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Using the Built-in Image Editor
| Using the Built-in Image Editor
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| The built-in image viewer and the image editor are basically the same thing. There is not too much difference between them, except that you can only modify the image in the editing mode. You can switch between viewing and editing by clicking the Edit icon ( ) on the toolbar.
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| Deleting a Rectangular Area
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| The most important and most widely used editing operation is the deletion of a rectangular area. Deletion means wiping out all the pixels and replacing them with while pixels. To delete a rectangle, first make sure that you are in selection mode. Take a look at the second toolbar right above the horizontal ruler. If the Rectangular Selection icon ( ) is pressed down, you are in the right mode. If not, click the Rectangular Selection icon.
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| Before deletion you have to select a rectangular area on the image. You can do this by drawing a rectangle with your mouse. First position the cursor to the desired location, then press and hold the left mouse button. Without releasing the button, move the cursor to change the size of the selection. Release the button if the selection is ready. You can use the [+] and [-] buttons to zoom in and out even during drawing the selection rectangle.
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| Hit the Del key to delete the current selection. If you are not satisfied with the selection, click on the image outside of the selection with your mouse. This hides the current selection rectangle and makes it possible to do a whole different selection. Do not click inside the selection.
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| Alternatively, you can right-click inside the selection and choose Delete Inside from the popup menu to delete the selected rectangle.
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| Deleting Everything Outside the Selection
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| Sometimes you need to manually delete the black border of an image. Though you can do this by making four selections and deleting them all, it is usually more convenient to make only one selection and delete everything outside of it.
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| Make a rectangular selection, then press Ctrl+D to delete the area outside the current selection. Alternatively, you can right-click inside the selection and choose Delete Outside from the popup menu.
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| The second rarest operation after deletion is moving a selection. To move a selected rectangle, point your cursor somewhere inside the selection, then press and hold the left mouse button. As you move your mouse, the contents of the selected rectangle will move. Release the button to drop the selection. After dropping, you can pick it up and move some more again. Click outside the selection to hide the selection. If you do so, you will not be able to move the selection anymore.
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| While you are moving a selection, you can hold the Shift key to constrain the direction of the movement. If Shift is held down, you can only move the selection either horizontally or vertically. Release the Shift key to move the selection to any place on the image.
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| Note that the moving of the selection works differently with bitonal and color images. For bitonal images, you only move the black content of the selection, while leaving the white pixels transparent. This way you can move a selection over an area that already contains black pixels without deleting them. The editor just moves the black pixels from the original selection.
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| For grayscale and color images, however, the editor will move the whole selection, overwriting everything under the destination rectangle. You can not move a selection over an area that already contains something without overwriting everything under the selection rectangle.
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| You can easily make a copy of the current selection. Select a rectangular area, then press and hold the Ctrl key. Next, point your mouse inside the selection and press and hold the left mouse button. Now you can release the Ctrl key on your keyboard if you want. Move the selection to the desired location and release the left mouse button. This will make a copy of the original selection.
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| You can copy the current selection to the clipboard by pressing the Ctrl+C or by clicking the Copy icon ( ) on the toolbar.
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| To cut the current selection, press Ctrl+X, or click the Cut icon ( ) on the toolbar. This will copy the current selection to the clipboard and delete the selection from the image. It does the same thing as the combination of the Ctrl+C and the Del keys.
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| You can paste an image from the clipboard by pressing the Ctrl+V keys or clicking the Paste icon ( ) on the toolbar. The image from the clipboard will be pasted onto the image and will be automatically selected for you. You will have a chance to move the selection to any position. Click outside the selection to drop the selection over your image.
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| Undoing the Last Operation
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| You can always undo the last operation by clicking the Undo icon ( ) on the toolbar, or by hitting the Ctrl+Z keys. You can only undo your last operation. However, you can choose not to save the changes to your image. This way you can revert all the changes you have made to your image.
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| Measuring Distances and Angle
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| So far we discussed what you can do with the rectangular selection tool. Click the Measurement Mode icon ( ) on the toolbar to go to a different mode, where you can measure distances or angle.
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| To make a measurement, draw a line over your image with the measurement tool turned on. First position the cursor over the desired location, this will be the reference location, then press and hold the left mouse button. Move the cursor to a different location and the built-in viewer will display the distance between the reference location and the current location. It also displays the angle of the distance and the X and Y components of the distance. Release the button and repeat the same procedure for measuring another distance. Don't forget to go back to selection mode by clicking the Rectangular Selection icon on the toolbar when you are ready with the measurement.
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| You can manually deskew an image using the built-in editor. First you have to go to deskew mode by clicking the Deskew icon ( ) on the toolbar.
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| To deskew an image, draw a line over your image with the deskew tool turned on. First position the cursor over the desired location, this will be the first reference location, then press and hold the left mouse button. Move the cursor to the second reference location and release the button. The editor will rotate your image so that the line you drew will be straight. See Figure 7-4 for an example. The blue line on the picture shows how to specify the angle of the skew. Don't forget to go back to selection mode by clicking the Rectangular Selection icon on the toolbar when you are ready with the measurement. Note that you can not rotate the image by 90 or -90 degrees. Do not try to draw a vertical line, because the editor will give an error message that it could not deskew the image.
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Figure 7-4. Performing a Manual Deskew
| Click the Save icon ( ) on the toolbar to save changes. Be careful, this operation can not be undone. Once you save changes, your original image will be overwritten by the new one.
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| When you are going to the next or previous image, or you are closing the editor window, or you are switching from editing mode to normal mode, the editor will ask if you would like to save the modifications to the image (click Yes), or do not save the image (keep the old image) (choose No), or cancel the operation and keep editing (click Cancel). This question might be very disturbing when you are editing a large number of images, therefore it can be turned off. If you turn it off, the editor will not ask if you would like to save changes or not. Be careful with this option. You will learn how to turn the automatic warning on and off later in this chapter.
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