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Background Tile Samples Color Cube Color Numbers
Dithering Fancy Headings
Full Page Printing Free Graphics Programs GIF or JPG Gift Wrap Missing Pictures Paint Map Paint in Windows 98 Paint in Windows XP
Paint in Windows Vista
Shapes
Publisher 3 Screen Shots Seamless Tiles Simple Stationery Lessons One piece of OE/WM stationery Put a piece of stationery together
Changing the picture and the background tile in a piece of stationery
Change stationery's appearance Seamless Birthday Tiles
Seamless Flower tiles Stationery Introduction
Symbol Fonts Key Guide Tiles from Symbol Fonts
From here you can click the tile that interests you and see it as a background for text in various colors. This illustrates the need for a plain—or very nearly plain—text area on fancy stationery, and shows that some patterns, although pretty in themselves, are tiring when you're trying to read.
Lots of backgrounds for you to save and use in your stationery or on your web pages. Subtle ones, gaudy ones, fine patterns and bright pictures. Dozens of colours and colour combinations. Browse through and see what you can find.
This gives you a quick way to look up color numbers and compare them with the rgb colors you find in graphics programs. Run your cursor over the cube. The background of the page changes, and so do the two sets of numbers.
This explains how those weird number/letter combinations—like #ff33cc—work. Once you've read this you'll see that it actually does make sense—although if you can manage to write a color without checking you'll be way ahead of me.
I've written this page in such a way that you can save it onto your own computer and edit the code to make the colors change.
If you want to print the color numbers page as a reference, you'll need to go to Tools > Internet Options, click on the Advanced tab, scroll down to Printing and put a tick beside Print Background Colors and Pictures. Usually it's best not to have this option ticked, but in this case the background colors are part of the story.
Dithering is a menace when you're trying to produce a clean, sharp drawing. This page explains what it is, why it happens, and how to avoid it. You can see close-up examples from affected pictures.
Most of us have met Word Art, and we've probably all seen fantastic headings made in big expensive programs, but it's dead easy to make attractive and original looking text right in Paint. Here's how to “color in” a heading with an appropriate photograph, or with a pattern or picture you made yourself.
You can make a drop shadow behind your text or fill it with tiny flowers. There are step-by-step instructions to get you started, and tips and hints for making a page look slick and polished.
Some how-to examples are An Ocean Photo as Background
Oblique Stripes
Spraycan Background
Stretched Spray Pattern Add an Outline
A Font with Shadow
Making masks in Paint
Massed Flower Background Using White in a Background
Of all the free stuff offered on the Internet, graphics programs are the most interesting. There are single function programs that take a few seconds to download and there are at least two full featured programs that come with comprehensive tutorials and will do just about everything you'd expect from PhotoShop or PSP. I've listed some I've tried, including an amazingly good program for children.
Which format is right for your picture? This page explains how the different formats work, and for what sort of picture one or the other should be chosen. Lots of example close-ups to demonstrate why some pictures look muddy or have colors bleeding around sharp edges. File sizes of different saves are included.
You can make a tile with words or pictures of your choice, print it from Internet Explorer and use it as a wrapping for a small present—anything small enough to be enclosed by an A4 piece of paper!
This is considerably easier than a background tile for stationery.
You've sent your friend a beautifully crafted email; flowers, birds, laughing children perhaps. Your friend receives a rather plain letter with red crosses where the pictures should be. Check this page for several known causes of this problem.
This is a picture guide to the programs mentioned on this page. You may find it easier to negotiate.
Make full use of the Paint program that comes with Windows. Each tool is described and its use is explained and illustrated. There are step by step instructions for one simple project to get you started. As the program behaves a little differently in each version of Windows, choose the one that is right for you. For the 98 version, there are several different ways that you can print the article, according to your needs.
This program is so old it should have long white whiskers. Nevertheless, you can use it to make folded greeting cards, posters, and even a properly paged booklet with double-sided printing. With Publisher you can place things exactly as you wish. It isn't PageMaker, but you can usually pick up a second-hand copy for a smile and sixpence.
It's sometimes very useful to show exactly what you see on your screen. Here's how to make a picture, step-by-step.
You don't need PhotoShop or even PSP; you can make seamless tiles right in the Windows Paint program, then test and enhance them with Harm’s sTile, a marvellous little free download.
This first page goes through the basics of making a tile from scratch, decorating it along the way and ensuring that it is seamless. The page includes examples of tiles which, while perhaps attractive enough in themselves, present problems when used behind text. More suitable examples are shown as well. You can, of course, right click on any tile shown and save it for your own use.
Birthday Balloons. This is seen as a suitable background for a birthday greeting email to a child. A bright—perhaps overbright—tile is made from scratch, then directions are given for making a second version, sufficiently subdued to be a background for text.
Instructions for making a background tile from an existing picture; in this case a scanned sprig of tiny flowers. These take a little care, but can look quite beautiful.
Few geometric shapes are offered in Paint (except in Windows 7). It is quite possible, though, to draw regular stars, hexagons, octagons, wheels, a clockface, and even the sort of rose-window pattern you'd make with a compass and pencil.
This page gives a run-down on preparing to make any of these shapes, and provides links to pages showing in detail how to draw each one individually.
Three linked lessons in making simple but attractive stationery. No expensive programs are needed, and you will see how easy it will be to make your own stationery, using photos you've taken yourself.
The first page shows you one piece of OE/WM stationery and offers you background tile, picture and html page to copy and save. It then explains how to put a piece of stationery together using Notepad, and how to add it to your stationery folder and use it for emails.
The second page gives you step-by-step instructions for changing the picture and the background tile.
Lesson three explains some css styles and shows how to completely change the stationery's appearance by modifying font, colors, borders and background.
Explains why I made some pages about stationery, outlines the things I've tried to cover, and mentions caution in buying expensive software too quickly.
This page includes charts to copy so that you know which keystroke gives which symbol in four common pictograph fonts. For two of the fonts, there's an "extended character map", showing characters not directly produced by simple keystrokes. If you'd like to chart other fonts on your own computer, there's a downloadable file that makes it easy. In rtf format, I think it should be readable by most word processors.
To simplify printing just the one you want, I've now added a separate page for each font chart.
Pictographic fonts are great if you want to add a flower or two to a background. Try making this tile with a couple of characters from the WingDings font.
Questions or comments? I’d love to hear from you. My email address is here.
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