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Editing Screen Captures Part 1:
Introduction to Editor and Paint Tools

Your students may have different levels of awareness about the ways the images they see "out there" in magazines and television have been edited. To begin the discussion, ask your students about a time they have seen a picture that they knew was not "real" – one that had been digitally edited.

For example, you could mention the covers of tabloids that feature pictures of aliens, or pictures that have had their colors obviously adjusted, etc. Show them some examples that you've found. Then, lead the discussion about how these images might have been created.

Objectives

In this lesson, students will:

Develop an awareness that many images they see in magazines and on television have been edited
Gain an understanding of some different ways images can be edited
Become familiar with the basic editing features in SnagIt Editor

Grade Level

Any

Materials

Computer with Internet Connection

Examples of digitally edited pictures/images from magazines or news sources

Software Used

SnagIt (Students may download and use the 30-day free trial from www.techsmith.com.)

Prerequisites

Students should have completed Introduction to Screen Capture prior to beginning this lesson.

Instructions

Part A: Capturing an image and opening it in SnagIt Editor

Have students use SnagIt to capture an image from an Internet news source and save the image to a file (.bmp or .jpg is fine) that they will later open in SnagIt Editor. Ask questions and offer help if they have any difficulty. Some links for major news sources include:
- Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
- Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/
- New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
- USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/
Alternatively, you could tailor the type of image students use based on your own lesson needs.
Next, talk about how SnagIt Editor can edit a screen capture after it is saved to a file. Editing options include flip, mirror, shear, rotate, crop and cut. They can adjust the color depth, add text, or view the frames of a video capture. They can also add custom effects to the edges of captures, like drop shadows, torn or faded edges, and enhancements such as arrows, cursors, lines, shapes, and much more.
Tell students that what they will see in SnagIt Editor is very similar to what they have already seen in the Preview Window.
Have them follow these instructions to open a capture in SnagIt Editor:
- Launch SnagIt Editor by choosing Tools > SnagIt Editor from the SnagIt menu bar.
- Click Open to locate and open the capture you saved as a file.

Part B: Experimenting with Paint Tools

Introduce students to the Paint Tools pane. The Paint Tools contain an array of drawing tools. Encourage students to select each one and try it out.
Talk about how they can check the Antialias box to give a smooth look to their lines, and how they can check the Drop shadow box to add a 3D look. To change any paint tool's color, they can click on the color block.
Next, have students follow these printed directions:
Step 1:
Many of the Paint Tools in SnagIt Editor have additional settings that appear once you select the tool. For example, click on the Shape paint tool:

It has additional Properties settings that appear for Shape type, Border width, Opacity, Antialias and Drop shadow.

Step 2:
With the Shape paint tool already selected, choose the shape you want to use from the Properties area. On your capture, click and drag with the mouse to draw the desired shape.

Step 3:
Next, select the Stamp tool.

Step 4:
Browse through the stamp categories and stamp thumbnails. There are arrows, accents, cursors, numbers, shapes, etc., to choose from. You can even download more from the TechSmith site by choosing Download more from the Category menu.

Step 5:
Click the stamp you want to add to your capture.

Step 6:
Click on your capture to place the stamp where you want it. This example shows text placed on top of a callout stamp.

Step 7:
Continue to experiment with the Paint Tools to see the many creative effects you can apply to your screen captures.