Copyright: Copyright (c) November, 1995, Ulead Systems


This help file contains topics about selected dialog boxes in your iPhoto Plus 4 package. You can access these topics through those dialog boxes or by navigating through a main help file associated with one of the iPhoto Plus 4 programs.


Print dialog box

Determines how images appear when printed.

Printer Identifies the currently selected printer

Copies Set how many copies to print.

Scale to fit page Check to resize the image to fill the page according to the printer's horizontal or vertical margins.

Center image horizontally Print the image with equal amounts of white space on the left and right.

Center image vertically  Print the image with equal amounts of white space above and below it.

Printer Click to access the Windows Print Setup dialog box.

Title Enter a caption to print below the image.

Preview Click to switch to preview mode. In preview mode you can get a rough idea of how the printout will look before printing. (Not in the PhotoImpact Album Source Print dialog box.)

 	Options Click to customize the color map and dithering characteristics for the printer. (Not in the PhotoImpact Album Source Print dialog box.)


Properties dialog box

Obtain statistical information about the image in the active window.

Attributes tells the data type, dimensions, resolution, and file size when open.

File tells the name, format, compression method, saved file size, and other information.


File dialog boxes

This class of dialog box allows you to decide the names, locations, and characteristics for files when opening or saving them. They may contain some or all of the following choices:

Look in/Save in Find the desired folder.

View the contents of the next higher folder in your system.

Create a new folder.

View files as icons.

View files by names with statistics.

File name Identify the file(s) selected for saving, opening, or loading.

Save as  type Select a particular file format for opening or saving to.

Save selection If the image has a selected area, (not floating selection) check to preserve the selection in the image as an alpha channel for future use. Note: This option is only available for certain file formats.

File information See the data-type, size, resolution, and other file statistics.

Preview View a thumbnail picture of the selected image. (Images with preview information automatically appear.)

Browse Search for files or folders.

Options Define format specific save options for the selected format. (Not all file formats have options.)

Network Allows you to access shared folders on other connected computers running Windows.


Browse dialog box

File name Defines the search criteria for finding files. You may use the * and ? wildcards to find files with similar names.

Files found Shows all files found matching the search criteria in the File Name text box.

Folders Select the folder to start the search from.

Drives Select the drive where the folder you want to search is located.

Sort files Select the sorting order and whether to start from first to last (ascending), or last to first, (descending).

Scan Expand the search to include any folders inside the selected folder.

Delete Permanently remove selected files in the Found list from the hard disk.

Rename Change the name of selected files in the Found list from the hard disk.

Network Access shared folders on other connected computers running Windows.


Options dialog box

  Calibration	  Halftone

Redistributes the color distribution in the image to correct for the printer's idiosyncrasies.

Use printer's default Check to have the printer determine how to print colors and shades.  This disables all other options in the dialog box.

Map Drag the curve to remap the color distribution according to your needs. The horizontal axis represents the current image color values and the vertical axis represents the final values. The line shows the equivalent new value for each existing one.

Channel Choose which channel to edit. Master mainly affects brightness and contrast. The other channels specific colors

Show control points Check to add handles to the mapping curve. This may make it easier for you to reassign color values.

Accumulatively Check to have each change you make to the mapping curve add on to previous changes.

Smooth Check to smooth the mapping curve after you create a freehand map. This may make the change to the image more natural.

Load Use a previously saved map file to remap the colors.

Save Save the current map settings to a file for future use in another image

Enhance function Choose from a list of pre-defined mapping curves or functions


Options dialog box

  Calibration	  Halftone

Configures the printer to print halftone images.

Use printer's default Check to have the printer determine how to print colors and shades.  This disables all other options in the dialog box.

Shape Choose a desired shape for each pixel in the image.

Optimized screen Not done yet

Frequency Set the desired distance between the centers of each halftone dot.

Angle Set the angle for printing the dots.

Default Click to reset all the custom settings to the printer defaults.


Convert to Black & White dialog box

Define the image characteristics for capturing or converting to black and white images.

 	Resolution Choose the desired resolution from the preset choices or define your own. When choosing a resolution, consider what you will use the image for. If displaying on-screen, do not exceed the maximum resolution of the display. For printing, use the printer's resolution.

Halftone Screen:

Shape Choose a dithering option or a halftone screen shape. Here are some guidelines to help you decide which to choose:

None No dithering or patterns are used for the image. All lighter colored pixels are changed to white and all darker ones to black.

Dispersed and Diffusion Surrounding pixels are considered when determining whether to apply a black or white pixel. These options usually produce the best results.

Shapes Shades are created by arranging black and white pixels in patterns according to the chosen shape. Choosing a shape usually results in moiré-like patterns. Note: When you choose a shape, the Frequency and Angle settings become available.

