[stringbeanie]

Now that we know how to use custom screensavers in K2, does anyone know how to use iphoto to format the photos in the correct format.  I have tried but can't get the dimensions correct.  It must be in the edit screen, crop, custom and then....?

How does everyone do it with any program?  Just curious because there are some great looking screen savers floating around.  Mostly done on Photoshop?

 

[Kathy]

I have a photoshop program, a printmaster program and various photo programs. I find that I format the picture in any of these to black and white and then just pop them into Paint. You can format paint to be 600x800 pixels and just resize your picture in there, save it as a jpg and you are done. I can even use clipart from PowerPoint and Printshop using this method.

 

[pidgeon92]

I just came across a nice program yesterday... It's called ImageWell, and it is very easy to use and has a lot of nice features... There is a 7 day trial that you can download, the full program is $19.95.

iPhoto really isn't for photo manipulation, but for image organization..... Photoshop is far more complex than you need for simple image manipulation.

 

[stringbeanie]

Ok, I guess the problem that I am having is that the resizing program won't make the photos exactly 600x800 because it will mess up the proportions.  I must be doing something wrong because when I force the photos to exactly 600x800, they are out of proportion (faces long and thin, etc).  Sorry to be such a novice but is there a work around?

 

[pidgeon92]

Ok, I guess the problem that I am having is that the resizing program won't make the photos exactly 600x800 because it will mess up the proportions. I must be doing something wrong because when I force the photos to exactly 600x800, they are out of proportion (faces long and thin, etc). Sorry to be such a novice but is there a work around?

You need to crop the photo into the right proportions first. Then you can resize...

 

[Cherie]

stringbeanie, I also use iPhotos and have been having problems with a few of the pictures looking fine until they show up as screensavers on the K--then they flop over and lie sideways on the screen. Nobody else here seems to have run into that problem. I'll be interested to hear if the same happens to you.

Other than that, yes, after selecting "Constraints" and then "Custom" and filling in 600 x 800 and OK, then you'll see your image grayed out on the edges--the cropping that is necessary to get you to that shape. You can either accept what the program did, by clicking on "Crop," or you can draw your own crop lines (to include an important feature that would have been lopped off by the auto crop, for instance). either way, you have to hit "Crop" and then "Done" to save your work.

Good luck!

 

[Crodley]

Hi,

I'm using FastStone Image Viewer for my Screensaver conversions. Its a free program, and you can download it here:

http://www.download.com/FastStone-Image-Viewer/3000-2192_4-10324485.html?tag=mncol

This is how I do it. First go to the folder with the image you want to resize from within FastStone. Then just select an image so that it's highlighted.

Now for the bad news. If the image isn't already close to 600x800 proportinally, (For example it's landscaped instead of portait) you're going to have to crop it so that it's close, or it will get distorted.

So type the "x" key with your image highlighted. Now take your mouse and drag and drop the crop box so that it is close to the shape of the kindle and crop it by letting go of the mouse and hitting ENTER. When you crop it you'll be back to the folder view. The same image should still be highlighted, so hold down CTRL and type "r" This will bring up the resize screen.

On the bottom left of this dialog box, uncheck "Preserve aspect ratio" Then, near the top, adjust the pixel size to 600 for the width and 800 for the height and hit ENTER.

This will take you back to your folder view and your image will still be highlighted.

Hit ENTER again to bring the image in solo view. Now right click on the image and from the context menu that appears, hold your mouse over the word Edit which should be about a third of the way down that menu. While holding your mouse over the word Edit another menu should appear. About two thirds of the way down that second context menu should be the word Grayscale. Click on that. After the colors are gone, hit ENTER. (I believe you don't have to make the image grayscale for the Kindle, it can have color images but will show it as grayscale anyway, but it should make the image smaller, and more room on the Kindle is always a good thing.)

That should bring you back to the folder view again, now click a different image to unselect the one you've been working on and the program will ask if you want to save your changes. Click yes, and there you go. (if you don't have any other images in that folder you can click into another folder and back again and it'll ask if you want to save changes that way)

Hope this helps, it's what I've been doing.

I've been downloading all the cover images of my books on the Kindle via the purchase page on amazon and changing them this way and using them as my screensavers.