Getting Started

Pixlabs - Smart Digital Photography Software

PhotoFramer Tutorial - Getting Started

PhotoFramer is able to render high quality picture frames around your images. This is useful for web pages, emails, screen display, or printing. It can also be useful to help you choose mat and frame colors for pictures for which you are going to get physical frames. Using PhotoFramer, you can get a preview of what your framed image will look like on your wall.

To start PhotoFramer you can either double click on the PhotoFramer icon that was placed on your desktop, or you can click the Start button, choose Programs, choose Pixlabs and then click on PhotoFramer. To view an image, you can select Open from the File menu, or drag and drop your image file into the PhotoFramer Work Area.

	Open PhotoFramer.
	Choose the Menu "File"/"Open..."
	Select an image file and press OK.

At this point you should see your image in a frame. Congratulations! You are already framing your images! To see your image in different styles of frames you can choose styles from the Style menu.

Choose the menu "Style"/"Cherry Frame"

As you move the mouse over your image you may notice that cursor looks like an eyedropper.

There are four main components to frames: two mats, a frame and a wall. Each of these components has a section in the Frame Editor window. Each component includes an "Active" check box which controls whether or not that particular component will be rendered. For example, the "Modern Frame" example is a single matted frame, so Inner Mat has its "Active" checkbox unchecked.

Each component also has a "Color" setting. The color of this button reflects the color of that component.

	Click the "Color" button in the Outer Mat component.
	A list of named colors will appear. Click on the color "Dark Goldenrod".

Notice how the mat in the small version of your image is now dark goldenrod. As with all the controls in this editor, any changes that you make are immediately reflected in the small image in this window. This lets you quickly and easily see the results of your current configuration. If you can't really tell if the results are what you want, you can always preview the image at full size (or screen size if the image is too big to fit on the screen).

	Click the "Preview" button at the bottom of the window to see a larger example of your work.
	When you are done examining your work press simply click on the image to make the preview window close.
	Try some of the other colors until you find one that you like.

You will also see to text boxes labeled "Width" and "Height" respectively. These control the size (in percentage of the picture) of the horizontal and vertical mats. You may also notice a checkbox labeled "Width=height." This setting makes the height and width equal to the maximum of the width and height values. This is useful to make the mat equal sizes all the way around. For example if this box is unchecked and the Width and Height are both set to 15 the mat will NOT be the same size on the top and sides. The reason for this is that the sides will 15 percent of the image width while the top and bottom will be 15 percent of the image height. Unless your picture is square (i.e. height = width) these sizes will be different.

	Uncheck the Outer Mat "Width=height" checkbox.
	Change the Outer Mat Width value to 3
	Change the Outer Mat Height value to 20, notice how the mat sizes change
	Check the Outer Mat "Width=height" checkbox and notice how the mats become equal in size
	Set the sizes to to something appropriate for your image.

Next, notice the Bevel settings. Mats are usually cut at an angle to reveal a small line of light color at the edge of the mat. The bevel can be set to none, small, medium or large to control the width of this light line.

Tip: There are subtle psychological effects of adjusting this value. Depending on other settings and the content of your image, setting the bevel amount to a small value will have the effect of making it seem that the image is larger and being viewed from a greater distance. Using a large mat can effectively make the image appear to be smaller and closer. For a more intimate feeling set the bevel size to large. For a more grand feeling set the size to small.

	Set the Outer Mat Bevel amount to "large."
	Set the Frame Width and Height values to "4."
	Press "Preview" and see if you can imagine a small print of your image hanging on your monitor.
	Now set Outer Mat Bevel amount to "small."
	Set the Frame Width and Height values to "2."
	Set the Outer Mat Width and Height values to "5."
	Press "Preview" and see if you can imagine a large print of your image on the wall at a gallery.

Now look over at the frame component. It includes a few settings that are not included in the mat settings. There is a setting for the frame's material: Metal, Plastic, Wood, Mat. This actually controls how reflective the surface of the frame is. A setting of "Metal" is the shiniest. A setting of "Mat" is the least reflective.

The "Depth" setting is used to control the simulated depth of the frame. It controls the amount of shadow cast in and out of the frame.

The Frame Style can be either Flat, Sharp, Smooth or Round. Cross sections of the simulated frames are shown below.

	Slide the Frame Shine to a little less than half of full value.
	Set the Frame depth to "40."
	Set the Frame Style to "Sharp."
	Press "Preview" and notice how the frame has changed.
	Try other composition, depth and shape settings until you find one you like.
	When you find settings that you like, click the "OK" button.

After this last step, digital photo utilities will save your image. Look in the directory you originally dragged from and you will find a new file with the original name and "-framed" tacked onto the end. This is your framed image!

	Drag another image onto the "Heavy Wood Frame"
	Set the mat colors to suit you image.
	Press "OK" to save the image.
	Try other settings and have fun!