Much Ado About Graphic Software...Part 8

Resize Option
To have something to resize, you need an over sized graphic. I'm going to ask you to download the hand and pen, open it in Paint, and then resize it. We will use the resized graphic to look at the rotate options too.

Get the Graphic

1. Click here to go to the graphic in the Microsoft clip art. 
2. Click the Download button. A save option appears.
3. Select Save As so that you can save the graphic under a name you'll recognize. In the case of the dialog above, I would click the drop-down arrow beside the Save button to display a pop-up with a Save As option. 
4. Save the graphic under a name (pen_hand) and in a convenient spot on your system.

Open the Graphic in Paint 

1. Open Paint. 
2. Open the graphic (pen_hand). It should be too big for your screen. 

Resize the Drawing

1. Select the entire drawing (Ctrl + A). You have options here.
2. If you're comfortable using the handles (small circles along the right size and bottom edge of the drawing), point your cursor at the handle at the bottom right corner of the graphic. When your cursor turns into a double-headed arrow, click once to grab the corner. Move your mouse toward the upper left. The trick with this method--and this takes some practice--is to make sure that you keep the ratio the same. I use this method; however, you have to take into account that I've done this for a long time and sometimes I can't get one of these to resize without distorting it. 
3. Your other option is to use the Resize and Skew dialog.
   --In Paint 2003, select Image, Resize and Skew.
   --In Paint 2007/2010, in the Image group, select Resize.
   The Resize and Skew dialog appears.
   
4. Accept the default of Percentage, and in the Horizontal field enter 50, and then click OK. 
5. If the graphic isn't small enough, repeat these step--enter 50% again--and Paint resizes the drawing. 

In the dialog, Pixels refer to the dots that make up the image. Unless you really get into to this, you're most likely will have no need to resize based on pixels. The skew pulls the drawing. You should try playing with the skew particularly if you have an artistic bent.

Rotate Option

1. Select the entire drawing (Ctrl + A). 
2. Use the Rotate/Flip options.
   --In Paint 2003, select Image, Rotate/Flip.
   --In Paint 2007/2010, in the Image group, select Rotate. 
3. Click the Flip Horizontal option. 

You have several other options: Rotate right or left for various degrees and the vertical flip option. When you look at other software, you'll find lots of additional options for rotation. However, my needs have always been relatively simple and I've found that the options in Paint have served my needs.

Next Post

We'll build a graphic from pieces. For example, we can take an obituary that starts at the end of one newspaper column and wraps to the top of the next column. We'll build a graphic that puts the pieces together.