[Solved] Framing Images with Shapes

[Vyxenne]

I am trying to insert an image into OOWriter's included heart shape in such a way that I can scale the image so most of it shows after filling the shape with it. I'm having two basic problems:

1. The lower half of the included heart shape is badly 'pinched' and although I have found many suitable heart shapes online I can't find any guidance on how to add those shapes to OOWriter; and
2. When I 'fill' the heart shape with the image, I do get a heart-shaped image, but the image isn't scaled to fit the shape and worse, the image isn't scalable at all once it has been inserted into the shape as 'fill', resulting in only a very small part of the image showing within the shape.

Here's an illustration of the issues:

OOWriter Shape-Framing Images

Thanks.

[John_Ha]

The Writer "heart shape" cannot easily be adjusted to what you want. You would need to draw a heart based on a shape you like.

You will probably do better if you merge a heart shape you like with the photo, using image processing software to do the merge, and loading the final result into Writer. Using a white, or transparent background, and/or using Wrap > Contour is useful to give the illusion that the image, which must be rectangular, is actually heart shaped. IrfanView is an excellent free editor, GIMP is a more powerful free "PhotoShop equivalent".

There is much useful information in the up to date Writer guide and Chapter 8 - Working with Graphics in the OOo v3.3 Writer Manual. Also see Some useful hints on using images

Users are strongly recommened to do all their image processing using a good image editor before loading the completed, final image into Writer.

If this solves the problem, please click the Edit button on your original post and add [Solved] in front of your subject.

[Vyxenne]

You would need to draw a heart based on a shape you like.

Thanks, but I've already found many (at least 20) suitable heart shapes online, so I don't have to draw them. The problem is that I have no idea how to convert them into whatever format Writer 'needs' to treat it as a Writer Shape, nor how to import the converted shape into Writer for easy use.

I followed the links you provided, but they led to the top level of an OO manual for an older version than the one I have, and nothing I found there addresses these issues as far as I've been able to find. In fact, the resource you pointed me to on working with graphics in Writer does not even mention the existing functionality of 'filling' a shape with an image at all.

I have GIMP, the CS2 version of Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. The problem is that I have not been able to figure out how to apply a shape (heart shape in this particular instance) to an image resulting in a reshaped image. All three of those software packages' manuals and 'help' systems assume that "applying a shape to an image" means superimposing the shape onto the image with the result that the image is still rectangular but now has a heart shape drawn on top of it somewhere within the image. I even tried to do it in Draw, with no success.

I found an online YouTube tutorial on 'making a heart shaped image in Photoshop' but my version of Photoshop is a lot different than the one shown, so much so that I was not able to follow the tutorial even running the tutorial on one computer while trying to do the steps shown in the tutorial on an adjacent computer.

So, thanks for your reply, but I already have a manual with my Open Office and have read it exhaustively, so referring me back to the top level of OO manuals from an older version didn't help.

[acknak]

I expect the simplest approach is to modify the included heart shape. It's not hard; there are step-by-step instructions in the topic you posted to first, here: viewtopic.php?p=341364#p341364

(And in my post after that one.)

If you can't do that, you can try importing a downloaded shape; I would look for SVG format. OO Draw can import most svg files.

The problem with that is that you need a simple outline for the shape and most clipart that I've see always seems to be more complex than I need.

[acknak]

PS: For creating the masked image, try the steps give here:
viewtopic.php?p=118219#p118219

That works for me.

[John_Ha]

1 Download a suitable heart image.

2 Download the free and excellent IrfanView and edit the heart image.
- Image > Decrease colour depth ..., to reduce the image to two colours - black and white (this avoids the "black edge" line you otherwise get)
- Image > Negative ..., to invert the colours so the heart is black and the background is white
- Image > Resize/Resample..., to, say, 500 x 500 pixels
.
3 Save As ...
- choose PNG >>> you must choose PNG here because PNG supports transparency.
- click Transparency > choose the black heart shape as the transparent colour.

You now have a 500 x 500 pixel heart shaped "mask", where the heart shape is transparent, and the background border (in my image) is white. Note how in the image below, the heart is transparent and therefore shows the page blue background.

heart.png (1.73 KiB) Viewed 8393 times

4 Open the cat photo with IrfanView
- Image > Resize/Resample..., to, say, 500 pixels high - ie similar to the heart mask as pixel overlays pixel
- Edit > Insert Overlay/Watermark..., and navigate to heart.png
- Click Preview..., and adjust the mask position etc as required

5 Save. You can save it as any format - JPG, PNG etc - because you do not now need transparency. However, you must save the transparent mask as a PNG file in Step 3.

Note: The example image quality is poor so as to keep the file sizes small. The original heart image was 2,000 x 2,000 pixels and the heart was red.

You will appreciate the simplicity of doing this with software which is designed to do it. Writer is, unsurprisingly, primarily a text editor, and not an image editor. That is why I stated that users are strongly recommened to do all their image processing using a good image editor before loading the completed, final image into Writer.

If this solves the problem, please click the Edit button on your original post and add [Solved] in front of your subject.

NB See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for a discussion on how best to handle images in Writer.

[John_Ha]

The forum places the image files as images, not download files - see the attached ZIP file for all three files.

[Vyxenne]

<Since spoiler tags don't work here I'll just have to resort to blatant snippage>

You will appreciate the simplicity of doing this with software which is designed to do it. Writer is, unsurprisingly, primarily a text editor, and not an image editor. That is why I stated that users are strongly recommened to do all their image processing using a good image editor before loading the completed, final image into Writer.
<moar snippery>

Yes, I had already recognized the wisdom of using an image-manipulation app to, um, you know, manipulate images even before you posted your admonition, and had already tried to do exactly that several times. Sadly, all three of my image-manipulating applications- Photoshop, GIMP and Paint Shop Pro- have manuals written in terms like "Create a new vector or raster layer, depending on the transmogrification of the azimuthal bipolarization angle of the third phase of Saturn's eleventh moon, carefully blending the red platelets with the follicular degenerate product, then use the fleeting moment of your last shred of sanity, plus or minus 17.6 grumflubbles, to merge the handle with the cosine of an angular arc subtending pi to the 14th power...." and of course I have no clue what any of that means, much less how to do it, nor can I find a plain-language explanation of any of it. All of the image apps, especially Photoshop, assume that all users already have a PhD in computer graphics. "If you have to ask, uninstall the software, you're too stupid to use it." Stunningly unhelpful and amazingly frustrating.

...Until now. Your plain-language instructions, the heart shape and the link to IrfanView are just what I needed, so I'm marking this solved even before downloading the app and trying it.

So thank you very much for abandoning boilerplate and giving me relevant information in plain English. ❤

[John_Ha]

have manuals written in terms like "Create a new vector or raster layer, depending on the transmogrification of the azimuthal bipolarization angle ...

I have a fully automatic,computer controlled camera which is supposed to make everything easy and foolproof for the user. The manual is 180 pages long.

When Kodak brought out the first camera, a technology unknown to the user, they did not give the user a manual. The user was obliged to get his knowledge from the Kodak advertising campaign which said "You press the button - we do the rest". Eight words compared with 180 pages. Such is progress ...

Thanks for the thanks!