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How to Clip/Crop and Post Images from UO?

C

Cygnas

Guest
Is there a simple "How-To" instructions on clipping and cropping images from the UO / UOAM screens to post here? I read the FAQ on Stratics and it seems we have to first post on another website? And right now the only way I can capture a screen pic is with Alt or Ctrl - Prt Screen, which doesn't copy and paste well.

Instructions please?
 
G

Guest

Guest
Reposting my old tutorial for convenience.

-Skylark

Screenies 101:

<font color="green">A. Capturing the image</font>

1.) First, open the built in Microsoft Paint utility in Windows (Start --&gt; Programs --&gt; Accessories --&gt; Paint)



2.) Next, in the UO game window, when you want to make a screenie, simply press Alt+PrtScn (Print Screen). That will save the entire UO client area to the Windows clipboard.

3.) Switch to your paint program, click on the blank image area, and press Ctrl+V, which will paste the contents of the clipboard into Paint. You will likely get a popup, indicating that the image is larger than the default bitmap, and be asked if you want to resize it. Click Yes.

4.) Once the image is in the Paint active window, you can begin editing it. The first thing to do is crop it. There are a couple of ways to do this. The easiest in my opinion, that also gives the most control is this:

<font color="blue">B. Editing and saving the image</font>

1.) Click the Select icon on the toolbar to the left of the screen (the dashed rectangle).

2.) Click on the image and drag the rectangle border to select the area you want.

3.) Press Ctrl+X to cut the image.

4.) Click File --&gt; New, do not save the old image when prompted

5.) Press Ctrl+V to paste your selection in the new paint window

6.) Crop out any excess white space by dragging the resize handles at the corners/edges of the image to the desired area



7.) Save your image as a jpg file (most compressed, while retaining highest amount of color information) by clicking File --&gt; Save As, and then choosing JPEG in the Save as Type drop down box at the bottom

8.) Once you are done, you will need to place your image on the web to use it in posts. Some people use Photobucket (www.photobucket.com), which offers a free image hosting account with limited storage space. To embed an Internet hosted image in your post, in the compose post window, simply enclose the address of the image you want to use in the forum UBB image code tags as follows:


Note:
MS Paint does the job, but I recommend this utility: Paint.net (available from www.getpaint.net). It is an Open Source graphics editor, that is available at no cost. It has the simple interface of MS Paint, with some enhanced capabilities such as image layers, a few artistic effects, and it handles compression and file format conversions better than MS Paint. It is useful for both screenie editing, and making forum sigs.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Just be aware, that some systems require you to first hit the "F lock" button in order for the prtscrn button to function, and you generally hit ctrl and prtscrn silmutaneously to capture the image on the screen. Then you open paint or your prefered image editing system and hit ctrl v to paste it into the program.
 
C

Cygnas

Guest
Oh wow! Thanks everyone, that's perfect!
I think my problem is trying to use Photoshop... doesn't like the screen print copy/paste. Overkill didn't work... lol.
 
G

Guest

Guest
In Photoshop you will probably have to click Edit --&gt; paste as new image (or something similar).


And the F Lock thing is true - thanks for adding that detail DVI.

PrtScn actually copies the entire desktop area to the clipboard. Alt+PrtScn only copies the active window (which means when you are in UO, the entire client window). This is handy for capturing error messages popups in Windows, and such and not having to worry about cropping out background clutter.

-Skylark
 
G

Guest

Guest
Pssst. UO Player Q&amp;A has one in the FAQ as well. Was copied in from Piotr's work. That's 2 places folks can get guidance.
 

Piotr

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<font size=+1>How to insert screenshots in your post.</font>


<font color="red">How to capture an image:</font>

To capture an image you can use the Prt Sc (Print Screen) button on your keyboard.

You have to use an image editor e.g. MSPaint, PaintShop or PhotoShop to make an usable image file.

Open your image editor and make a new document.

<font color="blue">File > New… (or Ctrl +N)</font>

Paste the screenshot into the new document.

<font color="blue">Edit > Paste (or Ctrl +V)</font>

Now you have a large image the size of your screen.

Large images make the forums load slower and very large images will force users with smaller monitors to scroll sideways, which is annoying and thus makes the use of the forums less attractive.

So we encourage our users to crop their images before posting.


<font color="red">How to crop an image:</font>

Click the Marquee tool
and drag to select a rectangular area.



Make a copy of the selected area.

<font color="blue">Edit > Copy (or Ctrl +C)</font>

Paste the selection into a new document.

<font color="blue">Edit > Paste (or Ctrl +V)</font>

Sometimes a white area will occur around your image.

To remove that white area, grab the small blue dot in the lower right corner with your cursor and drag it till it fits the image.





Now your image is ready to save.

<font color="blue">File > Save As…</font>

Give your image a name and choose JPEG under Format and Save. (You can save smaller and less colorful/monocrome images as GIF)

You can also use UO Screenshot Utility which is the best screenshot utility available. It lets you take pictures with a single keystroke and automatically saves them as JPEGs.

The UO Screenshot Utility takes a shot of the game window and the black area around it and nothing else.

To edit those pictures open them in your image editor and follow the steps above.


<font color="red">How to insert the image in your post:</font>

First you need to upload your image to a public server. You can’t link to you own hard disc drive.

There are a lot of free image hosts where you can upload and store your images.

http://imageshack.us/ , http://photobucket.com/ and http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ are just a few of them.

Once uploaded, your image will have an URL such as:

http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=NameOfYourImagett4.jpg

To copy the URL, highlight it and press Ctrl +C.

Click the Image button in the “Make a new post” window and paste (Ctrl +V) the URL into the input field.

You can also paste the URL into your post and type [image] right in front of it and [/image] right after.

 
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