“How you want that cooked?”
Imagery is critical to your website. But it doesn’t always come in the format or size you need it to be.
Finagling must be applied.
You’re going to grab the safe images of the web using Jing, or by simply right clicking and saving them to your computer.
Or you’re going to pay for the rights to use certain images from Fotolia.
Now you’re going to have to bend some of these guys to your will
They’re just not always going to fit or look quite right.
The images on my home page have had their shading adjusted, as well as their initial size.
I had to darken them, in order for the white text to be easily read.
And the size needed to be such that the theme presented them well without cropping them in some way.
Enter Pixlr
I never got far at all with Photoshop but this must be a close cousin. At least, for our needs it is.
The Pixlr editor is where you do anything your creativity, patience, and learning curve can handle.
I use it mostly for shading, cropping, filtering, and resizing.
But it does far more than that
I only use it for whatever I’ve learned to make it do, and that list above is my max. You may end up creating works of art compared to what I’ve done.
There’s very little Pixlr can’t do. But the one thing it USED to do, and no longer does, is grab images.
That is how I ended up using Jing. I had to find a replacement service when Pixlr discontinued that option.
And there’s a neato little lesson for ya
Some of your tools will go away one day. And usually, it’s when you least expect it or need them most.
I was right in the middle of editing an image when Pixlr seemed to get confused. Turned out, the clock had run out on its maintained functionality. The company turned it off. I freaked!
Took me two days to discover Jing.
So, stay loose. Keep your eyes open for other sources of tools. never know when you’ll need to crap a miracle in order to finish a hard job.