Frequency Choose a higher frequency for smaller dots. As the frequency increases, the pattern becomes less noticeable.

Angle Choose the relationship of one pattern to the next. 0 degrees means the patterns are arranged horizontally across the image.


Convert to Grayscale or HiColor dialog box

Determine how many shades of gray to use when converting a black and white image to grayscale.

Cell size For line-art images, where contrast and distinct lines are important, choose 1. For photos or other images where you wish to introduce finer shading, choose higher settings.

Scale down Reduce the physical size of the image according to this setting. This may be useful for minimizing a "mosaic-like" effect that often results from conversions using large cell sizes.


Convert to Indexed 16-Color dialog box

The Convert to Indexed 16-Color dialog box offers options for creating Indexed 16-color images. Depending on the format of the source, it may contain some or all of the following items:

Palette Specify the colors to include in a new image. (Not shown when converting grayscale images.)

Standard Choose standard to use the default 16-color palette shared by most windows programs. This is most useful when you plan to use multiple images in the same program and you want them all to appear consistently.

Optimized Choose optimized to have PhotoImpact use the 16 most needed colors in the image it creates. This usually results in a much more accurate reproduction, but can cause compatibility and consistency problems with other programs.

Reserve entries Make sure that certain colors remain available regardless of the ones PhotoImpact chooses for the image.

Black and White Check Black and White to create a 14-color palette and then add Black and White to make a total of 16 colors.

8 primary colors Check 8 Primary Colors to create an 8-color palette and then add Black, White, Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow to make up the rest of the palette.

From file Use a previously saved 16-color palette as the basis for the new image. Click the Load button to search your system for the desired palette.

Dither Choose a dithering option to create the most accurate reproduction. The best choice depends on the source material.

None Choose None when the image is composed almost entirely of a few large single-colored areas.

Pattern Choose Pattern when most of the image contains large single-color images but with a wide variety of colors.

Diffusion Choose Diffusion when the image has multi-colored patterns, shading, and other fine points. While you can't avoid losing some detail, this usually produces the most pleasing results.


Convert to Indexed 256-Color dialog box

The Convert to Indexed 256-Color dialog box offers options for creating Indexed 256-color images. Depending on the format of the source, it may contain some or all of the following items:

Palette Specify the colors to include in a new image.

Standard Choose standard to use the default 256-color palette shared by most windows programs. This is most useful when you plan to use multiple images in the same program and you want them all to appear consistently.

3-3-2 bits Choose 3-3-2 bits to assign a unique color to every spot in the color palette. This offers the widest range of colors, but may introduce some inconsistencies when displayed by programs that do not recognize the unique palette.

6-7-6 levels Choose 6-7-6 levels to fill 252 assignments in the color palette. This is more than the number of assigned colors in the standard palette, but may introduce some inconsistencies when displayed by programs that do not recognize the unique palette.

Optimized Choose optimized to have PhotoImpact use the 256 most needed colors in the image it creates. This usually results in a much more accurate reproduction, but can cause compatibility and consistency problems with other programs.

Start index Prevent colors with values below a certain level from being included in the image by identifying a starting index level.

Max number of Colors Limit the number of colors to include in the palette here. This can be useful if you wish to add your own custom colors to the palette after the image is created without affecting any existing pixels in the image.

From file Use a previously saved 16-color palette as the basis for the new image. Click the Load button to search your system for the desired palette.

Dither Choose a dithering option to create the most accurate reproduction. The best choice depends on the source material.

None Choose None when the image is composed almost entirely of  large single-colored areas.

Pattern Choose Pattern if choosing None results in blotchy images and Dither results in too much "noise". The Pattern result may offer a pleasing alternative.

Diffusion Choose Diffusion when the image has multi-colored patterns, shading, and other fine points. While you can't avoid losing some detail, this usually produces the most pleasing results.


When converting black and white to grayscale, the cell size determines the size of each square used to determine shades. A cell size of one determines shading pixel by pixel, so only black or white is possible.  A cell size of 8 results in samples consisting of 64-pixel squares, so 65 shades are possible. The downside to large cell sizes is that contrast and accuracy in reproducing distinct shapes suffers. One way to make this less obvious this is to reduce the size of your image as you increase the cell size. Do this by increasing the Scale down setting.


Sav_Op_DB_PU
Some file formats do not offer any save options. In this case, the Options button is disabled.


Choosing the right resolution

The best resolution for an image displayed on screen may be quite different than that for printing. When an image is intended for displaying on screen, there is little advantage to  assigning a resolution greater than the highest intended screen resolution. Further, higher resolutions come at a significant cost in file size and memory requirements.

For printing, choose a resolution matching that of your printer for best results.


The origin, (where the horizontal and vertical lines meet), represents a pixel value of 0. the top and right edges each represent pixel values of 256. For grayscale, or the master channel, this means the line goes from lightest to darkest. For colors this means the colors shift from the complimentary color to the actual color.


