Crop - CTRL+R - once you've captured or opened an image, you can crop it within HyperSnap-DX. Click using your left mouse button to indicate where you want to start the capture area, and then release it. Drag the outline to enclose the area you want to capture, and click the mouse button again. The size (in pixels) of the capture will be shown within the area.

Cut-out strip - cuts out either a horizontal or vertical strip from a middle of an image, and joins remaining parts.

Change Resolution - the image resolution, usually expressed in number of dots per inch (DPI), affects the size of an image when it is printed or inserted into other documents (for example into an MS Word document). If you change the resolution to a higher value, each pixel will become effectively smaller, so the whole image, when printed or inserted into some document, will appear smaller as well.

Choose the value you want to use for both horizontal and vertical resolution in the dialog that appears. If you select different values for the two, your image will become squished or stretched (which may be what you desire, you can use this as an effect) when you print it or paste into another program. In general, a resolution that's evenly divisible into or by that of the final intended display device will produce the best results.

Scale - you can resize the image using the dialog that appears when you select this item. From that dialog you can choose to resize via a percentage calculation, or by directly manipulating the pixel count of the image. Drag the percentage slider control left to make the image smaller, or right to make the image larger. Your changes are reflected within the image in HyperSnap-DX 5's application workspace.

Type in the desired pixel values for width and height if you would prefer that method, and click Apply to see the values applied to the current image.

You can set the image to the size of a selection rectangle, too, if you've made a selection prior to opening this dialog.

 

Auto Trim - CTRL+T - HyperSnap-DX 5 will examine the image and trim "blank space" from around the image. This is handy for removing unwanted white space from outside of the borders of a target image's contents. If you find it doesn't perform the desired trim, select Undo before performing any other functions to restore the previous result.

Stamps... - this loads a powerful feature where you can create and apply image (or text) "stamps" to your captures. You can set these to be applied automatically (for example, putting a copyright notice onto every game screen capture if you're a game author and are posting captures on your site), or manually.

The Stamps tool dialog has its own special help section. To read about the Stamps dialog, click here or choose it from the Table of Contents window to the left.

 

Methods of application:

The functions from here forward on the Image menu will operate on either the entire image—or, if you have selected a region—just on that selected region. If you apply these functions to a selected region, the tool will perform its function on the selection and then apply it back to the document.

Any "empty" space generated by the tool (such as a rotation) will be filled with the previously-defined background color. In this way you can rotate something in the within an image, or mirror something within an image, and so forth.

Mirror - this menu item has two sub-items: Horizontal Mirror and Vertical Mirror. When either is applied, the image changes into a "reversed" image, as if a reflecting surface was placed either horizontally or vertically, per your selection.

• The Undo command (Edit / Undo or Control-Z) can reverse this effect.

Rotate - this menu has four sub-items: 90 deg. Right, 90 deg. Left, Flip (upside down) and Any Angle.

The Rotate - Any Angle item rotates the image by any angle. You may enter the angle as a positive or negative number in the range of -360 to 360 degrees. You can use the slider to rotate the image and immediately observe the effect in the preview display.

Angle of the dangle:

If the angle you enter isn't a multiple of 90 degrees, some background around the image must be added in order to fill the available space and make the image rectangular again. You can choose the color of this background with the Select Background Color button on the dialog as well as the background selector tool on the painting tools palette (on the toolbar) or on the Capture settings tabs.

• The Undo command (Edit / Undo or Control-Z) can reverse this effect.

Shear - this function acts to "slant" the image along various axis points, as if you were rotating a picture on a canvas along the various planes. You can enter a direct value for this in degrees, or drag the slider to apply a dynamic value to the image. You can force the image to "lean" along a strictly horizontal axis by checking the horizontal box.

The effect here is as if you were rotating a standing canvas either toward you or away from you on a table top. If you un-check this box, the image's "canvas" will rotate on both vertical and horizontal dimensions, altering both the complete dimensionality of the image.

It's got to be a square, sorry.

Because the image will no longer be rectilinear, you'll need to select a background value to fill the space left when the original is modified. Choose this with the background color button on the dialog.

The default for this color (used for all fill functions) is set on the Capture settings tabs, but you can change it here.

Mosaic - this function applies a special effect to the image that makes it appear to be made of tiles. You can define the size of the "tiles" in pixels (they are always square tiles) by typing in a value or by scrubbing the slider back and forth.

The larger the tile size, the greater the distortion applied to the original image's appearance. The smaller the tile size, the less distortion and the more recognizable the image will be. Very large tile sizes will essentially blur the image totally so it's no longer recognizable. Low tile size settings can resemble those "hide the witness" videos used on television shows.

Emboss - you can give the image the appearance of being 3-dimensional by applying this special effect. First select the originating direction for the simulated relief. Then select the apparent depth of the relief in pixels.

Embossing tips.

The deeper the relief, the more the image will appear to distort from the original, as if you had wrapped the a photograph of an object over a 3D model of the object itself. The effect varies greatly depending on the quality and nature of the original image.

Flatter images with lesser contrasts will show a smaller effect, images with moderate contrasts will show the most realistic effects.

High-contrast images may look the most distorted when this effect is applied. Experiment with the settings on this function, it can achieve some very interesting special effects.

Sharpen or Blur - This function sharpens or blurs (softens) your image. It may be sometimes used after resizing an image smaller, to enhance a little bit the clarity of text or other small detail.

Shadow - this function will add what looks like a 3D drop shadow to selected areas of your captures. It has several methods of operation, working either automatically using your preferences established within the Shadow dialog each time you capture, or manually, being applied around a selection.

Using the tools on the dialog, you can define shadow size, the darkness of the inner shadow (umbra), the shadow diffusion, and whether this is added automatically to your captures. Because it's powerful, it has its own help section, accessed via the button below or via the main Table of contents section inside the ...important dialogs book.

Frame - HyperSnap-DX can apply frames around (or onto) your images. These can improve your images, such as preparing them for inclusion into digital photo albums or just for fun. The Frame tool is easy to use and has a number of features that let you control how it looks. As is usually the case, experimenting with the tool is the best way to learn how it works and get the best "feel" for it. The frame can be auto-applied to every captured image, if desired, and can be made in virtually any color your system supports.

The frame preview window will give you a good idea as to how your frame will appear.

Note that if no image window is open when you open the frame tool, you're just setting the properties for frames applied from that point forward (and some options within the tool will be disabled, such as applying the frame to a selected portion of the image).

When you're finished setting the various frame properties, click OK to apply the frame either to the selected part of your image, to the image's outer margin, or to all captured images from that point on (depending on which options you checked).