Program To Place Text On Pictures

[wannabee]

hi,
could you tell me the program that most of you use to put text on the pictures of your projects...I wish to start a project and place the pictures of the progress here and putting the text on the images would sure help people to understand better....thank you

[cabinetman]

Many of the free editing programs have that option. You may already have it in your programs (Windows)...like "Paint", which you might find in your "Accessories". It will have the "A" icon at the top (adding text).

.

[MikeMorgan]

Goggle Picasa is simple (and free) and therefore works well for me.

[cwsmith]

I've been using Corel Draw professionally for years, but it's not free. Unfortunately, because I have that particular program I haven't kept in touch with the many others that may be available.

The Corel Draw product (I'm still using version 9, which is rather old but still my favorite) is a "vector" program and not a bit-map program like "Paint" and many others. So with it, you import the picture (a bit-map) and then "layer" your vector-based lettering, arrows, etc. over the photo.

Nice part of that is that I can simply grab a "leader line" (arrow) and move it as much as I like or resize the lettering, change the type face and size, color, etc. even after I've typed it in. I can also copy and duplicate one layer on top of another (like a black or white image over the opposite color), which makes everything stand out from the back ground of the photo.

There may well be other programs that can do this too and may be free; but, the Corel Draw program is what I have.

CWS

[Alex Franke]

I usually use Gimp, which is free, very powerful, feature-rich, and available on multiple operating systems in cases where I'm working with raster images and I want a lot of control over how I place the text.

If I'm adding the same text to a bunch of images, or if I want to be sure I'm adding the text in a consistent manner, then I use imagemagick (which is also free and available across multiple operating systems). This is a command-line tool, though, and as a result it isn't nearly as intuitive. For example, to resize a bunch of images and add a copyright notice on all of them, I'd use a command like

convert *.JPG[1000x1000] -interlace line -quality 85 -gravity SouthEast -font Arial -pointsize 14 -fill black -annotate +2+2 "(c)2011 theFrankes.com" -fill white -annotate +3+3 "(c)2011 theFrankes.com" Ouput%03d.jpg

cwsmith -- I've been a big fan of the Corel apps since the late 80's actually. I initially bought the suite (version 1!) for the fonts, but ended up using it for just about everything. Lately, though, I've been trying to use Gimp for the raster stuff and Inkscape (also free and cross-platform) for the vector stuff. I believe Inkscape borrowed a lot of its interface ideas from Corel Draw, so it's quite intuitive.

[Hoakie]

Paint .NET is pretty powerful yet easy to use

[Lonnie in Orlando]

I use PaintShop Pro for adding text, changing graphics formats, resizing, and retouching. I have an older version ... v7. It was originally a free trial version that should have expired after X days. Mine kept going and going and ...

Corel bought the program a few years ago. It is a powerful Photoshop type program. The newer versions have more features than my v7. $79 to download.

< click > for link to Corel. (slow to open)

< click > for Cnet link. Discounted to $59.

>> Alex Franke: GIMP looks interesting. How does it compare to PhotoShop? Have you had any problems with it?

- Lonnie

[woodturner]

I usually use Gimp,
...
then I use imagemagick

I concur - I use them both and they work well.

[dbhost]

Another vote for GIMP. How it compares to Photoshop? It all depends on what you are doing with it...

But it is roughly equivalent. GIMP is better at working animations, Photoshop is better at handling finer resolutions etc...

[conwaygolfer]

I am not a very hi tech person - so I use Picaso from Google. Simple and allows for simple touch ups also. It even does it for you. Like someone said - it is a free download.

Conwaygolfer

[Bruce Cohen]

Hey Cab,
What's with the words, everyone knows you can't spell. LOL
BTW, the pinkie is all healed, now what should I cut off?
Bruce

[cwsmith]

cwsmith -- I've been a big fan of the Corel apps since the late 80's actually. I initially bought the suite (version 1!) for the fonts, but ended up using it for just about everything. Lately, though, I've been trying to use Gimp for the raster stuff and Inkscape (also free and cross-platform) for the vector stuff. I believe Inkscape borrowed a lot of its interface ideas from Corel Draw, so it's quite intuitive.

Alex,

Thank you very much... I will definitely check out "Inkscape".

I moved my illustration demands from the drawing board to the PC in the late 80's using Micrografx Designer for several years. Though happy with it, the Corel product offered more "color" capabilities and I move from Technical Publications to Marketing, where such enhancements were greatly needed. My first use version of the Corel suite was "7". I've since moved up and finally ended my purchases at version 11, which I found to be completely idiotic with its very monotone interface. As mentioned earlier, I went back to Version 9 which is still my favorite.

Problem with Corel I think is that they are desperate for money and every couple of years come out with a new version simply to get people to buy into it. Over the years I've seen very little improvement and actually they seem to provide less and less in the way of extras.

But, it's a great set of programs for layouts and color work. While I love Google's Sketchup, I wish it had better color/rendering capabilities. But, for visualizing for a woodworking project it works quite nicely and it's fun to use, though challenging.

Thanks again for the link to Inkscape,

CWS

[big tim]

Goggle Picasa is simple (and free) and therefore works well for me.

I use Picasa, but trying to get arrows is a real pain, particularly if you work with a laptop which does not have a numeric keyboard.

Tim

[Alex Franke]

>> Alex Franke: GIMP looks interesting. How does it compare to PhotoShop? Have you had any problems with it?

For most people they're roughly equivalent, but most professionals will likely prefer Photoshop -- it really is an excellent piece of software. If you're not a pro or you don't want to spend any money, then my guess is that the Gimp will be about 98% of what you need -- and the other 2% you probably won't even know you need.

The only problems I've had are with occasional bugs in things like printing. I think you lose a bit when you go cross-platform like Gimp does, and getting the image to appear *exactly* where I want it to on the page can be a bit of a challenge sometimes, particularly with features like borderless printing -- I think there may be a problem with the application correctly reading printer metrics or something.

I will definitely check out "Inkscape".

I want to be careful not to oversell Inkscape here. There are a number of things I wish it could do that Corel Draw could do even back in the day. For example, Corel Draw seemed more polished, had a better handle on things like fitting text to curves, allowed multiple pages, and gave me great control over what appeared on the display and in print.

Inkscape, though, also has some great features -- including the price (free) and being able to run on Linux. I also like that it's native file format is svg, and it strives to implement ALL of the open svg spec. I have a bunch of old *.CDR files that I wonder if I'll ever get to see again... :/

[wannabee]

thank you for all your quick replies...I have my work cut out for me trying all these programs....thank you again