Creating Pixlr Editor/Getting into Pixlr Photo Editor

Getting into Pixlr Photo Editor

Go to www.Pixlr.com on your internet browser. Click on the double arrow at the bottom of the screen.

When starting at Pixlr.com you have two options for editing or creating pictures. Pixlr Editor is a full-featured photo editing suite. Pixlr Express is a streamlined editor with less features but is still useful for quick changes. Both are located at www.Pixlr.com.

When you select the Editor you’ll get four options to start with. You can create a new image from scratch, open an image that is on your computer, import an image using a URL you have copied, or if you have an account with Pixlr you can open an image you have uploaded with them using their Library feature. To use the Library, you have to join Pixlr for free. To join, see “Sign up” under “File” in the menu bar.

1.	CREATE A NEW IMAGE - When clicking on this, the New image window shown below appears. Name – Fill in the file name. When typing in the new name you have to use either the Backspace or Delete keys to remove “Untitled” from the Name block. Pixlr does not allow you to overwrite or highlight text or numbers in the blocks. Presets – Click on the arrow to the right for preset combinations of width and height in number of pixels. Width and Height – Click on the arrow to the right for a slider bar to increase or decrease the numbers of pixels across (width) and vertical (height). The maximum number of pixels is 4,000. Transparent – when clicked the new image has no color. When not clicked, the default new image is white. Using presets of less than 1,000 pixels in height and width gives you images that can easily be worked with but have less detail. Larger images in the 2,000 to 4,000 pixel range give you significantly more detail but can be difficult to work with since Pixlr is internet based and a slow connection can cause problems with the program being slow or locking up. Click on “OK” or press “Enter” to create the new image.

2.     OPEN IMAGE FROM COMPUTER - When clicking on this, the new image window shown below appears. This is the standard window used to locate images/files on a Windows computer. Find the image you wish to edit and click on it. The number of horizontal and vertical pixels is based on what is in the original file. Notice the file formats that Pixlr can read. Click on the arrow to the right to see all available file formats. Click on “Open” or press “Enter”.

3.	OPEN IMAGE FROM URL - When clicking on this, the Open image URL window shown below appears. (URL is the Uniform Resource Locator. More commonly known as web address) This allows you to copy an image from the internet. For example, I did a search for “about libraries”. I selected images and got the window below. I clicked on the image when my cursor turned into a finger. It said “View source image” which I clicked on. I got this window. I then copied the highlighted URL to the “Open image URL” window and pressed enter. The image was then loaded into PIXLR.

4.	OPEN IMAGE FROM LIBRARY - In order to use the library, you need to sign up with PIXLR. When clicking on this, the Login window shown below appears. This is pretty much your standard Login screen. The email will appear. Enter your password and you will see the following window. Click on “OK”. Select/click on the folder which has the images you wish to process. “My Pics” was selected in the example below. You have to create a folder to put your images in. The 3 icons on the bottom allow you to rename, delete, and create folders. The x and “Cancel” closes the window. The double arrows to the right bottom allow to increase or decrease the size of the window. To get access to this storage, you need to select “Sign up to pixlr”. You will get the window below. This is pretty much a standard “Sign up” window requesting your name, email, and a password. It is free up to a certain amount of space. Then I assume Pixlr will ask if you want to buy more space or you will have to delete some images you have stored on here. I say it is most useful for saving images you are working on or images that you wish to access from more than one computer.