True Color to Hi-Color dialog box

Dither Choose a dithering option to create the most accurate reproduction. The best choice depends on the source material.

None Choose None when the image is composed almost entirely of  large single-colored areas.

Pattern Choose Pattern if choosing None results in blotchy images and Dither results in too much "noise". The Pattern result may offer a pleasing alternative.

Diffusion Choose Dither when the image has multi-colored patterns, shading, and other fine points. While you can't avoid losing some detail, this usually produces the most pleasing results.


Color dialog box

Select colors for the background or indexed color table entries.

Basic Colors Choose a color to use from the standard Windows color palette.

Custom Colors Choose a color you created and saved from the Custom Colors area.

Define Custom Colors Create a color from a palette showing all available options for your computer.


Wallpaper dialog box

Customize your windows desktop in ways you never imagined were possible with the wallpaper dialog box.

Desktop background color Select to use the color shown in the color square as your desktop color. Click the color square to choose a different color.

Enable Wallpaper Use the selected image as the wallpaper for your desktop.

Display Decide how to place the image on your desktop.

Center Select Center to show one instance of the image in the center of the screen.

Tile Select Tile to fill the screen with multiple copies of the image. Check Flip horizontally and/or Flip vertically to determine how the image tiles.

Fit in window Check to resize the image so that none of it is cut off by the edges of your screen.


Slide Show and Screen Saver dialog boxes

The Slide Show and Screen Saver dialog boxes are almost the same except for the type of file they create.

Transition The thumbnail shows a sample of the progression from one image to the next as your slide show or screen saver displays. Select the desired transition from the dropdown list. (Choose Random to vary the transitions between images.)

Delay Set the amount of time for each image to remain on screen. Remember to make the time long enough to let your viewers appreciate the image, but not so long that they get bored.

Synchronize with audio files Have the images change as your audio files change. Make sure you click Advanced and then click the Music tab to check your sound file settings.

Control manually with keyboard or mouse Have the images change due to viewer input from the mouse or keypad, (for slide shows only).

Update screen saver file list Check to update existing screen saver files with additions or changes that you make. (for screen savers only).

Play Start the slide show or screen saver. Press Esc to stop.

Advanced Expand the dialog box to show settings for advanced option. The advanced options include:

General Tab Settings for repeating the presentation and how to portray images.

Info Tab Settings for determining what, if any text information accompanies slides as they are shown on screen.

Music Tab Select and arrange sound files to play with this presentation.

Color Squares Click to choose background (upper) and text (lower) colors for the show.

Font Click to choose a font and style for text accompanying images in the show.

Load Click to load a previously saved slide show or screen saver file into the dialog box as a source for the new presentation.

Save Click to save the current presentation for future use.


If you wish to change the desktop color and the image, first change the color and click OK. Then, click Wallpaper a second time to add the image.


Use these actions when controlling a slide show manually:

Next slide	Right or Down arrow key
Space bar
Left mouse button

Prev. slide	Left or Up arrow key
Right mouse button

Fast Forward	Page Down key

Fast Backward	Page Up key

First Slide	Home key

Last Slide	End key

Stop	P key

End show	Esc key

(Right-click on this window and choose Print to print this list out.)


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Repeat continuously For slide shows only, check to loop the slide show until you press Esc to stop it.

Resize large images to fit screen size Check to automatically resize images that would otherwise too big to entirely fit on screen during the presentation.

Use common palette to show images Check to correct all indexed-color images to use the same palette when shown. This may speed up the slide show and make your images appear more consistently.

Display color images at best quality Check to devote all system resources to the currently shown image. This may slow down the system a little.

Hide pointer Check to remove the mouse pointer from the screen during the presentation.


Attributes to show Check the text descriptions you wish to show with each image. Drag the attributes up and down in the list to change their order of appearance.

Subject Assign a common name or title to the presentation that appears with every slide.

Location Choose where on the screen to show text.

Alignment Choose how the text aligns itself when shown.


List files Shows all sound files selected for the presentation. Check the boxes for the sound files you want to play. Drag the files up and down in the list to rearrange the order in which they play.

Remove Click to remove the selected file from the list.

Remove All Click to clear the list of all sound files.

Add Click to add new files to the list.

Info...Click to obtain information about the selected file.

Repeat continuously Check to repeat sound files continuously if all finish playing before the presentation ends. Clear to play the list only once during a presentation.


Font dialog box

Choose the font and style for your text:

Font Select the desired font to display from the list.

Font Style Select any enhancements to the font you wish to make from the list.

Size Select how big you want the font to appear from the list.

Effects Check strike through to add a horizontal line running through the middle of the text. Check underline to place a horizontal line under the text.

Sample Preview how your text will look