Screenshots With Microsoft Paint-Future Headaches Solved
Candace Baker, neighborhood homesteader
I am not at all tech savvy, which kind of makes me wonder why I would sign up for a class that deals with “Reading and Writing in a Digital Environment”. There is an underlying expectation that students must be competent with social media devices and applications.
So while I have been working on my DS106 assignments, I have found myself scrambling to understand various digital applications that I am totally unfamiliar with. Rather than creating a profile for each one, subjecting my g-mail account to hundreds of spam e-mails, I have been utilizing the amazing world of screenshots and Microsoft Paint.
I know what you’re thinking…screenshots and Microsoft Paint (prior to taking this class, I thought Paint was absolutely horrible)? But seriously, both applications have helped save me so much time lately.
For example, when I was creating a meme for my step-son, I used imgflip’s Meme Generator. Rather than logging in and creating another profile, I was able to simply take a screenshot with my iPhone once I had the picture and lettering in place.
To add to my technological issues, I have the unfortunate situation of owning an iPhone but also a Dell laptop, so things don’t exactly mesh. I e-mailed the picture and saved it to my Pictures folder, and then right clicked on the image to edit the screenshot.
The editing function opens Paint and the image appears in its actual size.
I then clicked on the “Resize” button to adjust the picture to a size that is manageable, usually 1000 pixels, but in this situation, I went with 500. Sometimes you just have to take a look at the size and judge what works with the current image.
Once the image is resized, I used the Select (rectangular selection) function to crop the image. I use my mouse to draw a rectangle around the portion I want to keep. You can see the rectangle represented with the dotted line below.
I then hit the “crop” button and my image looks like this:
I can then hit “Save” and my image is ready to be uploaded or embedded. Voila! Pretty easy, and no annoying apps or junk mail. I also feel like I have more control and can edit the picture to my liking.
You will need to keep an eye on the file size to ensure that your image doesn’t get too pixelated when uploading to a website. Usually if you reduce the size of the picture, the less of an issue you will have with pixelation. Avoid pictures that have low resolution images.
