Mini Manual

Six Special Effects Using Picasa

Use Crop to remove unwanted areas and improve

the overall image.

Under the Commonly Needed Fixes tab, select

Crop

The dropdown tab gives multiple cropping

options, such as CD Cover, Widescreen Monitor,

and HDTV. This tutorial uses the default Manual

option.

Image Cropping

Once you select Manual, Picasa will provide

three preset crops. You can choose one of these

presets, or select the crop area on your own.

To select the crop area, drag the cursor across the

image to draw a rectangle around the part of the

picture you want to keep. The rest of the image

will be grayed out.

Adjust the area by clicking and dragging on the

edges, or click on the middle to drag the entire

rectangle.

Once you have the desired highlighted

area, click the Apply button.

You now have a newly cropped image.

If you are unhappy with the image, simply select

the Undo Crop button and repeat the process.

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Adding Text to an Image

Use Text to ad a caption to your photo, or transform

it into a greeting card or poster.

Under the Commonly Needed Fixes tab, select Text.

Click anywhere on the image and type to

enter text.

To move the text, click on the gray box

around the text, hold, and drag.

Move the cursor over the existing text. A

wheel will appear on the text and the cursor

will change to a hand. Click on the white dot

with an arrow.

To change the text size, move the hand icon

to the left and right. To change the text angle,

move the hand icon around the wheel

Once you finish, click the Apply button.

Use the box to the left to edit the text,

such as the typeface and alignment.

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Drag the tab on the slider

from left to right to fill the

image with light.

Use Fill Light to lighten a dark

image.

Under the Finely-Tuned

Lighting and Color Fixes, select

the Fill Light slider.

Fill Light and Color Temperature

Areas of the image that

were once too dark are

now lighter.

Use Color Temperature to make the overall

tone of an image “warmer” or “cooler.”

To use the feature, move the slider right to

make the image warmer, and left to make the

image cooler.

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Sepia

Sepia is like black and white, but with an overall

warmer tone. Use Sepia to give images a more

“vintage” look.

Under Fun and Useful Image Processing Choices,

select Sepia. The image will automatically switch

to Sepia.

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Museum Matte

Museum Matte is an easy way to add a customizable

frame to an image.

Under Even More Fun and Useful Image Processing

Choices, select Museum Matte.

Museum Matte adds two borders to the picture:

inner and outer.

To change the border color, simply click the “inner

color” and “outer color” boxes.

To change the border thickness, move the sliders

from left to right.

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