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Insert Image
This popular feature has been
enhanced so that it will now automatically resize your photo
images to improve performance, when designing on a photo. Many
of our customers take beautiful high resolution images with
their digital cameras. You no longer have to use other
software programs or change the settings on your camera to
resize your photos smaller before importing into DreamDraper!
Most users can follow the quick
steps shown at right.
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The program will
automatically reduce the size of your photo. It's as
easy as 1, 2, 3.
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Click on the
INSERT IMAGE icon (illustration 1)
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Click on the canvas to position
the photo (illustration 2)
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LOAD and INSERT your photo (illustration 3)
And you're done!
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To use this new resizing
capability, just click on the Insert Image icon, as shown on
the right.
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Next, click on the canvas.
See the illustration to the right. The location on the
canvas that you click with your mouse will be the location
where the photo is placed when you insert it. Notice
the crosshair in the illustration (which in this example is
where the mouse was clicked). The upper left corner of
the photo will be placed at that point signified by the
crosshair. As soon as you click on the canvas, the
Insert Image pop-up window will appear. See the
illustration 3 below.
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Click on the LOAD IMAGE button,
located in the top right corner of the pop-up window.
Navigate to the location on your computer where you have
saved your photo and OPEN it. Your photo will appear
in the pop-up, similar to what is shown in the illustration
below.
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Notice the
small preview window in the lower right corner of the
pop-up. That will show how your photo will be
positioned on the canvas.
Just click on
the INSERT IMAGE button and you're done.
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VOILA! You have a
beautiful photo on your canvas, as shown on the right.
And you're done!
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The following
options are mainly of interest if you are using
an older computer with less RAM and a slower processor,
as you
may want to adjust your photo even more to reduce its size.
Reducing the photo size improves system performance when you
are designing. Otherwise, just skip the rest of these steps.
The two features described below
(in steps 4 and 5), Compression and Size, are strictly optional. Most
users will never have to use these features, even those who are
using older computers. The two options below are provided
for your convenience, if you are using an older computer and you
feel that your computer is running too slow when designing
on a photo.
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If you need to adjust your photo
to improve performance (reducing the file size), you have 2
options. The first option (COMPRESSION) is shown on
the right. Compression reduces the quality of the
image (thereby making the file size smaller), leaving the
physical size of the image intact. To reduce the
quality, choose a higher compression. The default
value is NONE. If you choose to compress, you can
click on the CHECK IMAGE SIZE button to see how your photo
was reduced in file size. The large preview window in
the pop-up will show how the quality of the photo was
affected when compressed. If satisfied, click on the
INSERT IMAGE button.
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The second option that you have
to reduce the size of the file is to physically size your
photo smaller. The Insert Image pop-up window has
another drop-down box, the SIZE option, which is shown on
the right. You can actually resize the photo so that
it appears either smaller or larger on your canvas.
The small preview window in the lower right section of the
pop-up window will display how the photo has been resized
and how it will appear on the canvas. If you
choose to size, you can click on the CHECK IMAGE SIZE button
to see how your photo was reduced in file size. If you
are satisfied, then click on the INSERT IMAGE button.
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Also notice
the CHECK IMAGE SIZE button below the small preview window
in the pop-up.
Click on that button to see the size of your photo file.
In the illustration shown in step 3, the photo is 3.53 MB.
You will be able to determine how using the COMPRESSION or
SIZE commands affect the size of your photo.
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Lock and
Unlock
This popular feature has always been
available in the DreamDraper G4 release, where you can lock a
design element in place so that it doesn't move. To lock
your design, just click on Object-Lock, as shown in the
illustration on the immediate right.
For your convenience, we have now
added Lock and Unlock icons to the top toolbar, see the
illustration on the far right. The icons are located
between the Group and Order icons. |
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You can lock any object on the
canvas, either a photo or any design element. When you
click on a locked object, you will see that the handles, which
are normally blue points, are now shown with a red outline and
locks in place of the blue handles. See the illustration
on the right. A locked object will remain locked after you
have saved the design file and exited the program, so that the
next time that you open the file, those objects are still
locked.
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Dimension Tool
This popular feature has been
enhanced so that it will now conveniently stop at increments of
one-eighth inch. Now when you click on the freeform
version of the Dimension Tool (shown at right) and you drag your
mouse to draw the tool, when you release your finger on the
mouse, the measurement made by the tool will automatically stop
to the closest one-eighth inch. (See the example on the
right.) Many of our designers have requested this feature,
and we are pleased to provide it! |
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Progress Bars
We have added progress bars that
display the status of your file as it is being opened (see the
illustration on the immediate right), or as it is being
saved (see the illustration on the far right). When the
save operation has been completed, you will see the message that
your file was "Successfully Saved" and you can then click on the
DONE button. |
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SAVE |
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Sizing Proportionately
PC users
have always been able to resize a design object
proportionately. This same capability has now been
extended to all operating systems for Mac users. To size a design
proportionately larger or smaller (maintaining the aspect ratio
of the width to the height), do the following:
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Depress the
Control key on the keyboard.
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Keep the
Control key depressed as you pull on one of the corner
handles of the object. You can size the object larger
or smaller.
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When done
sizing, then release the Control key.
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Click
here to download the DreamDraper update. |
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