therefore, it is a good idea to have an image file available for this tutorial.  The compatibility of Gobe Productive with image file formats depends on which file interpreters are loaded into your copy of BeOS.  At the time this documentation was written, the BeOS supported BMP, JPEG, PNG, PPM, Targa, and TIFF file formats.  Translators for GIF and other formats are available from other third-party sources.
  • Click Open.  A standard BeOS open dialog box is displayed.

  • Locate the image you wish to retouch, and click Open.

Retouching Tools

The Gobe Productive suite includes a collection of common image retouching plug-ins. The best way to explore and learn about these retouching tools is to experiment with each one.

NOTE:  The Gobe Productive suite uses a system of plug-ins to support the various retouching tools.  This allows the Productive suite to be easily upgraded with new features and tools as well as allowing third-party organizations the ability to add components to the Productive suite.  At the time this documentation was written, Gobe Productive included a default set of retouching tools.  Your version may have a newer set of plug-ins and therefore slightly different menu commands.

General Retouching Tools Instructions

  1. Select the area of an image you wish to retouch.  If you want to retouch the entire image, select nothing.

  2. From the Plug-ins menu, select the type of retouching tool or utility you wish to apply.  Most retouching tools display a dialog box with all the options and controls for the tool.  The more simple retouching tools are automatically invoked.

  3. Set the options to your preference and then click OK

Since each retouching tool is different, the commands are always different.   Perhaps the best way to determine the function of each command is to experiment with the retouching tool a little.  If you do not like the results of the tool, select Undo Set Bits from the Edit menu. This "un-does" whatever retouching you performed. 

Integrating Images into Other Document Types

Integrating an image with other items is very easy in the Gobe Productive suite.   Ideally, you should use an image processing document as merely a place to edit and retouch an image.  Integrating an image with text, a spreadsheet, presentation, or graphics should be done in the native document type.  For example, if you wanted to place an image in a presentation, you would need to create a presentation document first.   Likewise, if you want to integrate an image with a text document, open a word processing document first.

Perhaps the simplest way to integrate an image with other document types is to drag and drop the image file into your document.

  1. While working in a document (a word processing document, for example), relocate the main Gobe Productive window so you can access the Disks icon on the desktop.

  2. Double-click the Disks icon.  A standard BeOS folders list is displayed. 

  3. Use the folder lists to locate the image file you wish to place in the word processing document. 

  4. Once you have located the image file, "grab" it, drag it, and drop it into the workspace of the word processing document.  The application will automatically create an image processing frame for the image file.  You can activate the frame and use all the image processing plug-ins installed on your system.

You can also open the image file into a separate image processing document and then copy and paste the image or portions of the image to another document.

Printing Images

See the Printing a Document topic for more information about how to print. 

Conclusion

In this topic, you learned how to work with images and place them in other documents.   As you can see, Gobe Productive image processing is very easy to use and integrates seamlessly with the other document types. 


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