This tutorial will teach you how to make large previews and thumbnails using GIMP 2. It's a free graphics program and can be downloaded here. You should download the help files and install those , too. You'll find the download link for those under 'Additional Packages/ English language only'. GIMP is a little more involved than using Paint Shop Pro but the program is free and does a great job if you don't mind a few extra steps. There are lots of bells and whistles to play with so look in those help files. I have included lots of screen shots of the workspace so the page is long and may take a bit to load. I'd rather you have too much information then not enough.
The photo used for the tutorial was taken by myself and I'm not the best photographer. The lampwork beads
and bracelet were created by Bethany Adams of Gwacie Beads and I'm delighted to own it!
Visit Bethany at http://www.gwaciebeads.com/index.htm
My thanks to Carla of c-raes-jewelry-designs for testing the tutorial for me.
Install the program and let's get started.
Start Gimp. You'll see floating 2 palettes, GIMP and Layers.
If you're missing the Layers palette go to the GIMP palette, click on File/ Dialogs/Layers to open that palette.
Let's open your photo now.
If you're just getting started with your site you'll want to keep your photos organized. Make a
folder and name it Product Photos. Make 3 sub folders, Originals, Large Previews and Thumbnails.
It will help avoid confusion about the photos when it's time to upload them to your site.
On the Gimp menu bar go to File/Open and browse to your photo..
We'll make the large preview first then the thumbnail. One thing about digital photos is they're HUGE on the pc. You will see rulers across the top and sides of the workspace that tell you what size the image is now. If you look at the title bar you can see the photo is 3648 x 2736 pixels. Down at the bottom it tells you the photo is 90.4 MB.
First we'll crop out the unnecessary background then resize it. Find the crop tool ..
and draw out a selection around the product ..
On your keyboard click your Enter key to crop the photo ..
Now the photo needs to be resized to use as a large preview ..
Go to Image/Scale Image
The Scale Image window will open. Type in 600 for width and click on the chain link so GIMP will
auto size the height for you. Put in 300 pixels/in for both X & Y resolution. **If your image is taller
than wider you will want to use 600 for the height and let GIMP auto size the width.**
Click on Scale to resize your photo. It will be very small so go to View/Zoom/100%.
You'll see that your photo has lost some clarity during the resize so we'll fix that now.
Go to Filters/Enhance/Sharpen.
The Sharpen window will open. The default is 10 but I moved the slider to 40. You'll have to judge how much sharpening needs to be done on your photo. You can see the effect in the preview window. Click OK when your happy with the results.
Now we are going to add a border to your photo. Borders separate your photo
from the page background and give them a nice professional look.
We need to increase the canvas size so go to Image/Canvas Size.
Click the chain icon to 'unlink' the height and width (highlighted with the red circle).
Increase the height and width by 2 pixels.
Click the 'Center' button.
Click 'Resize'
Double click the foreground color in the toolbox
and choose black for your border color or type in 000000.
In the Layers palette click the 'New Layer' icon. Look for it at the bottom of the Layers window.
Select the 'Foreground Color' as 'Layer Fill Type' and click OK ..
In the Layers palette click on the green down arrow to move the black layer below your photo.
Go to the main palette and click on Image then Flatten Image.
Go to File/Save As. Give your image a name. Mine was funkyflowersbracelet_largepreview.
In the "Save in folder" area use the drop down menu to locate your large preview folder
Select .jpg from the drop down menu and click OK.
The 'Save as JPEG' window will open. Move the slider to 90 for quality. Check the "Show
preview in image window" so you can see what the resulting file size of your photo. Save.
Don't close out the image yet, let's make the thumbnail.
Go to Image/Scale Image
Type 200 in the Width box and click on the chain to auto size the height.
** If your image is taller than wider you will want to use 200
for the height and let GIMP auto size the width.**
Use 300 for the resolution and click on 'Scale'.
Go to Filters/Enhance/Sharpen.
I used 40 again but you may have to adjust the settings for your photo.
Go to File/Save As. I named mine funkyflowersbracelet_thumbnail.
Browse to your thumbnail folder, select .jpg from the drop down menu and click OK.
The 'Save as JPEG' window will open. Move the slider to 90 for quality then click Save.
That's it, you have a large preview and thumbnail for your product!
To close GIMP go to File/Quit. If you close out the palettes separately they won't
all open when you start the program next time.
