Computer Applications I :: Lessons :: Microsoft Paint
Selection Tools
Microsoft Paint is a free program that comes with Microsoft Windows. Although it is not as advanced as many image-editing programs it is a free and easily-available program so it can be used to make simple adjustments to pictures or to create your own drawings. We are going to use Paint to create something known as a picture mash-up. A mash-up is a combination of two pictures, usually placing the head of something on the body of something else. We are going to create a mash-up with Chicago Cubs' manager Joe Maddon and a giraffe.
- Download the image above and save it to your network drive.
- Open the image you downloaded in Paint.
- Click on the Free-Form Select tool in the upper-left of the toolbar.
- Use the tool to trace an outline of Maddon's head.
Don't worry about tracing the head exactly since we are going to make small adjustments later. It is more important to make sure that your selection includes all parts of Pinella's head. It is okay if you include extra parts of the image.
Fine Adjustments
Next, we will use the Eraser tool to remove any color remaining from the background. You can find the Eraser tool just below Free-Form Select. This step may be easier if you use the Magnify tool to zoom-in on the image.
- Copy the selection you made of Maddon's head.
Go to File>New to create a new document- Paste the selection in the new document.
- Zoom-in on the image if you want.
- Use the Eraser tool to carefully remove the background.
We now need to open the giraffe picture, but if you choose to create a new document Paint will close the current document. We don't want to do this so you will have to double-click the Paint icon to open another instance of it.
Combining Images
You may notice that Maddon's head is facing the opposite direction of the giraffes. We can either flip the head or the image of the giraffe to fix this situation. In this lesson we will flip the giraffe.
- Save the image of the giraffes to your network drive.
- Open the giraffe image in the new instance of Paint.
- Go to Image>Flip/Rotate.
- Choose Flip Horizontal.
Our final step will be to paste the image of Pinella's head onto the giraffe.
Open the image of Maddon's head.- Press "Ctrl-A" to select the entire image.
- Copy the image.
- Open the image of the giraffes.
- Paste the image of Pinella's head.
- Click on the lower option of the Shape Opaqueness Box to make the head transparent.
- Move the head into place.
Make sure you do not let go of the head before you have it in the correct location. Paint does not use layers like other image-editing programs so letting go of the image will delete the parts of the giraffe image behind it. Finally, we will need to save our image. We will save the image as a jpeg since it will retain its quality and also be usable on the web. By default, Paint saves as bitmaps, but they are not usable on the internet.
- Go to File>Save As...
- Change the file type to jpeg.
- Save the file to your network drive.
