desktop background on XP.

[niikme]

Hi all, my first time in this forum because I have only had my DSLR for a few weeks now!

Hoping for some help......

I like to change my desktop picture on my laptop fairly regularly, the problem being that my recent shots dont work on any of the settings in XP - the settings are Tile, Stretch, or Center. Tile is hideous, Center zooms in cutting out most of the photo, and Stretch is nearly best but it stretches the picture vertically! A black bit across the top and bottom of my pic would be alrite - how do you get that? Alternatively how do you resize the image without losing perspective using photoshop?

thanks and appreciate any help , Kris

[size13]

I usually resize the image to the width you want e.g 768 for a 1024x768 resolution
then resize the canvas to 1024x768 and set the canvas colour to black or whatever you want making sure the image is centered

[niikme]

thanks sounds like a good theory. how do you resize the image using adobe photoshop or adobe imageviewer?

like i said...... newbie!

[le gravy noire]

niikme said:

thanks sounds like a good theory. how do you resize the image using adobe photoshop or adobe imageviewer?

like i said...... newbie!

use the crop tool to make it the rough dimensions (DSLR pics are often too wide) then adjust > resize to 1024 (for instance) and see if the corresponding figure is 768. if not either accept the distortion or have another go.

Loads of mine here: www.stevecarter.com/freewallpaper.htm

edited to add ... Its Steve here, posting logged in as Matt !

Edited by le gravy noire on Friday 10th November 12:02

[beyond rational]

You could resize using the height as the base number (as you know the width is too great), i.e 768, then you see how far the width is off 1024, instead of using the crop tool, you can then use the canvas size tool to get the size spot on 1024x768 - makes little difference to GetGravys method though. Sometimes I crop a bit and squish the image a bit as well width wise, not much though!

[megy]

When i do this to my pics, i select the crop tool in PS, then in the top bar put in the screen resolution (in px) then when you crop it is both the correct size to fit, and the correct aspect ratio too, so will not stretch either height or width.

[niikme]

top tip megy sounds ace and will try later. thanks for your help everyone!

[GJR]

PS has a facility in the file menu called "save for web" (or at least my version does)

This allows you to adjust size and quality and as long as the box is ticked that constrains the proportions of the image, the picture should not get distorted.

G

[rich-uk]

Or use the Windows Image Resizer Powertoy:

www.wikihow.com/Easily-Resize-Photos-in-Windows-XP