Chapter 18: Working with Graphics

Adding Information to Digital Images

For as long as people have been taking photographs, they've also been writing on the backs of their prints so that they can keep track of information, such as where and when the picture was taken, who the people are, and so on. You can't write on the back of an image file, but Windows gives you two ways to attach extra information to a digital image: You can include this information in the file's properties, or (if the image is in TIFF format) you can add annotations to the image itself.

Adding Information to an Image File's Properties

Like any file, an image file has a properties box that you can open by right-clicking its icon and selecting Properties from the shortcut menu. The General tab of the Properties dialog box contains the same kind of information that is in any file's properties: the file's name, type, size, and so on. But the Summary tab of an image file's properties contains spaces you can use to record other important details about the picture. See the example in Figure 18-3.

Figure 18-3: Typing information into the Summary tab of an image file's Properties is like writing on the back of a print.

Your camera or scanner may already have recorded quite a bit of technical information about the image without telling you. To see this information, click the Advanced button on the Summary tab of the image's Properties dialog box. Return to the simple view of the Summary tab by clicking the Simple button.

Annotating an Image with Windows Picture And Fax Viewer

Windows Picture And Fax Viewer can add annotations to images in TIFF format. When you open a file of this file type in Windows Picture And Fax Viewer, the toolbar grows (as shown in Figure 18-4) to include annotation tools that let you draw on an image, highlight portions of the image, and add text comments. While you are annotating, the toolbar works exactly as described earlier in this chapter.

Figure 18-4: Adding annotations to your pictures

The Select Annotation (arrow icon), New Freehand Annotation (curved line), and New Straight Line Annotation (straight line icon) tools are almost identical to the corresponding Paint tools.

Windows Picture And Fax Viewer has three rectangle-making tools: New Highlight Annotation (highlighter icon), which produces a translucent rectangle; New Frame Annotation (rectangle outline icon), which makes a hollow rectangle; and New Solid Rectangle Annotation (solid rectangle icon), which makes a filled rectangle. Figure 18-4 contains an example of a hollow rectangle.

Two tools add text annotations: New Text Annotation adds text with a transparent background, and New Attached Note Annotation adds text with a colored background. Both work similarly to the Text tool of Paint: Click the tool button, then drag a rectangle on the image to create a box in which the text will appear. Click inside the box and start typing. The note in Figure 18-4 was made with the New Attached Note Annotation tool.

The annotations that Windows Picture And Fax Viewer adds to an image can be moved, edited, or deleted, even after they have been saved to a file. To change an existing annotation, click the Select Annotation (arrow icon) button on the Windows Picture And Fax Viewer toolbar, and then click in the annotation. A box appears around the annotation and the cursor changes to four crossing arrows. You may use the cursor to drag the annotation to another location on the image, or to resize the annotation by dragging a corner of the surrounding box.

To edit a Text or Attached Note annotation, select the annotation using the Select Annotation tool as in the previous paragraph. When the annotation has been selected, click inside the surrounding box to make an editing cursor appear.